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Nothing fancy, but it makes for a good sticker...

Stricter rules for the country's most commonly prescribed painkiller were rolled out on Thursday by the FDA, the last step in a policy change that has been coming down the pipeline for years, The New York Times reported on Sunday. Hydrocodone will now be in a more serious and restrictive category. Doctors will be barred from calling in prescriptions by telephone, and patients will not be able to get refills on the same prescription, but will have to return to a physician for a new one. It will also have be to kept in special vaults in pharmacies. The Drug...

Oscar-winning actor and comedian Robin Williams has died at age 63, according to police in Marin County, Calif. The full statement is below. On August 11, 2014, at approximately 11:55 a.m, Marin County Communications received a 9-1-1 telephone call reporting a male adult had been located unconscious and not breathing inside his residence in unincorporated Tiburon, CA. The Sheriff’s Office, as well as the Tiburon Fire Department and Southern Marin Fire Protection District were dispatched to the incident with emergency personnel arriving on scene at 12:00 pm. The male subject, pronounced deceased at 12:02 pm has been identified as Robin...

It looks like Mississippi is taking the right steps to reducing fraud when it comes to government assistance. Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) will now require new applicants to submit a questionnaire that will evaluate the likelihood of substance abuse. Residents who apply for this temporary assistance from the state will have to submit to drug testing if the state deems they are likely substance abusers from this questionnaire. Testing positive once would require a TANF recipient to undergo treatment for substance abuse. For testing positive a second time, the recipient would be kicked out of the program for...

A drug treatment center in Vancouver, Canada has installed a crack pipe vending machine at its facility — going retail in an effort to reach hardcore addicts and keep them off the streets. The bright, polka-dotted machine dispenses crack pipes like candy or snacks: Each glass pipe costs a quarter, and rolls off a spindle into a tray. A sign on the machine says simply, “Pipes 25¢” About all that’s missing is a picture of Toronto’s crack-smoking mayor, Rob Ford.

(CNN) -- Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman has been found dead of an apparent drug overdose in his Manhattan apartment, law enforcement sources said Sunday. Hoffman, 46, was found in the bathroom of the fourth-floor apartment, the sources told CNN.

A spokesman for U.S. Rep. Trey Radel of Florida says the congressman will resign after pleading guilty to cocaine-possession charges last year. Dave Natonski says the freshman republican will step down Monday and will send a letter to House Speaker John Boehner. Politico first reported the upcoming resignation. On Nov. 20, Radel pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of cocaine possession and was sentenced to a year of probation. He admitted to purchasing 3.5 grams of cocaine from an undercover officer Oct. 29 in Washington. Several GOP leaders had asked him to resign. But Radel had pledged to stay in...

Emonie "Star" Beasley-Brown lived just three weeks before she was suffocated. Her grandmother was accused of placing her hands over the infant's mouth to hush her crying as the 14-year-old mother stood by. Clayton Condiff, four months old, died after being dropped, shaken and suffocated. And three days later — during a year of record child deaths from abuse and neglect in Illinois — two-month-old Julia Duda drowned in a bathtub. Police said the mother left her baby alone while she made coffee, records show. The three infants as well as a fourth battered child died in Chicago during one...

A former childhood acquaintance of Barack Obama is claiming that during his high school years in Hawaii he would often trade sexual favors with "older white gay men" to support his rather severe cocaine habit, as reported by the Microsoft Network (MSN.com) news portal on Nov. 12, 2013. Appearing on the controversial right-of-center on-line talk show The Manning Report, Mia Marie Pope claims to have been a personal acquaintance with Barack Obama during their shared teen years in Honolulu during the mid-late 1970s. Referring to Obama by his younger years moniker of Barry Soetoro, Pope forcefully stated she personally didn't...

Some say it's not an opiate painkiller like Oxy, but Klonopin. And doctors are doling it out like candy, causing a surge of hellish withdrawals, overdoses and deaths.You could argue that the most dangerous “drug” in the world is the venom from a jellyfish known as the Sea Wasp, whose sting can kill a human being in four minutes—up to 100 humans at a time. Potassium chloride, which is used to trigger cardiac arrest and death in the 38 states of the U.S. that enforce the death penalty is also pretty deadly . But when it comes to prescription drugs...

