Free Republic

GPB's Ellen Eldridge reports on vaping associated risks to young people. Despite raising the age to buy tobacco and e-cigarettes to 21, teenagers and even preteens are still at risk of exposure and addiction to vaping, pediatric pulmonologist Dr. Christy Sadreameli of Johns Hopkins says. “(Vaping) is the most common way that young people are using tobacco products and getting hooked on nicotine, which can be a lifelong addiction,” she said. Georgia’s high school vaping rate is 17%, according to 2019 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is lower than the national average of 27%. One...

Back in May, as COVID madness was sweeping through political offices across the country, California officials acted just about as imbalanced as many might expect. Wanting to maximize their newfound authoritarianism, San Francisco officials hatched a plan to address the problem of its sprawling homeless issue during a pandemic. Wanting to stem the spread on the streets, they looked to businesses that had been rendered dormant (due to, unironically, the policies of these same officials). A ‘’solution’’ was found. Initially, the plan was to be put in place to help alleviate the health care workers who were dealing with the...

If it is true that one out of every five men sitting in America’s pews is saturating his mind with the evil images of pornography, how does this effect the overall level of godliness in the Church? It seems that the general urgency to live a consecrated life is at an all-time low. Self-centered living seems to have replaced true sacrificial love. A hunger for God has been exchanged for a lust for entertainment. While the Church is weathering a fierce spiritual onslaught from without, the godly character needed for this battle rots within. I believe in the Church Triumphant....

Police should not operate as an occupying army The public outrage following the killing of George Floyd has refocused many in Congress and the public on the need for police reform. Some of the proposals are simply outrageous, such as “abolishing” the police or defunding police departments seen by some as “systemically” racist institutions incapable of reform. Other reforms make sense and are long overdue. Among these are proposals to put a halt to measures that have seemingly transformed many departments into quasi-military forces that act and are seen by those they are supposed to protect as an occupying military...

VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / June 13, 2020 / Mota Ventures Corp. (CSE:MOTA)(FSE:1WZ1)(OTC:PEMTF) (the "Company") is pleased to announce the appointment of Roger C. Clinton, to the Advisory Board for its wholly owned subsidiary, Verrian GmbH. Clinton is active within the addiction treatment and specifically opiate addiction research sector, seeking to bring attention to the issue and enhance promising treatment options using psychedelics in conjunction with behavioral therapy through his global network. "I'm honored to be working with the team at Mota in a patient first approach. We believe the work that we're doing can be transformative in people's lives...

'You take rehab.com—our website traffic is up 382 percent in the past 30 days with people looking for treatment for either substance abuse or mental health.' This is a “pandemic within a pandemic,” according to addiction expert Tim Ryan, who’s watched the coronavirus outbreak exacerbate the preexistent opioid and mental health crises with devastating effect. Ryan, the star of A&E’s 2017 “Dope Man” special, is the founder of “A Man In Recovery Foundation,” which partners with Rehab.com. A former heroin addict, his mission is to assist others struggling with substance abuse.In a Friday interview, Ryan explained how the stresses of...

...Over the past decade, Wuhan has emerged as the global headquarters for fentanyl production. The city’s chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturers hide production of the drug within their larger, licit manufacturing operations, then ship it abroad using deliberately mislabeled packaging, concealment techniques, and a complex network of forwarding addresses. According to a recent ABC News report, “huge amounts of these mail-order [fentanyl] components can be traced to a single, state-subsidized company in Wuhan.” Earlier this year, when Wuhan went into lockdown due to the coronavirus, North America’s illegal drug market went into panic mode. Drug cartels in Mexico forecasted a massive...

SAN FRANCISCO - California is on its way to acquiring nearly 16,000 hotel rooms to house the homeless during the pandemic, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Saturday as he reminded people to stay indoors as outbreaks continue to crop up throughout the state. Standing in front of a Motel 6 near San Jose, Newsom said more than 4,200 people have been moved out of shelters and off the streets into motel rooms. He took the opportunity to scold leaders of unnamed cities for blocking efforts to house the homeless, asking them to “please consider the morality” of their decisions. The pandemic...

Democrat Representative David Nangle was arrested by the FBI and IRS on a 28-count indictment that includes a wide variety of corruption charges. Some of those charges include, at this time, bank fraud, wire fraud, lying to a bank, and even filing false tax returns...

