Free Republic

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General William Barr spoke with Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard last week to try to lower bilateral tension arising from the U.S. arrest of a former Mexican defense minister on drugs charges, two Mexican sources said on Monday. Mexico says it should have had prior warning about the arrest and investigation of the former minister and retired army officer, Salvador Cienfuegos, who pleaded not guilty to drug charges in a Brooklyn federal court last week. Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has said he will announce a review of security cooperation agreements with the...

Democrat-controlled Oregon has become the first state to decriminalize hard drugs, including meth, heroin, and cocaine, according to reports. The state's lawmakers passed legislation early on Wednesday morning in a 59-41% vote, according to the Associated Press. The "Drug Addiction Treatment and Recovery Act" seeks to transition Oregon's drug policy from a punitive, criminal approach to "a humane, cost-effective, health approach."

In what would be a first in the U.S., possession of small amounts of heroin, cocaine, LSD and other hard drugs could be decriminalized in Oregon under a ballot measure that voters are deciding on in Tuesday’s election. Instead of being arrested, going to trial and facing possible jail time, the users would have the option of paying $100 fines or attending new, free addiction recovery centers. The centers would be funded by tax revenue from retail marijuana sales in the state that was the country's first to decriminalize marijuana possession.

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, co-founded by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, donated $500,000 on Oct. 1 to Ballot Measure 110, which seeks to decriminalize possession of some hard drugs in Oregon. The measure would also establish a drug addiction treatment and recovery program. The Chan Zuckerberg donations raise Ballot Measure 110's cash contributions to $1.4 million. In contrast, the ballot's opponents have raised $12,800 in cash contributions and secured a $40,100 loan. According to the Oregon secretary of state website, this appears to be the first time the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative has contributed to an Oregon...

In the largest heroin bust Georgia’s has ever seen, DEA officials seized a massive amount of drugs this week in Atlanta. Authorities confiscated 170 kilograms of heroin, along with cocaine, marijuana, 41 guns and more than a million dollars in cash. The estimated street value of the drugs was around $8.5 million. Earlier this week, agents also announced the arrest of 46-year-old Antonio DeShawn Daniels, also known as “Freckleface Shawn.” He’s since been indicted on federal charges. According to officials, Daniels was one of the cartel’s top suppliers. “This investigation has ties all the way up to the highest cartel...

Welcome to Mayor de Blasio’s New York City where people shoot up heroin in broad daylight and terrorists run wild in the streets looting and destroying businesses.A cluster of heroin junkies have taken over a stretch of NYC’s Midtown and turned it into a shooting gallery. According to the New York Post, junkies are shooting up heroin in broad daylight on Broadway and 40th Street and littering planters with used syringes.Photo via New York Post A cluster of junkies has turned Broadway into a shooting gallery, injecting drugs unhampered in broad daylight and then shuffling around in a zonked-out...

It’s the Great Black Tar Way. A cluster of junkies has turned Broadway into a shooting gallery, injecting drugs unhampered in broad daylight and then shuffling around in a zonked-out stupor, seemingly oblivious to the Midtown bustle around them, The Post has learned. If that wasn’t enough, the addicts are peppering the area with used syringes, turning individual planters on 40th Street and Broadway into mini needle parks.

TAMPA, Florida — An inmate who was released from jail due to fears of coeronavirus spread has been re-arrested on a murder charge. Deputies say 26-year-old Joseph Edwards Williams commited second-degree murder the day after he was released. The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office says Williams fatally shot a man near 81st Street South and Ash Avenue just hours into his freedom. He was previously arrested for possession of heroin and possession of drug paraphernalia. More than 150 inmates have been released in Hillsborough County. “There is no question Joseph Williams took advantage of this health emergency to commit crimes while...

A new study conducted in rats shows that animals ignore social contact in favor of highly addictive opioid drugs. Researchers went on to show that this drug-seeking behavior could be reversed by stimulating a region of the brain. Researchers in the Arizona State University Department of Psychology previously used an animal model of opioid addiction and empathy to show that animals stopped prosocial behaviors - helping another animal - when heroin was available. The same research group has now shown that activating the anterior insula restored prosocial behaviors in opioid-addicted animals. The study will be published in Social Neuroscience and...

The coronavirus pandemic is driving up the price of heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl as Mexican cartels scramble to get their hands on Chinese-manufactured chemicals now in short supply. “The cartels are having a lot of difficulty producing drugs right now, and when the supply is low the price always goes up,” a US federal law enforcement source told The Post. “China has pretty much stopped production on the chemicals they need to do business.”

