Free Republic

A pipe was the only sign of drug use found near Chris Bennett's body in November. But it looked like the 32-year-old Taunton, Mass., native had stopped breathing and died of an opioid overdose. Bennett's mother, Liisa, couldn't understand what happened. Then she saw the toxicology report. "I'm convinced he was smoking cocaine that was laced," she says. "That's what he had in his system, [it] was cocaine and fentanyl." Liisa Bennett was shocked. Chris had developed an addiction to pain pills and then heroin in his late teens but had not used opioids for at least 10 years, as...

So far, Springer and his colleagues have published research demonstrating that just this one minute of exposure to secondhand smoke makes it harder for the rats' arteries to expand and allow a healthy flow of blood." With tobacco products, this effect lasts about 30 minutes, and then the arteries recover their normal function. But if it happens over and over — as when a person is smoking cigarette after cigarette, for example — the arterial walls can become permanently damaged, and that damage can cause blood clots, heart attack or stroke. Springer demonstrated that, at least in rats, the same...

EAST LIVERPOOL, Ohio -- Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, and John Lane, chief of police of this small town in Columbiana County, have more in common than you'd think. Both believe that the fight against opioid addiction will require faith-based ministries that can work through peer-to-peer programs, which connect former addicts with current ones. This scourge has ripped through the country. In an interview with me the day after President Donald Trump unveiled his plan to combat the country's opioid epidemic in New Hampshire, Conway said: "It's like anything else. When you look at something, you say, 'Do I...

Two men and a woman from Texas are arrested for conspiring to sell $1MILLION worth of fentanyl in Ohio Three Texans have been charged with drug conspiracy after they were found with $1million dollars worth of fentanyl in Ohio. The Houston trio Anthony Robinson, 32, Darrius Lewis, 29, and Barbara Wilson, 21, were arrested on Tuesday after they were not only found with the drug, but also attempted to mail a package of fentanyl in Lucas County, Ohio. The trio possessed enough of the dangerous opioid to 'kill everyone in Toledo several times over' according to US Attorney Justin Herdman....

“What you don’t understand and what the country has forgotten is that 10 to 11 percent of America is in chronic pain,” he explained. He says that group was dealt a blow in 2015 when the state legislature passed a bill that closed 308 certified pain clinics in one day. “That put 120,000 people on the streets with nowhere to go because the law designated that only pain specialists could treat them, and there were only 63 of them living in Tennessee at the time, and their offices were full and not taking new patients,” according to Rudolph.

Is tonight’s dinner giving you heartburn? You’re in luck; there is a pill for that. Do you have high blood pressure? There’s a pill for that, too. How about going bald? Restless legs? Help in bed? Thinning eye lashes? Yes, yes, yes, and…yes – all maladies solved with the help of prescription drugs. In modern medicine today, there seems to be nothing that cannot be cured with prescription or over-the-counter remedies. Simply turn on television during a big game or an evening news program, and you’ll catch the latest drug ad from Astrazeneca, Merck, or Pfizer, hawking a treatment for...

The opioid crisis is a sinister scourge, racking up casualties across every demographic. The harrowing stories of families who’ve watched their children deteriorate and die are far too common. Opioids took the lives of more than 42,000 people in the U.S. in 2016, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “On average, 115 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose.” A full decade of losses at that level would exceed the number of American soldiers killed in World War II.

Trump also criticized Democrats for opposing his proposed wall on the Southern border. “Eventually the Democrats will agree with us to build the wall and keep the damn drugs out,” he said, prompting chants of “build that wall” in the room. The president criticized sanctuary city policies for allowing illegal immigrants and drug dealers to remain in the country. He called on Congress to end funding for sanctuary cities. “If we are not going to get tough on the drug dealers who kill thousands of people and destroy so many people’s lives, we are just doing the wrong thing,” he...

<p>President Trump plans to implement the death penalty for major drug traffickers as part of his opioid crackdown in the United States, the White House announced Sunday.</p> <p>“The Department of Justice will seek the death penalty against drug traffickers when it’s appropriate under current law,” said Andrew Bremberg, White House director of the Domestic Policy Council.</p>

The White House announced Sunday that it intends to seek the death penalty for certain drug traffickers "where appropriate under the law" in a bid to slow down the country's opioid epidemic. The White House also said that President Trump would call on Congress to pass legislation lowering the amount of drugs that would invoke mandatory minimum sentences for traffickers. Trump was expected to formally announce the plan on Monday during a visit to New Hampshire. He will be accompanied by first lady Melania Trump, who has shown an interest in the issue, particularly as it pertains to children. The...

