Free Republic

Of the 2916 people who died in Massachusetts between 2013-2015 (and had complete toxicology reports): 1789 (61%) had heroin detected. 1322 (45%) had fentanyl detected. Only 39 (1.3%) of the decedents who had a prescription opioid detected in their body had an active (legal) prescription for that opioid on the day they died. In other words, 98.7% of the people who died and had a prescription drug in their body obtained that drug illegally (not by prescription). This confirms that it is (and has been) the abuse, not the use of opioids that is killing people. Properly managed pain patients...

It’s called the “little pink pill,” a tiny tablet that could have a huge impact on treating female sexual dysfunction. If it’s approved, it would become the first drug of its kind on the market. But that’s a big IF. The drug Flibanserin is locked in a heated battle for approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, raising controversial questions about why there are so many sexual enhancement drugs available for men and zero for women. Cindy Whitehead, the founder and COO of Sprout Pharmaceuticals, a Raleigh, North Carolina-based company focused on producing only Flibanserin, has been fighting for...

Somewhere out there, in what Winston Churchill once called “the Great Republic” is the not-too-happy wife of a Republican governor or senator. This poor lass has devoted the last two or three decades of her life to the gruesome indignities of American politics, shaking hands with morons, forfeiting all privacy, wearing a fixed grin, warily eyeing the bouncy blondes on her husband’s campaign staff and trying to retain her girlish figure through the endless parade of bull roasts, picnics, fundraising banquets and state fairs. (“Try the deep-fried Twinkies ma’am?”) She has done this all with one thought in mind. Someday,...

As her husband celebrated his 49th birthday in Chicago with Oprah, first lady Michelle Obama was halfway around the world, on vacation with her 9-year-old daughter, Sasha, in Spain. The two are traveling on what the White House has described as a four-day "private trip" with several Obama family friends along the country's ritzy southern coast. Of course, no first lady's life is truly ever private, and already plenty of drama is swirling around Michelle Obama's foreign jaunt. Some critics have laid into the trip's price, while others are highlighting an apparent diplomatic gaffe between the United States and Spain....

(Gov. David Paterson, with his wife, Michelle, at his side, publically addresses his past extramarital affairs - a story first reported by the Daily News.) In an extraordinary public confession less than 24 hours after taking office, Gov. Paterson said Tuesday he has had affairs with "a number of women" in the not-so-distant past - including a current state employee. Standing shoulder to shoulder with his grim-faced wife, Michelle, the governor said his "conscience is clear" - now that he has come clean about his private infidelities. He said he hopes now to focus on the public's business. "I...