Law

With legal recreational cannabis use spreading across North America there is a debate over what the minimum age for consumption should be. A new study from Canadian researchers suggests 19 is the optimal age to set for recreational use of the drug.

A report that surveyed over 200 participants from a prematurely cancelled Canadian basic income experiment found participants saw improvements in mental health and social relationships, plus a reduction in the use of general health services.

Digital rights advocacy group Access Now has released its annual report revealing that governments around world are increasingly shutting down the internet, often to stifle dissent particularly during times of protest or elections.

A report tracking internet freedom across the world has found global declines for the ninth consecutive year. Underpinned by social media surveillance, the report identified internet freedom deterioration in more than half of 65 countries assessed.

The scientist responsible for creating the world’s first gene-edited babies has been sentenced to three years in prison alongside shorter sentences for two of his colleagues. Chinese state news also revealed a third gene-edited baby has been born.

The Epilepsy Foundation is striking back against a campaign by Twitter trolls to flood some hashtags with flashing GIFs designed to trigger seizures in vulnerable individuals. The cyber-attacks follow on from a similar attack on a journalist in 2016.

The FDA has finally approved two new low-nicotine cigarettes for the US market. The announcement comes less than a month after the FDA faced criticism for seemingly backing down on a 2017 initiative to regulate nicotine levels in cigarettes.

A US federal court has temporarily blocked a law, passed in Arkansas earlier in 2019, which made it illegal for terms such as "burgers" and "sausages" to be applied to products made from plant-based materials.

Predicting a wave of psychedelic legalization over the coming decade, start-up Silo Wellness has developed a magic mushroom nasal spray focused on delivering controlled psychedelic microdoses. New Atlas spoke to CEO Mike Arnold to learn more.

The American Civil Liberties Union is taking several US government agencies to court claiming they have refused to comply with freedom of information requests related to the transparency of law enforcement usage of facial recognition technology.

Facebook and Twitter have recently laid out differing policies regarding political advertising. One platform has decided free speech is of utmost importance while the other has simply banned political ads altogether.

Just a few weeks after Microsoft revealed an Iranian-led cyber campaign to compromise the 2020 US election, Facebook has announced the removal of a number of “inauthentic” accounts, Pages and Groups designed to spread misinformation.