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New data shows a rise in colon cancer among adults ages 45-49. That’s wonderful news. (Lisa Jarvis, 8/6)

It’s easy to scoff at street-corner potheads. But the next time you smell the skunky aroma of marijuana wafting down the sidewalk, consider this: Those dispensaries could help solve a major public health crisis. (Julien Berman, 8/6)

In my childhood, my father took us on a summertime drive from Chicago to Michigan’s Harbor Country. As the miles rolled on, we passed steamy steel mills, blaring billboard ads for Stuckey’s pecan rolls, rickety gas stations and crowded truck stops. I still hold the idyllic memory of that family car trip to the beach in Union Pier, near a cottage my aunt once owned. That’s all changed. On a recent drive for a weekend jaunt to southwestern Michigan, we encountered billboards hawking personal injury attorneys and cannabis dispensaries. One, after the other, after the other. (Laura Washington, 8/6)

Here’s a fact that might make you feel a little strange inside: You and I have plastic in our brains. Tiny particles of polymers are also hanging about in our livers, kidneys, heart and bloodstream. If that doesn’t make your insides itch, consider that in just eight years, scientists have observed an increase in the amount of bodily plastic. (Lara Williams, 8/7)

Exactly what, if anything, plastics are doing to our health remains hotly contested. But the signs aren’t good. (Oliver Franklin-Wallis, 8/7)

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s decision to cancel almost $500 million in contracts for projects to develop vaccines using mRNA technology underscores perhaps the greatest harm that he might inflict on the nation with his anti-vaccine ideology. (8/6)