“Gray Death” is a particularly dangerous mixture of heroin, fentanyl, carfentanil and other synthetic opioids, and it has made its way to Indiana. Carfentanil, which is used as a tranquilizing agent for elephants and other large mammals, is 10,000 times more potent than morphine and 100 times more potent than fentanyl, according to the Indiana Department of Homeland Security. They say a persistent increase in opioid overdoses tied to carfentanil have been seen around the country. Carfentanil and other fentanyl-related compounds can be absorbed through the skin or accidentally inhaled, making them dangerous to first responders and other medical personnel....

..Born in Boston in 1948, Taylor was, according to his memoir, “brought up devoted to progressive politics, self-improvement and the arts”. His father, a doctor, moved the family to the south when he became the dean of the medical school of the University of North Carolina; his mother didn’t want to go, and fought against the politics she found there. She saw the north-eastern state of Massachusetts as a “lost Eden” and would spend her days doing sit-ins at segregated lunch counters, on protests, and hauling her five kids to Martha’s Vineyard every summer to “restore our Yankee credentials”. Not...

In 1969, the height of the Sixties’ cultural revolution, Pew found that only 12 percent of Americans supported the legalization of pot. Fifty years later, 67 percent of voters support it. Virtually every candidate on the Democratic presidential slate backs some form of marijuana legalization. Even the Trump administration has left states to manage their own business on the matter. This year, at least one candidate supports going further and decriminalizing all drugs. On Sunday, Fox News’ Chris Wallace pushed Iowa caucus winner Pete Buttigieg to explain his support for the “decriminalization” of all narcotics. First, he asked Buttigieg whether...

**SNIP** To recap, Buttigieg is saying possession of heroin and meth would be legal, but the distribution would not be legal. Wallace pressed to ensure that Buttigieg was being understood correctly. “You would say that possession of heroin is not illegal,” the Fox News host said, to make clear. “Not going to be dealt with through incarceration,” Buttigieg replied, coming up just short on saying it would be legal, but stressing there would be no punitive action that involves jail. Wallace noted that the candidate’s website says decriminalize it, prompting more doublespeak from Buttigieg. “Yes,” he answered. “Or it could...

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) is calling for the U.S. to legalize currently illicit drugs. “If we take that step to legalize and regulate, then we're no longer treating people who are struggling with substance addiction and abuse as criminals and instead getting them the help that they need,” the 2020 presidential candidate said at a campaign stop in Merrimack, New Hampshire on Friday. She was responding to a voter who asked whether her plan to end the war on drugs centered on more harm reduction and treatment or if it involved moving to “legalize and regulate narcotics so that you're...

Seven San Diego residents are dead from a flesh-eating bacteria tied to black tar heroin and county health officials are on the alert for yet more cases. Officials from San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency on Thursday announced the two-month string of deaths from the soft tissue infection myonecrosis and have told the medical community in this county of more than 3.3 million people to watch for more cases.

Between Oct. 2 and Nov. 24, nine people who injected the drug were admitted to local hospitals with severe myonecrosis, according to a news release from the San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency. Seven of them died. Myonecrosis is a bacterial infection that destroys muscle tissue. The nine patients ranged in age from 19 to 57 years old, and five of them were male, officials said. “People who use black tar heroin are not only at higher risk of dying from an overdose, but also more prone to developing myonecrosis and wound botulism,” said Wilma Wooten, the county’s...

POLK COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) – Seven people were arrested in what authorities are calling the “largest seizure of heroin” by the Polk County Sheriff’s Office. According to a news release, it all started when deputies learned someone was sending methamphetamine to Polk County by mail from southern California. Detectives began working with a task force in Bloomington, California and had undercover detectives buy 100 pounds of “Mexican methamphetamine” from a supplier based in California.

Together with colleagues from Shanghai, Brussels, Canada and the USA, researchers from the University of Bonn have uncovered the binding mechanism of an important pain receptor. The results facilitate the development of new active substances. The opioids used today to treat severe pain can be addictive and sometimes have life-threatening side effects. The results of this new research are published in the renowned journal Science Advances. Opioids are among the most effective painkillers available today. They include, for instance, morphine or oxycodone, which has been prescribed very carelessly in the USA, with serious consequences: Hundreds of thousands of patients have...

According to Vancouver mayor Kennedy Stewart, Justin Trudeau is open to the idea of having the federal government fund the supply of heroin to junkies in Vancouver. Trudeau spent the day meeting with the mayors of Vancouver and Calgary, where he reportedly spoke about his openness to use taxpayer dollars to buy dangerous drugs.