Free Republic

So many things can keep you from seeing your loved ones in person, from busy schedules to long distances to a rather unexpected pandemic. Fortunately, thanks to modern technology, the people we miss are often only a phone call or text message away. But if you're someone who's more prone to typed out messages than verbal ones, you may want to reconsider. According to science, if you want to feel more connected to the people you're talking to, you should call them instead of texting. A new study, published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, found that communication interactions that...

People working in pregnancy help, increasingly those in maternity housing, are responding to pregnant women struggling with such addictions through various means, guided by a white paper written by the Maternity Housing Coalition. “It was written because we were talking to homes and seeing such a high incidence rate [of addiction],” said Valerie Harkins, director of the Maternity Housing Coalition, a project of Heartbeat International. “At the time, it was a notable increase in conversations with homes experiencing struggles with women who have a history of substance abuse or even currently struggling with maintaining their sobriety,” Harkins said. The white...

n the month before Mathew Perry’s death, a doctor the actor contacted to acquire ketamine called him a “moron” in a text message, according to federal prosecutors. A dealer who authorities say supplied the drug to Perry referred to him as “Chandler” — the sarcastic yet sweet-natured character he played on the hit television show “Friends,” court documents say.

The wealthy are doing just fine at the moment, but they don’t seem to understand that much of the country is deeply hurting right now. 59 percent of Americans believe that the U.S. economy is currently experiencing a recession, and that is because most of them are personally experiencing economic pain. Literally just about everything is substantially more expensive in 2024, more major layoffs are being announced with each passing day, and thousands of businesses are going bankrupt. We haven’t seen a tsunami of economic suffering like this in a long time.If you live in a wealthy area in a...

Sean Burroughs, a 2000 Olympic gold medalist, Little League World Series winner and former first round MLB pick, died Thursday, the California-based Long Beach Little League organization announced Friday. He was 43. Burroughs died of a cardiac arrest, his mother, Debbie, told the Southern California News Group via text, the San Bernardino Sun reported. According to Doug Wittman, Long Beach Little League president, Burroughs was found unresponsive next to his vehicle at the Long Beach complex after dropping his son off for a game Thursday, The Sun reported.

HONOLULU (KHON2) -- Drug cartels from Mexico are operating in Hawaii, making and pushing deadly drugs including methamphetamines and fentanyl. New tougher penalties akin to murder charges are aiming to take them down. Authorities told KHON2 that the big cartels are ramping up business not just south of the border but right here in our island state. The top federal law enforcement official in Hawaii warns of the dangers not just to drug users, but to drug pushers once caught. Authorities have seen a big shift in recent years to Hawaii’s most dangerous drugs methamphetamine and fentanyl especially coming mostly...

Sprawled languidly on an ornate silk rug in the palatial home of oil-heiress Ann Getty for a 2004 magazine shoot, San Francisco's new Mayor and his glamorous wife looked entirely deserving of the Harper's Bazaar headline: 'The New Kennedys'. Clearly, the couple thought the glossy fashion mag's Camelot comparison fitting, too. 'Do I think he could be President?' San Francisco's First Lady wondered aloud. 'Absolutely, I'd gladly vote for him.' Whether she still might two decades later seems distinctly unlikely even if the question is, ironically, suddenly more relevant than ever. For she is Kimberly Guilfoyle, now fiancée of Donald...

The ex-head of the state’s Office of Addiction Services and Supports was busted in Queens for drunken driving last week — and allegedly was so plastered that she slammed into parked cars and urinated on herself. Arlene González-Sánchez, 68, had a blood-alcohol content of .20 — or two and a half times the legal limit of .08 — and at one point she uttered to the cop who pulled her over, “Commissioner,” the Queens District Attorney’s Office said Monday. The former commissioner — who left her top job in 2021 after 10 years — was arraigned Saturday for driving under...

KEY POINTS: * Patients taking diabetes and weight loss drugs say they’ve also noticed changes in their cravings for alcohol, nicotine, opioids and some compulsive behaviors, such as online shopping and gambling. * These anecdotal reports add to the growing list of potential benefits of GLP-1s like Ozempic and Wegovy beyond shedding unwanted pounds. * Several studies in animals back up those reports, but more research needs to be done in humans to prove that those treatments can curb addiction. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Heather Le Biller shed 9 pounds within the first week of taking Novo Nordisk ’s blockbuster diabetes drug Ozempic...

It didn’t take long for Oregon to realize decriminalizing hard drugs was a bad idea. On Tuesday, Gov. Tina Kotek, a Democrat, signed legislation that recriminalizes drug possession, reversing Measure 110, which 58 percent of voters approved in 2020. By August, however, 56 percent of Oregonians disapproved after a major uptick in overdose deaths and addiction in the state. Lawmakers from both parties got to work drafting legislation to reverse the measure.

