Free Republic

Suboxone maker Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB Group) will pay the U.S. government a record $1.4 billion to end criminal and civil probes into the marketing of its addiction treatment medication, making it the largest settlement related to the opioid crisis in U.S. history, authorities said on Thursday.

San Francisco’s mayor plans to put medical teams on the streets to distribute a drug that curbs heroin cravings in opioid addicts, an initiative he says will be the first in the country. Mayor Mark Farrell announced Thursday he will allocate $6 million for 10 new public health clinicians to provide the opioid treatment medicine buprenorphine, known as Suboxone, directly to users. Buprenorphine is a daily pill or dissolvable strip that reduces cravings and alleviates withdrawal symptoms. It also reduces risk of overdose. Video and photos of people shooting up drugs in public have gone viral in recent weeks and...

U.S. health officials on Thursday approved the first injectable form of the leading medication to treat patients recovering from addiction to heroin, prescription painkillers and other opioids. The Food and Drug Administration approved once-a-month Sublocade for adults with opioid use disorder who are already stabilized on addiction medication. The monthly injection has the potential to reduce dangerous relapses that occur when patients stop taking the currently available daily medication. But that benefit has not yet been shown in studies and the new drug comes with a hefty price: $1,580 per monthly dose. The older version of the drug, Suboxone, costs...

A Maryland special education teacher was arrested Tuesday, accused of dealing drugs at the same high school where she worked for 17 years. Monica Snee, 51, faces multiple heroin-related charges, including possession and distribution on school property, according to the Wicomico County Sheriff’s Office. While officials believe she used the Parkside High School grounds to sell drugs, Wicomico County Sheriff Mike Lewis said there isn’t evidence she dealt to students or teachers. During a press conference Wednesday, Lewis called Snee’s alleged crimes “the worst act of betrayal.” Lewis said deputies found 173 capsules of heroin, 340 oxycodone pills, several suboxone...

A federal law enforcement source has identified the man suspected of killing nine people inside a historic black church on Wednesday evening as 21-year-old Dylann Storm Roof. He was captured Thursday morning in Shelby, N.C. ....Since January, Roof has been arrested twice, both at the Columbiana Mall in Columbia, S.C. According to arrest records obtained CBS News investigative producer Laura Strickler, on February 28, Roof went into a Bath and Body Works store wearing all black and asked "out of the ordinary questions," including how many associates were working, when they closed and what time they leave. Mall employees complained...

Just when you thought the campaigns coming out of George Soros’ Open Society Institute couldn’t push the envelope any further, the Soros backed institute topped itself. OSI reportedly just released a new comic book titled Methadone Man and Buprenorphine Babe — which encourages drug addicts to use Methadone and Buprenorphine to combat heroin and other opioid drug withdrawals and even to fight HIV.

When Aaron, a 33-year-old writer from New York, decided to get help for his five-year addiction to painkillers, there was really only one option. Every morning, he visited a local clinic for a small cup of methadone, the standard treatment for addiction to heroin and other opiates since the 1960's. But his life soon revolved around the clinic's hours, he said, and the daily routine was humiliating. "I had to stand in line with a bunch of people who were talking about getting high," and take a urine test for illicit drugs each week, said Aaron, who spoke on the...