Two new studies report an increased risk of psychosis among smokers of not only marijuana, but tobacco, too. The tobacco study has now been published in the journal Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, and the marijuana study — which was conducted by the same team — has now been published in The British Journal of Psychiatry. Research has found links between psychosis and both tobacco and marijuana smoking — particularly in regard to schizophrenia-related psychosis. However, the precise reasons why people who experience psychosis are more likely to smoke are not clear. Some scientists think that smoking might act as a kind...

---SNIP--- Like other patients across the country, Craig is a victim of the recent crackdown on prescription opioids, which is based on a narrative that mistakenly blames pain treatment for a plague of addiction and death. Most Americans believe we are in the midst of an "opioid crisis" that began in the 1990s with the introduction of OxyContin. According to the generally accepted account, deceptive marketing encouraged reckless prescribing, which led to widespread addiction among patients and record numbers of opioid-related fatalities—a situation President Donald Trump has declared a public health emergency. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who chaired...

An Islamic paramilitary organization financed by Iran has infiltrated large swaths of South America, joined forces with drug cartels and created a major threat to Florida and the rest of the U.S., experts testified at a Congressional Field Hearing in Pensacola on Monday about Hezbollah’s gains in the Western Hemisphere. U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fort Walton Beach, moderated the hearing at the National Naval Aviation Museum. He said transcripts of the experts’ testimony would be provided to the U.S. House Armed Services and Judiciary committees. “This hearing is about highlighting the importance of a stable Western Hemisphere and countering threats...

California’s trademark high taxes and overwhelming, onerous, costly and confusing regulations are preventing the state from reaping the revenue benefits of legalizing the $7 billion marijuana market, a new study by the California Growers Association concludes. As of Thursday, California’s Bureau of Cannabis Control has sent about 980 warning letters to unlicensed pot sellers and ordered a marketing company to stop advertising vendors who don’t have permits, Bureau Chief of Communications Alex Traverso told CNSNews.com. Less than one percent (0.78%) of the state’s 68,150 marijuana growers have obtained licenses, and as little as 25 percent of the cannabis consumed in...

A bipartisan group of senators is stepping up the push to let marijuana businesses store their profits in banks, with a possible vote coming as soon as this week. Under the current federal prohibition of cannabis, many banks refuse to do businesses with marijuana growers, processors and sellers that operate legally in accordance with a growing number of state laws. As a result, many cultivators and dispensaries operate on a cash-only basis, which makes them targets for robberies. That could soon change under a proposal that ten U.S. senators filed on Wednesday. The measure, led by Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-OR)...

WASHINGTON -- Federal prosecutors won't take on small-time marijuana cases, despite the Justice Department's decision to lift an Obama-era policy that discouraged U.S. authorities from cracking down on the pot trade in states where the drug is legal, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Saturday. Federal law enforcement lacks the resources to take on "routine cases" and will continue to focus on drug gangs and larger conspiracies, Sessions said, speaking at a Federalist Society event in Washington, D.C. The comments come after the Trump administration in January threw the burgeoning marijuana legalization movement into uncertainty by reversing the largely hands-off approach...

Federal prosecutors have indicted 75 people including 40 in San Diego in a massive drugs and money operation which has been called the biggest money laundering investigation ever in the Californian city. The defendants allegedly laundered drug proceeds from the Sinaloa cartel for years, U.S. Attorney Adam Braverman said at a news conference in downtown San Diego. He said the network was responsible for laundering tens of millions of dollars in drug profits over the past three years. 'We have siphoned the cash and life out of a San Diego-based international money laundering organization with ties to the Sinaloa cartel,'...

By now, most have heard about the deadly opioid epidemic that has struck our nation.According to data compiled in a Kaiser Family Foundation report, there were 42,249 casualties in 2016 related to opioids. This is double the 21,089 reported in 2010.For a little perspective, given all the attention guns are getting these days, per the FBI, in 2015 there were 13,455 murders, 9,616 committed with firearms.What is driving this opioid crisis?According to a recent report about opioids by the Social Capital Project, organized in the U.S. Senate, “the oversupply and abuse of legal prescription pain relievers is at the heart...

President Trump suggested executing drug dealers to crack down on America’s opioid crisis. “The drug dealers, the drug pushers, they’re really doing damage,” Trump said at an opioid event at the White House Thursday. “Some countries have a very, very tough penalty — the ultimate penalty. And by the way, they have much less of a drug problem than we do.”

<p>IT’S 7 A.M. at The Market Porter in South London, and I’m eyeing the choices behind the bar. “You alright there?” the barman asks. This is the first time I’ve stopped by the pub on my way to work in the morning, and I have no idea what to get. Honestly, what I want is another coffee. But eventually I settle on a cider: the “Traditional Scrumpy,” which is a feisty six percent alcohol. As the morning sun pokes through the patterned glass windows, it goes down a lot better than I expect.</p>