Tag Archives: drugs

Jonathan Swan reports at Axios: In Singapore, the death penalty is mandatory for drug trafficking offenses. And President Trump loves it. He’s been telling friends for months that the country’s policy to execute drug traffickers is the reason its drug consumption rates are so low. “He says that a lot,” said a source who’s spoken to Trump at length about …

NBC News reports: New York City filed a $500 million lawsuit Tuesday against prescription opioid manufacturers and distributors, seeking to hold them accountable for their alleged part in the city’s drug epidemic. The lawsuit aims to recover expenses the city will incur in combating the crisis. In 2016, more than 1,000 people in New York City died of an opioid …

The Associated Press reports: Attorney General Jeff Sessions is going after legalized marijuana. Sessions is rescinding a policy that had let legalized marijuana flourish without federal intervention across the country. That’s according to two people with direct knowledge of the decision. They were not allowed to publicly discuss it before an announcement expected Thursday and spoke on condition of anonymity. …

The Associated Press reports: Californians may awake on New Year’s Day to a stronger-than-normal whiff of marijuana as America’s cannabis king lights up to celebrate the state’s first legal retail pot sales. The historic day comes more than two decades after California paved the way for legal weed by passing the nation’s first medical marijuana law, though other states were …

Bloomberg reports: For Jack in the Box Inc., the warm smell of marijuana is rising in the air. As California prepares for legal recreational pot on Jan. 1, the fast-food chain is partnering with a digital media company backed by rapper Snoop Dogg on a new “munchie” meal aimed at cannabis enthusiasts. While marijuana’s connection to fast food is well-established, …

The Las Vegas Sun reports: American shoppers will take to malls, warehouses and brick-and-mortar outlets today for what has long been one of the most lucrative days for retail companies across the country. In Nevada, for the first time, Black Friday will include legal recreational marijuana. And just like big-box retailers, pot stores are rolling out the deals in hopes …

Bloomberg reports: Insys Therapeutics Inc. founder John Kapoor is accused of helping fuel the U.S. opioid epidemic by bribing doctors to prescribe a powerful form of fentanyl to patients who didn’t need the potent drug. Kapoor, 74, was arrested Thursday in Arizona and charged with racketeering conspiracy and other felonies. He’s scheduled to appear in a Phoenix court later in …

The New York Times reports: President Trump on Thursday will announce he is directing his Department of Health and Human Services to declare the opioid crisis a public health emergency, senior administration officials said, taking long-anticipated action to address a rapidly escalating epidemic of drug use in the United States. The move falls short of Mr. Trump’s sweeping promise to …

Gallup reports: Americans continue to warm to legalizing marijuana, with 64% now saying its use should be made legal. This is the highest level of public support Gallup has found for the proposal in nearly a half-century of measurement. The trajectory of Americans’ views on marijuana is similar to that of their views on same-sex marriage over the past couple …

CBS News reports: President Trump announced Tuesday that his nominee for drug czar, Rep. Tom Marino, has withdrawn his name from consideration for the position. The announcement came following a joint investigation by CBS’ “60 Minutes” and The Washington Post on the opioid crisis. The report found that Congress helped disarm the Drug Enforcement Administration during the height of the …

Germany’s The Local has a good take: Have you ever wondered what it’s like to live inside Donald Trump’s head? Well, German police have seized a party drug that lets you experience the feeling that everything you are doing is amazing, while others only see a barely coherent, twitching mess. Police in Osnabrück found €39,000 of the Trump-shaped ecstasy pills, …

The Hill reports: Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) is introducing legislation to end the federal prohibition on marijuana and encourage states to legalize pot. The legislation, which Booker will formally roll out later Tuesday during a Facebook event, would amend the Controlled Substance Act to eliminate marijuana’s status as a Schedule 1 drug—a move that would decriminalize marijuana at the federal …

The Boston Herald reports: Gov. Charlie Baker today signed a bill that reshapes the state’s marijuana legalization law, kick-starting an 11-month sprint until pot shops can legally open statewide — during which officials will have to build an entire bureaucracy from the ground up. Flanked by lawmakers key to crafting the legislation, Baker signed into law several changes to the …

The New York Post reports: Snortable chocolate is so dangerous that its health effects must be investigated by the feds, Sen. Charles Schumer is urging. Coco Loko — a raw cacao powder infused with a “special energy blend” — is marketed like a drug and should be closely regulated, Schumer demanded in a letter to the Food and Drug Administration …

His comments were made more than a week ago but have gained nationwide attention in recent days. The Cincinnati Enquirer reports: Let them die. That was the jarring message from Middletown City Councilman Dan Picard. A day before Middletown’s council meeting on June 20, City Manager Doug Adkins attended a local heroin summit. He told people there the city was …

Rolling Stone reports: When it comes to talking about President Donald Trump, there is no shortage of nicknames to use. If you hear someone mention “Agent Orange,” “Cheeto-in-Chief,” “Mango Mussolini,” or “Putin’s Puppet,” you know they mean Trump. But it seems “Trump” has an alternative meaning of its own. Some people also use the name of the 45th president when …

The Guardian reports: Mushrooms are the safest of all the drugs people take recreationally, according to this year’s Global Drug Survey. Of the more than 12,000 people who reported taking psilocybin hallucinogenic mushrooms in 2016, just 0.2% of them said they needed emergency medical treatment – a rate at least five times lower than that for MDMA, LSD and cocaine. …

The New York Daily News reports: With voices in his head and drugs in his system, a deranged motorist drove his car onto a crowded Times Square sidewalk and mowed down 23 pedestrians — including an 18-year-old Michigan woman who died in front of her little sister. Richard Rojas’ maroon Honda Accord carved a three-block path of destruction along Seventh …

Politico reports: Attorney General Jeff Sessions is reversing one of the central elements of the Obama administration’s criminal justice reform agenda: a Justice Department policy that led to prosecutors in drug cases often filing charges in a way that avoided triggering mandatory minimum sentences in federal law. Sessions is withdrawing a 2013 directive from Attorney General Eric Holder that instructed …

The New York Times reports: Fulfilling a campaign pledge, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau introduced legislation on Thursday to legalize the recreational use of marijuana in Canada. Many nations have either decriminalized marijuana, allowed it to be prescribed medically or effectively stopped enforcing laws against it. But when Mr. Trudeau’s bill passes as expected, Canada will become only the second nation, …