Trump’s Weak Response to the Overdose Epidemic

You'd think it would be impossible to kill 100 people a day, every day, without inducing widespread shock and deafening demands for action. But that's what opioids have been doing for the past decade, and Americans have given it only passing attention.

South Park Beats Washington at Moral Clarity

For a huge chunk of Americans, the venerable Comedy Central show South Park is more than simply a half hour of inspired, if crass, laughs: it is also a weathervane for America's political center. Sometimes, the show does everything in its power to avoid filling that role, as in the case of trippy episodes like its Imaginationland trilogy, but just as often, it leans in, deliberately tackling politically charged subjects with varying degrees of subtlety.

Pharma billionaire John Kapoor charged with pushing powerful opioid

U.S. prosecutors leveled charges Thursday against the billionaire founder of an opioid medication maker that has faced increasing scrutiny from authorities across the country over allegations of pushing prescriptions of powerful painkillers amid a drug epidemic that is claiming thousands of lives each year. The fraud and racketeering case against Insys Therapeutics founder John Kapoor, ... U.S. prosecutors leveled charges Thursday against the billionaire founder of an opioid medication maker that has faced increasing scrutiny from authorities across the country over allegations of pushing prescriptions of powerful painkillers amid a drug epidemic that is claiming thousands of lives each year.

Prescription bill slows opioid flow

The state Senate unanimously has passed a bill that would help to heal some of the damage caused by Rep. Tom Marino's bill diminishing the ability of the Drug Enforcement Administration to reduce the flow of powerful prescription opioid painkillers onto the black market. Marino, the 10th Congressional District Republican from Lycoming County, withdrew from consideration to be the national "drug czar" last week.

Stern calls for NBA changes of marijuana rules

A former judge who led Guatemala's soccer federation is set to be the first person sentenced in the U.S. in the world soccer scandal. The upstart tea party Republican who challenged Arizona Sen. John McCain last year and then set her sights on the state's junior senator is suddenly in the national spotlight.

Washington’s misguided and small-minded response to the opioid epidemic

Heroin users prepare to shoot up on a street in the South Bronx area of New York City on Oct. 7. Rep. Tom Marino withdrew his name from consideration to head the Office of National Drug Control Policy on Tuesday. He did so in the wake of a Washington Post-"60 Minutes" investigation revealing that he was the prime mover behind legislation weakening the Drug Enforcement Administration's abilities to go after drug distributors even as deaths from prescription drug abuse continued to rise.

Trump’s drug czar nominee withdraws in opioid flap

Marino's role helping the opioid industry, highlighted in recent exposA , led him to withdraw as president's nominee as drug czar. Trump's drug czar nominee withdraws after his role backing opioid industry exposed Marino's role helping the opioid industry, highlighted in recent exposA , led him to withdraw as president's nominee as drug czar.

U.S. indicts two Chinese in major fentanyl trafficking case

The U.S. Department of Justice said on Tuesday it has indicted two major Chinese drug traffickers on charges of making and selling highly addictive fentanyl to Americans over the internet. Xiaobing Yan, 40, and Jian Zhang, 38, were charged with conspiring to distribute large quantities of fentanyl and fentanyl analogues into the United States, the Justice Department said.

Trump Says He’ll Re-Examine His Choice for Drug Czar: ‘This …

President Trump, speaking at an impromptu news conference on Monday, said he plans to have "a major announcement, probably next week," on the nation's opioid drug crisis. The president also said he'll take another look at the man he's nominated to be his drug czar, now that questions have surfaced about the nominee's support for the makers and distributors of prescription pain pills.

Orrin Hatch tears into Washington Post opioids report: It’s meant to derail Trump’s drug czar nominee

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said Monday a news investigation about whether a bill he sponsored disarmed the Drug Enforcement Agency from going after drug companies was meant to smear President Trump's nominee for drug czar, who sponsored the bill on the House side. "I think we need to be candid about what's going on here," Hatch said in floor remarks.

Giving the gift of green in the ‘District of Cannabis’

11, 2017, photo, jars of marijuana buds are displayed in Washington at a closed Ethiopian restaurant at a "gifted" marijuana event. In the so-called "District of Cannabis" it's legal to grow and consume mariju... .