Category Archives: Drugs

TGA investigating potential link between diabetes drug Ozempic and reports of gastro-intestinal side effects

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Drug has been used off-label for weight loss leading to a global shortage and usage may come with risks, experts say

Australia’s drug regulator is investigating new reports of potential gastro-intestinal side effects of diabetes turned weight-loss drug Ozempic.

Ozempic, is a drug prescribed as a treatment for type 2 diabetes, but has been widely used off-label for weight loss, causing worldwide shortages, including in Australia. The same drug, branded as Wegovy, is now approved for weight management in Australia, but is not currently available.

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California nearly decriminalizes psychedelics – but governor hits brakes

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Gavin Newsom vetoes measure, saying state must set up thorough guidelines for treatment before he is willing to sign

California will have to put more work into decriminalizing hallucinogens before Governor Gavin Newsom will sign a bill, said a statement from the governor on Saturday, announcing that the bill had been vetoed.

The rejected law, which was anticipated to take effect in 2025, would have done away with criminal penalties for people possessing natural psychedelics for personal use. It also would have required the state to form a group to study and make recommendations about the drugs’ therapeutic use.

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US representative files resolution decrying rightwing calls for invasion of Mexico

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Joaquin Castro urged fellow House members to reject Republican calls for US military action to stem flow of fentanyl from Mexico

A progressive US congressman from Texas has asked his legislative colleagues to join him in condemning some American conservatives’ calls to invade Mexico – ostensibly to do battle with drug cartels there.

Joaquin Castro says he intends to file a resolution in the US House as soon as Friday reaffirming the federal government’s “commitment to respecting the sovereignty of Mexico and condemning calls for military action without Mexico’s consent and congressional authorization”.

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Female drug users at risk of exploitation in mixed-sex treatment groups, study finds

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Research reports vulnerable women targeted for grooming into sex work and calls for ‘gendered response’

Female drug users are at risk of being groomed into sex work and other forms of exploitation when they attend treatment programmes with men, according to new research.

Some women reported feeling vulnerable to “predatory males” in mixed groups where they were often outnumbered two-to-one by men, but said they were not given an option to access women-only treatment programmes.

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The new malaria vaccine will prevent many deaths – but it’s by no means the end of the disease

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The new R21/Matrix-M vaccine will be far more easily available than the first vaccine – but the reality of life in Africa will blunt its impact

A new vaccine against malaria – which kills 600,000 people every year, mostly children – is to be injected into babies’ arms in 18 countries where the disease is most deadly. That’s joyous news. But the unbridled enthusiasm the announcement has generated says as much about the sorry state of malaria control as the brilliance of scientific invention.

Because this is an imperfect vaccine that at best will protect 75% of those given it. That’s the top figure from the clinical trials. In the reality of village life in poverty-ridden parts of Africa, it may keep fewer than half safe. It’s still hugely important to get vaccination programmes going in the 18 countries that will now be funded to run them, because many deaths will be averted. But it’s not the end of malaria. Nowhere near.

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Third person charged for infant’s death from fentanyl in New York City daycare

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Prosecutors say Renny Antonio Parra Paredes, 38, played a key role in selling the drugs that were stored at the childcare facility

A third person has been charged in the death of a toddler apparently poisoned by fentanyl inside a New York City daycare center, authorities said on Monday, as the search continued for the alleged ringleader of the drug peddling operation.

Renny Antonio Parra Paredes, 38, was charged with narcotics distribution resulting in death, 10 days after authorities discovered four young children showing signs of opioid exposure at a Bronx daycare center. One of those children, one-year-old Nicholas Dominici, was pronounced dead last Friday.

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Cannabis brain effects study struggles to attract black UK users

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Exclusive: Fears findings will represent only white population if too few people of colour take part

A major study into the effects of cannabis on the human brain is at risk of being partially thwarted because too few black users have agreed to take part.

White people have come forward in large numbers offering to get involved in King’s College London’s £2.5m study of how the drug may contribute to paranoia and psychosis in some users but not others. It is hoped the project will pave the way for wider medicinal use and make illegal recreational use safer.

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More fentanyl found under trapdoor in New York daycare where infant died

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Police make discovery in investigation after child dies and three others hospitalized after appearing to have been exposed to drug

Police investigating a New York City daycare where a one-year-old boy died of alleged fentanyl exposure have discovered additional fentanyl hidden in a space underneath the center’s floor.

Following a tip about a trapdoor in the floor, authorities on Wednesday night and Thursday searched the Divino Niño daycare center in the Bronx again after fentanyl residue was found underneath a mat earlier this month where children had napped, ABC reports.

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One-year-old dies at New York City daycare and three children hospitalized

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Emergency workers responding to report of cardiac arrest find equipment used in production of illegal drugs

A one-year-old boy died and three other children were hospitalized after emergency workers responded to a report of cardiac arrest at a daycare center in New York City on Friday, authorities said.

Police said they found equipment often used in the production of illegal drugs in the home-based daycare in the Bronx. Police said they were investigating the possibility that both the dead child and the hospitalized children had been exposed to an opioid of some kind over an extended period of time, according to reports from WABC and the New York Times.

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Pit bull puppy saved by California police after possible fentanyl exposure

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The pup’s owners were arrested in a Walmart parking lot on suspicion of animal cruelty and possession of narcotics

California police administered an overdose-reversing drug to a pit bull puppy in attempts to save it from a potential fentanyl overdose.