A Saturday night triple-bill in the Seaport featured swirling lights, throbbing techno and dangerous drugs that sent three young men to the hospital — but no Boston police, despite a vow just 24 hours earlier by Mayor Thomas M. Menino to deploy the city’s cops on the Hub’s nightclubs in the wake of a young woman’s death. Two of the men, who were attending the Sound Tribe Sector 9 show at Bank of America Pavilion, appeared to have OD’d on a “molly-type” drug, according to state police — the same virulently popular substance believed to have led to the death...

Kurt is a 32-year-old IT systems administrator from Des Moines, Iowa. He has a colleague who had been prescribed "ridiculous amounts" of Vicodin for a chronic back problem. Kurt said his colleague would give him between thirty and forty pills at a time. Usually he would take the Vicodin while alone, but he occasionally shared the pills with friends during an evening out. -snip- He is not alone. One in 10 Americans admit taking a prescription drug they have not been prescribed, and a quarter of those people have used them just to get high, according to an ongoing Reuters/Ipsos...

Even the thought of a coffee mug like this sends chills down the spines of state Attorneys General around America. They are ever on the alert to stop crime in its tracks.So, 22 of them joined together to send a letter to the company that manufactures this mug. Stop it, they said. Stop it right now. For the sake of humanity, cease and desist. On behalf of the undersigned Attorneys General, we request that Urban Outfitters immediately cease sales of your “Prescription Line” of glasses, coasters, mugs, drink holders and related products that mimic prescription pill bottles and prescription pads.As...

Judge Debra Nelson ruled Monday that jurors in the George Zimmerman trial will be allowed to hear about marijuana found in Trayvon Martin’s system the night he was fatally shot. Prosecutors argued the amount was so minimal that “we just don’t know” what effect it had on Martin. They also accused the defense of trying to "backdoor some very negative character evidence” into the trial. But the defense said the amount found in Martin’s system would have had an impact on his judgment that night and is therefore relevant to the case. The judge ruled she would allow the testimony...

A new report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has revealed some interesting findings on the amount of influence parents think they have over their teens when it comes to preventing them from using illicit drugs, tobacco or alcohol. In fact, the new report reveals that parents are among the most effective factors in preventing children’s substance use. Unfortunately, there are a lot of parents who don’t think this is the case. The reports shows that 22.3 percent of parents believe what they talk about with their teens has very little impact on whether or not...

Her death came just hours after she went to the hospital seeking help for severe abdominal pain. “Jamie was seeking help; she was in extreme pain,” family friend Kemper Kimberlin said. Hospital staff reported Jamie wouldn’t cooperate, in too much pain to even lie down, so employees asked a Pauls Valley police officer to assist. Unfortunately, when police found two prescription pills that didn’t belong to Jamie, police took her to jail for drug possession. That’s where Jamie sat for less than two hours before being found unresponsive.

Former Rhode Island Rep. Patrick Kennedy says he’s established a group to lobby against legalized marijuana. … The Providence Journal reports that Kennedy’s group, Project SAM—for Smart Approaches to Marijuana—will instead lobby for increased treatment for marijuana and drug abuse. …

New psychoactive drugs are appearing on the market at the rate of about one a week as Europeans seek “legal highs,” a job made easier by the large rise in online drug retailers. 57 new substances have already been detected this year, up from 49 in 2011 and 41 in 2010, according to a report published on Thursday (15 November) by the Lisbon-based European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA). Cocaine, ecstasy and amphetamines continue to be the main stimulants, but they are competing with a growing number of emerging synthetic drugs. … Three natural products—kratom, salvia and...

ULSA, Okla. — The picture of what happened to the children becomes more clear as KRMG finds out more details. Tulsa Police were called to a home in the 4900 block of N. Frankfort Pl. late Sunday evening. The neighbor called 911 to say the 4-year-old boy from next door was outside screaming because temperatures were in the 40's and he was locked outside in the nude. KRMG spoke with one of the neighbors. She says, "All she heard was this little boy screaming for his dad saysin 'I'm cold, I'm scared, let me in'" When Police pulled up, Ofc....

The Idea That Barack Obama Was Stoned Is Not Outlandish. The man has lost a lot of weight. He has a history of drug abuse. By his own admission he has been unable to focus on one of the most important events of his life, scheduled to occur in front of 70 million people. His published schedule reveals a pattern of empty hours. His image has deteriorated markedly with dark shadows under his eyes, sagging cheeks, and generally a hangdog look which is commonly associated with drug abusers. He was listless in the debate. He could not maintain eye contact,...