Cullan Mais used to shoplift almost every day. The 31-year-old would often travel from his home in Cardiff to towns such as Abergavenny where he would then steal up to £4,000 worth of goods in a day. “We’d park up on the one end of town and we’d hit the shops,” he told ITV Cymru Wales while visiting Abergavenny for the first time since kicking his habit. “We’d take the stuff back, we’d drive back around to this side of town and do the same here. “There’s certain opticians up here, pharmacies, clothing shops, that were hit frequently. I would...

<p>Chrissy Reifschneider had just left rehab to treat her heroin addiction in 2017 when she started taking tianeptine, popularly dubbed “gas station heroin." The 41-year-old from Alabama was struggling with low energy, so a family member who worked at a gas station recommended she try the pills.</p>

A self-proclaimed “vaping addict” is calling for the devices to be banned after her right lung collapsed twice and she suffered permanent scars. “You never think this type of thing will happen to you — but it happened to me. It felt like my lung was on fire,” Wisconsinite Karlee Ozkurt, 20, told SWNS. “I fell into the trap of thinking vaping was cool,” Ozkurt confessed. “But it’s stupid. I didn’t realize until it was too late.” Ozkurt’s plea follows a recent study that found that 11.3% of American high school students reported using e-cigarettes in the past 30 days...

Three years after Oregon voted to de-criminalize drug offences - residents are now begging to reverse their decision after seeing an astonishing number of deaths from opioid overdoses. In 2020 - Oregon voters approved a measure to decriminalize the possession of all drugs including heroin and cocaine. The proposal, known as Oregon Ballot Measure 110, passed with 58.8 percent support. Now residents of the liberal state are crying out to their politicians to do something about the open-air drug markets that their cities have turned into. Opioid deaths in Oregon have gone up from 280, before the de-criminalization was voted...

The spike in interest in all things related to Matthew Perry includes a nearly five-minute excerpt of an interview with Bill Maher where the deceased actor talks about a near-death experience, his belief in God and the "math" that was involved to feed his drug habit. "I believe there is a higher power. I believe I have a very close relationship with him that's helped me a lot," Perry said on Real Time with Bill Maher in November 2022 while promoting his book, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing. "A lot of people did have you in the 'dead...

Hunter Biden blamed Republicans Thursday for weaponizing his cocaine and alcohol addictions through “fruitless congressional investigations” and waging a “disinformation” campaign against his father, President Biden. In an op-ed published in USA Today, Hunter Biden also complained that his status as the president’s son is the main reason the Justice Department is prosecuting him for illegal gun possession. He said his father is getting the blowback unfairly. “My struggles and my mistakes have been fodder for a vile and sustained disinformation campaign against him and an all-out annihilation of my reputation through high-pitched but fruitless congressional investigations and, more recently,...

Matthew Perry has died at the age of 54, TMZ has reported. The beloved “Friends” star was reportedly discovered dead in the jacuzzi of a home in Los Angeles’ ritzy Pacific Palisades neighborhood just after 4 p.m. Saturday afternoon. Law enforcement sources told TMZ that first-responders rushed to the address with the call first reported as a cardiac arrest. They added that no drugs found at the scene and no foul play is suspected. In a statement, the Los Angeles Police Department stated: “We responded to the 1800 block of Blue Sail Rd for a death investigation on a male...

Social media companies have allegedly contributed to a mental health crisis among Carroll County students and caused eating disorders, cyberbullying, depression and anxiety among other issues. The Carroll County Board of Education unanimously voted April 12 to join other Maryland school districts in a lawsuit against social media companies that claims the companies knowingly caused harm to students. Frederick County Public Schools on Tuesday announced it has joined Carroll County and other school districts across the state and U.S. by filing suit against Meta, Snap, ByteDance and Google — the parent companies of Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube, respectively. In...

Italy's financial police Guardia do Finanza, said in a statement Wednesday that authorities seized a 15.4 ton shipment of amphetamines reportedly produced by ISIS in Syria. The police tracked three containers at the port of Salerno in southwest Italy and found around 84 million pills stored inside industrial paper cylinders, CNN reported. The estimated value of the drugs was around $1.12 billion, the largest amphetamine bust in the world by quantity and value, the statement said.

A nationwide social experiment launched by a wave of marijuana legalizations is finally bearing results in the form of higher depression rates and addiction. It started in 2012 in Colorado and Washington, setting off a domino effect that has seen restrictions lifted across nearly 40 states, including 23 where it's legal to use marijuana recreationally. The Biden administration now aims to demote the drug from its schedule I status, which lumped it in with heroin and LSD, to schedule III, the first step toward total decriminalization at a federal level. Marijuana has been lauded for its purported benefits for pain...