Anesthesia may harm brains of children

The Food and Drug Administration warned that repeated or lengthy use of general anesthesia or sedation drugs for children younger than 3 or pregnant women in their third trimester may affect youngsters' developing brains. The agency said that laboratory studies show that using the drugs in pregnant or young animals for more than three hours at a time causes widespread loss of nerve cells, which correlated with long-term effects on learning and behavior.

Illicit drug use down among teens

It looks as if more American teens are just saying no. Fewer teens say they're using alcohol and drugs, with the exception of marijuana, an annual study has found. Among high school seniors, the percentage saying they had tried marijuana in the last year rose slightly, from 34.9 percent to 35.6 percent. But the number of eighth-graders saying they had used marijuana was the lowest it has been since 1993.

More pregnant women smoking pot

U.S. women are increasingly using pot during pregnancy, sometimes for morning sickness, according to an analysis of annual U.S. government drug surveys. In 2014, almost 4 percent of pregnant women said they'd recently used marijuana. That's up from 2.4 percent in 2002.

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