On Friday, the Irvine police department announced that it administered a dose of Narcan to the puppy after it was exposed to fentanyl in a car and began to “show signs of an overdose”.

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Victorian man arrested at Melbourne airport after five years on the run from drugs charges

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Omer Tok was on bail facing charges of importing 186kg of cocaine in 2018 when he allegedly fled Australia using someone else’s passport

A Victorian man who disappeared five years ago while on trial over a plot to import 186kg of cocaine has been arrested at Melbourne airport.

Omer Tok has been on the run since 2018, when he went missing while on bail.

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Young people, pregnant women and drivers should avoid cannabis – study

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Largest review of its kind says while cannabis-based medicines may help some people, drug is detrimental for others

Teenagers, young adults, pregnant women, drivers and mentally ill people should avoid cannabis, according to the largest ever health review of its kind.

However, cannabidiol can help reduce seizures in epilepsy patients, and cannabis-based medicines may help with multiple sclerosis, chronic pain, inflammatory bowel disease and in palliative care.

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Starmer challenges Sunak to force Nadine Dorries out of Commons as Tory website explains how it could happen – as it happened

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Article says Commons could bypass the parliamentary standards machinery after Labour leader says MP should be forced out. This live blog is closed

Starmer says there is a massive mismatch between what the government is saying about how things are going well with the economy, and the lived experience of people.

O’Brien suggests the two teenagers Starmer met today would have been happier if Starmer was still committed to getting rid of tuition fees.

I do think the current scheme is unfair and ineffective and that is why we will change it, so the current scheme will be changed by the incoming Labour government and we will set out our plans.

I am not going to pretend that there isn’t huge damage to the economy and that has meant that some of the things that an incoming Labour government would want to do we are not going to be able to do in the way we would want in the way that we would want.

We are working up our proposals on that and I will fully come back and talk them through when we got them.

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Drug dealer gets 10 years in prison for role in actor Michael K Williams’s death

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Irvin Cartagena sentenced after pleading guilty to providing The Wire actor with fentanyl-laced heroin, causing his death

A New York City drug dealer was sentenced on Friday to 10 years in prison for providing the actor Michael K Williams, best known for his role in the TV series The Wire, with fentanyl-laced heroin, causing his death.

Irvin Cartagena, 40, of Aibonito, Puerto Rico, was sentenced by the US district judge Ronnie Abrams. Cartagena had pleaded guilty in April to conspiring to distribute drugs.

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NSW court ruling will make it almost impossible to contest drug-driving charges, legal experts claim

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Judge says decision involving a Sydney man who lost his licence after testing positive for cocaine pivoted on presence of drug rather than his credibility

Legal experts have argued a New South Wales district court judgment will make it almost impossible for people facing drug-driving charges to defend themselves, no matter the circumstances.

The decision, handed down on 26 July, involved a Sydney man who lost his licence after testing positive for cocaine at a roadside drug test.

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Michael K Williams: drug dealer in overdose death of Wire actor sentenced to 30 months in prison

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Williams’ nephew and The Wire creator David Simon spoke on behalf of Carlos Macci, 72, who pleaded guilty to conspiring to possessing and distributing narcotics

A 72-year-old man linked to a crew of drug dealers blamed in the fentanyl-laced heroin death of The Wire actor Michael K Williams has been sentenced to more than two years in prison at a proceeding in which the actor’s nephew recommended compassion for the defendant.

Carlos Macci was sentenced to 30 months in prison by US district judge Ronnie Abrams, who told Macci that selling heroin and fentanyl “not only cost Mr Williams his life, but it’s costing your freedom” – in part because he did not stop selling drugs after Williams died.

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Two men accused of importing $61m of cocaine hidden in yacht at Townsville

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Matthieu Anthony Rees and Rachid Kachour arrested at ACT apartment after federal police seize 247kg of cocaine

Two men have been accused of importing more than $61m worth of cocaine by sea after Australian federal police seized 247kg of the drug allegedly hidden in a yacht in Queensland.

Matthieu Anthony Rees, 44, and Rachid Kachour, 55, both from Griffith in the ACT, were arrested at their apartment on Thursday as part of an investigation into cocaine seized from a yacht moored in Townsville.

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Opioid crisis: US and China at odds over influx of fentanyl

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Antony Blinken speaks at launch of US-led coalition to address synthetic drug threats

Who is responsible for the United States’ opioid epidemic? According to the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, the culprits are “transnational criminal enterprises” who need to be tackled via international law enforcement operations.

But according to Chinese state media, “the fentanyl crisis in the United States is demand-driven”, primarily by “the users themselves”.

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Wastewater tests reveal the most popular drugs in each Australian capital city

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Illicit drug use in Australia jumped over summer despite a string of high-profile drug busts

Sydneysiders consume the most cocaine, Melburnians the most heroin, Darwin ranks highest for alcohol while cannabis is most popular in Hobart, wastewater analysis reveals.

The findings from the latest national wastewater drug monitoring report from the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission were based on wastewater testing at 57 treatment plants in capital cities and regional areas from December 2022 to February 2023.

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Lab test confirms white powder found at White House is cocaine

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Secret Service review of visitor logs and surveillance cameras will seek to determine how drug came to be in the West Wing

A formal laboratory test of a white powder found in a “highly-trafficked” area of the White House has been confirmed as cocaine, NBC News reported on Wednesday, citing an unnamed official with knowledge of the investigation.

A Secret Service review of visitor logs and surveillance cameras will seek to determine how the cocaine, described as being in a small, zippered bag, came to be in the executive mansion.

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