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Missouri is the only state in the nation that has not launched a prescription drug monitoring system. It’s a glaring lack of oversight and a gaping hole in the state’s health care safety net. Missouri’s inaction is inexcusable amid the rise in prescription drug overdoses, which are now considered an epidemic by national health experts. (3/3)

Medical professionals have the right to protect people — that’s what a federal appeals court in Florida unanimously ruled on Feb. 16 when it said doctors can’t be penalized for discussing gun safety with their patients. It was a well-deserved comeuppance for the gun lobby and its latest ploy to pit Second Amendment rights against the First Amendment. They sought to muzzle doctors when they talked to their patients about gun safety, but the court didn’t buy the argument. (3/6)

New Jersey’s next gubernatorial election is less than nine months away. Phil Murphy and Kim Guadagno are the current front runners for their respective parties, with the Democrat Murphy being the likely winner if the election were held today. Mr. Murphy is on the record that he supports the legalization of marijuana in New Jersey (Ms. Guadagno has not stated her position). State Senator Nicholas Scutari, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, led a bipartisan delegation of state legislators on a trip to Colorado in 2016 where they toured a number of marijuana stores and spoke with Colorado politicians. If Mr. Murphy wins, it is very likely that the Legislature will pass a bill for the full legalization of marijuana and that he will sign it. (Frank Greenagel, 3/5)

But even though 99 percent of sexually active, child-bearing-aged women have used contraception, Republicans in Congress and state legislatures dismiss the importance of access to reproductive care, including birth control and abortion, in effect dismissing the importance of women actively engaging in their own health care and controlling their own future, including when and if to have children. In their denial, they are ignoring basic economic realities that tens of millions of Americans face, forcing an agenda - like defunding Planned Parenthood, restricting access to women’s health care, and stripping publicly funded health programs - that runs counter to what their constituents value. (Celinda Lake, 3/4)

They say a good attorney never asks a question of a trial witness without first knowing the answer. The same could probably be said of senators and congressmen engaged in fact-finding missions. Congressional hearings are usually staged opportunities for grandstanding elected officials to deliver lengthy, scripted speeches. Even written congressional inquiries, made in the absence of television cameras, can be engineered to elicit a desired response. (3/5)

Two years ago, around 9 at night, my 18-year-old son came home after studying for a test. Luckily I was there to greet him. We talked briefly about the full moon, and then he gasped and collapsed. His heart had stopped. Another son heard my screaming and got my wife to call 911. Another started CPR. Then early responders, ambulance, intensive-care unit, induced coma, feeding tube, batteries of tests, neurologists, physical therapists, a defibrillator installed. Twenty days later he walked out of the hospital. The total bill was over $1 million, nearly all paid by insurance. (Andy Kessler, 3/3)

Multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis is a global scourge, and the first recorded deaths from TB untouchable by all known agents occurred in 2003. In 2015, E. coli displaying a novel resistance mechanism to the antibiotic colistin showed up in pigs, in raw meat, and in a handful of human patients in China — and colistin-resistant microbes have since spread to countries around the globe, including the United States. This is potentially disastrous. Colistin is a drug of last resort for several classes of infections. In the language of the commons, we have drastically overgrazed our communal field of antibiotics, and humankind will pay the price. (Thomas Levenson, 3/5)

The World Health Organization published a medical most-wanted list this week on 12 dangerous “superbugs,” and the warning spotlights the growing threat of bacteria that can resist all or nearly all antibiotics. Ominously, deadly microbes are outpacing science’s capacity to develop new human defenses. (3/5)