Today, White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) Director Jim Carroll announced the Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 Drug-Free Communities (DFC) Support Program’s Notice of Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), which begins this year’s process of awarding funds to community coalitions focused on preventing youth substance use.For FY 2020, this will allow 200 new communities to receive direct financial help totaling $25 million from the White House to prevent illicit drug use and save lives.“Educating our youth about the dangers of substance use is critical to preventing and ending the crisis of addiction in America.  ONDCP’s Drug-Free Communities are proven,...

n one breath, liberals say we need to decriminalize drugs and open up the prisons. In the next breath, they shed crocodile tears over the drug crisis and homelessness. The same people who demand that Congress and state governments spend even more money to “combat” the twin drug and homelessness crises never seem to connect the dots back to their decriminalization policies or admit that they are causing a rise in crime. around 2014-2015 is when the drug crisis exploded nationwide, including in California, roughly around the same time homelessness soared, particularly in the Golden State, along with the rise...

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 1 John 2:16 Forests for Oregon is proud to announce we have formed a new group called Forests for Schools which will be focused on our Forests for Schools petition. Forests for Schools will be the outreach group which will go to the streets and reach the lost in Portland and around the state. It will be the group which is going to be the more politically...

... Today, the gay community is facing another crisis that we’re not talking about and that elected officials are once again ignoring. Scores of gay men are addicted to crystal methamphetamine. The drug, which can change the chemical composition of the brain in chronic users, is extremely addictive. And just like during the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and 90s, resources are paltry, government support is virtually nonexistent and an aura of denial surrounds the crisis. Gay men are more likely to try meth than straight men. One explanation for this could be that gay men struggle with acceptance in...

Ilonka Deaton was trafficked into sex slavery at the age of 12. She suffered for six years before finally getting free. Now, her brother, Jaco Booyens, runs a film company that brings the darkness of sex trafficking into the light. He’s out with a film called “8 Days.” Read the lightly edited interview, posted below, or listen on the podcast: . . . Rachel del Guidice: We are joined today on The Daily Signal Podcast by Jaco Booyens. He’s the president and CEO of the film company After Eden Pictures. He is also the founder of SHAREtogether, a nonprofit organization...

“A few years ago, it was rare to see a young person enter Caron with marijuana-induced psychosis,” said Garbely. “Now we see it on a regular basis. Older teens and young adults — approximately ages 18 to 26 — are the most impacted. We see a significant misperception about the safety and efficacy of marijuana among our teen and young-adult patient population.”

They say the first step is admitting you have a problem. I think many readers of this article will respond with outrage, and many will see it says things they already knew to be true—and I think these two groups will largely overlap. The most powerful obstacle to confronting a destructive addiction is denial, and collectively we are in denial about pornography. Since it seems somehow relevant, let me state at the outset that I am French. Every fiber of my Latin, Catholic body recoils at puritanism of any sort, especially the bizarre, Anglo-Puritan kind so prevalent in America. I...

Hunter Biden was suspected of smoking crack inside a strip club where he dropped “thousands of dollars” during multiple visits — at the same time he held a seat on the board of a controversial Ukrainian natural-gas company, The Post has learned. The incident, which took place at Archibald’s Gentlemen’s Club in Washington, DC, late last year, represents the most recent alleged drug use by Biden, 49, who has acknowledged six stints in rehab for alcoholism and addiction that included a crack binge in 2016. Workers at Archibald’s, located about three blocks north of the White House, said Biden was...

The Mexican ambassador to the United States responded to Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley’s call to sanction Mexico for the recent escalation of violence from the nation’s ruling drug cartels by blaming the American public’s demand for black-market drugs.“My government categorically rejects your recent mischaracterization on Mexico not actively combating transnational organized crime and suggesting to impose sanctions on Mexican officials,” Ambassador Martha Barcena wrote to Hawley, adding in a handwritten note at the end of the letter that she hopes to address the matter with the senator personally to discuss how to “reduce drug demand in the U.S.” In...

The continuing exodus of healthcare providers out of pain management is especially obnoxious in light of the fact that no less an authority than the American Medical Association has repudiated the central logic of the 2016 CDC Guidelines, used widely as an excuse for restricting patient access. We must also recognize that America’s opioid and suicide crises are much larger than just prescribing or even street drugs. The factors which cause people to be increasingly vulnerable to addiction and suicide are largely socio-economic.

The late Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez in the mid-2000s attempted to coordinate with Colombian guerrillas to flood the United States with cocaine, according to federal prosecutors' documents obtained by The Wall Street Journal. According to the documents, former Venezuelan Supreme Court Magistrate Eladio Aponte took part in a meeting where Chávez in 2005 convened his closest advisers to draw up plans to ship cocaine to the United States with the help of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). SNIP “During the meeting, Chávez urged the group, in substance and in part, to promote his policy objectives, including to combat...