WashU Experts

United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions this week made it easier for federal marijuana laws to be enforced in states that had legalized its use, a move that may backfire, says a legal expert at Washington University in St. Louis.

Generic medications could be an effective way to improve health outcomes while lowering costs, but the existing drug patent system is poorly designed to motivate such discoveries, says an expert on health law at Washington University in St. Louis.

In reaction to multiple countries — including Canada, the United Kingdom, France and Italy — announcing at the United Nations climate talks that they’re unifying to phase out coal-generated power by 2030, an environmental engineer at Washington University in St. Louis warned that a “mix of energy sources” is vital for the near future.

The U.S. House of Representatives Republican tax proposal, released Nov. 2, would institute a number of wholesale changes to the American tax code, including the end of neutrality in the international tax system, says an expert on international tax law at Washington University in St. Louis.

The bipartisan bill proposed by U.S. Sens. Lamar Alexander and Patty Murray, aimed at shoring up the troubled health insurance markets, has some approaches that would help fix the marketplaces, but more changes are needed, says a health economist at Washington University in St. Louis.

The First Amendment does not give Masterpiece Cakeshop and its owner, Jack Phillips, the license to discriminate against gay couples, as businesses open to the general public have a longstanding obligation to provide full and equal service to customers, argues a legal scholar at Washington University in St. Louis.

President Donald Trump’s Oct. 26 announcement that the opioid epidemic is a “public health emergency” rather than a “national emergency” goes against the understanding of most authorities, said an expert on substance use disorder treatment at Washington University in St. Louis.

Congress has allowed the federal Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to expire as of Oct. 1, leading to the demise of one of the most successful government programs ever implemented, said Tim McBride, an expert on health economics at Washington University in St. Louis.

Though recent protests by NFL players during the national anthem are not protected by the First Amendment by law, they matter as free speech, said Greg Magarian, an expert on constitutional law at Washington University in St. Louis.

Rescinding DACA will deprive Houston of a substantial workforce at the very moment the city needs that workforce most, argues water management expert Derek Hoeferlin, associate professor of architecture in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis.