Woman, 43, died after paramedics were called to a Surfers Paradise hotel on Friday night
A woman has died and two others have been hospitalised after suspected drug overdoses on the Gold Coast.
Queensland paramedics were called to a hotel in Surfers Paradise at 10.58pm on Friday night. Emergency responders found seven patients, three of whom were in critical condition, including a 43-year-old woman who was experiencing cardiac arrest at the scene.
Continue reading...Jamie Cassidy was sentenced to 13 years and three months for his part in an international drug operation
A former Liverpool football prodigy of “exceptional talent and promise” has been jailed for more than 13 years for his part in a multimillion-pound drugs conspiracy.
Jamie Cassidy, 46, was “drawn” into the drugs business by his brother Jonathan Cassidy, 50, who the court heard joked about having the same birthday as the Mexican drug lord Joaquín Guzmán, also known as El Chapo.
Continue reading...Europe has been ‘negligent,’ as an acceptance of cocaine and cannabis leads to corruption, violence, and misery, says Aboutaleb
The mayor of a city on the frontline of the illegal drug trade has said that a “negligent” attitude to recreational drug use, including an acceptance of cocaine as the middle-class narcotic of choice, has led to violence and corruption in Europe’s poorest neighbourhoods.
As the Netherlands digests three life sentences handed out in the criminal trial of drug baron Ridouan Taghi and his “well-oiled murder machine” gang, Ahmed Aboutaleb, mayor of Rotterdam, has demanded authorities take a tougher line on cocaine use.
Continue reading...President’s son claims use of picture shows prosecutors’ evidence against him shouldn’t be taken at face value
Lawyers for Hunter Biden have claimed that a picture government prosecutors are using to support a tax fraud case against him shows neatly arranged lines of sawdust from a carpentry shop – and not cocaine as the government contends.
Joe Biden’s son is facing tax evasion charges for failing to disclose millions in foreign income and a charge for failing to disclose he was a drug addict on gun licensing forms. He claims that use of the picture shows that prosecutors’ evidence against him should not be taken at face value.
Continue reading...‘Brilliant’ scientist Matthew Leshinsky turned himself in after calling the police to report a burglary at his lab in Suffolk county
A New York man, whose attorney said is a “brilliant” scientist who researched drug addiction “for the public good”, has pleaded guilty to running a meth lab in a case that prosecutors compare to the series Breaking Bad.
But Matthew Leshinsky’s chemistry skills took him only so far. The 23-year-old was busted for running the meth operation in Ronkonkoma, New York, after calling the police to report a burglary at his cannabis analyzing side-hustle, Quantitative Laboratories.
Continue reading...Jarrad Antonovich died after drinking plant-based psychedelic and having frog toxin extract ‘kambo’ dabbed into burns
The ceremonial leader of a spiritual retreat in northern New South Wales at which a man died after drinking ayahuasca may have told witnesses not to talk about the fatal ceremony, a coroner has heard.
The second sitting of the inquest into the death of Jarrad Antonovich – who died after drinking the plant-based psychedelic and having the frog toxin extract “kambo” dabbed into burns in his skin – held its second hearing on Friday.
Continue reading...It is the second time in less than two years the Caribbean archipelago is seeing escalating violence, attributed to warring drug gangs
The United Kingdom is sending specialist assistance to the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) following a surge in shooting deaths in the Caribbean archipelago.
Four men were found dead from gunshot wounds on the island of Providenciales on 1 and 2 February, and two more were killed during January.
Continue reading...Prior authorization requires permission to be sought before prescribing critical drugs, which could cost lives, doctors say
In the midst of the worst overdose epidemic in US history, addiction medicine specialists say a bureaucratic hurdle is adding to the difficulty of getting people in treatment: an insurance industry tactic called “prior authorization”.
Loathed by doctors of all stripes, prior authorization requires healthcare providers to seek permission from insurance companies before they prescribe a treatment. Doctors in addiction medicine said the requirement is both unnecessarily burdensome and could cost lives.
Continue reading...Bloc plans to bulk-buy key drugs for all 27 countries, potentially leaving Britain ‘behind in the queue’
The EU is to stockpile key medicines that will worsen the record drug shortages in the UK, with experts warning that the country could be left “behind in the queue”.
The EU is seeking to safeguard its supplies by switching to a system in which its 27 members work together to secure reliable supplies of 200 commonly used medications, such as antibiotics, painkillers and vaccines.
Continue reading...Non-brand-name drugs are one inexpensive part of the healthcare system but they’re driving some manufacturers out of business
Generic drugs are the singularity of American healthcare – they are too cheap. And it’s driving some manufacturers out of business altogether.
Drug prices regularly sparks recrimination and outrage on Capitol Hill, such as a recently announced investigation by Senate Democrats and Bernie Sanders into the price of albuterol inhalers.
Continue reading...As cartels and crime syndicates flock to Ecuador for cocaine trade profits, its murder rate has soared, with a TV station assault the crescendo of a week of bloodshed
Political upheaval and street protests, gun battles and floods. José Luis Calderón has seen it all during his 23 years as one of Guayaquil’s top television journalists. Never had the Ecuadorean reporter been the story himself.
That changed just after lunch last Tuesday when the 47-year-old reporter heard shouts and the sound of people running in the corridors of TC Televisión, the channel where he works. “At first … we thought it was a fight,” he remembered. But as the yelling intensified, it became clear it was not.
Continue reading...Eight people were in induced comas after the Hardmission event at Flemington on Satuday
The suspected MDMA overdoses at a Melbourne music festival that left eight young people in medically induced comas over the weekend has sparked renewed calls for nationwide pill-testing programs.
Harm reduction and social justice advocates, and the Australian Lawyers Alliance (ALA), were among those urging state governments to legalise pill-testing, saying the scale of the overdoses highlight the urgency of the issue.
This article was amended on 8 January 2024 after Ambulance Victoria clarified that eight people were in induced comas, not seven.
Continue reading...AFP unable to rule out whether users are visiting modern opium dens to buy and consume the drug
One of Australia’s emerging niche drugs in 2023 happens to be one of the country’s oldest.
About 180 years after opium was first imported into the country, the Australian federal police seized more than double the amount of the drug this year than in 2022. It is also almost six times the amount seized in 2021.
Continue reading...About 39kg of the drug was found by a fisherman on Tuesday, before a similar amount was discovered in Newcastle
A fisherman on Sydney’s northern beaches is one of several members of the public to discover packages containing 124kg of cocaine that have washed up on the New South Wales coast, sparking a police investigation.
NSW police on Wednesday confirmed its state crime command were investigating after the packages were discovered on beaches between Sydney and Newcastle from Friday. The initial barnacle-encrusted discoveries sparked a warning against removing or opening any more that were discovered.
Continue reading...Legalization advocates say reclassifying drug to schedule III from schedule I doesn’t resolve state and federal law conflicts
The US government appears poised to announce next year the most sweeping changes in decades to how it handles marijuana, the psychoactive drug dozens of states allow to be sold from storefronts, but which federal law considers among the most dangerous substances.
Evidence suggests that Joe Biden’s administration, responding to a policy the president announced last year, is working on moving marijuana to schedule III of the Controlled Substance Act (CSA), a change from its current listing on the maximally restrictive schedule I. That would lessen the tax burden on businesses selling the drug in states where it is legal, and potentially change how police agencies view enforcement of marijuana laws.
Continue reading...Home secretary said secret of a long marriage was sedating spouse on the same day a new policy on spiking was announced
James Cleverly has apologised for joking about spiking his wife’s drink with a date rape drug in comments made at a Downing Street reception.
The home secretary’s remarks came just hours after the Home Office announced plans to crack down on spiking, when someone puts drugs into another person’s drink or directly into their body without their knowledge or consent.
Continue reading...Move is latest in round of executive clemencies meant to rectify racial disparities in the justice system
Joe Biden is pardoning thousands of people who were convicted of use and simple possession of marijuana on federal lands and in the District of Columbia, the White House said Friday – his latest round of executive clemencies meant to rectify racial disparities in the justice system.
The US president is also granting clemency to 11 people serving what the White House called “disproportionately long” sentences for nonviolent drug offenses.
The Associated Press contributed reporting
Continue reading...Exclusive: ‘Significant’ number of staff sacked from digger firm after drug and alcohol tests
JCB, one of the UK’s biggest manufacturers, is investigating a spate of drug use among workers based at its headquarters and has sacked a “significant” number of staff, the Guardian can reveal.
A message sent to UK employees last week by the digger-maker’s group human resources director, Max Jeffery, seen by the Guardian, said it had been conducting a “series of investigations into substance misuse” over the past two months. This had resulted in a “small but significant number of people leaving JCB”.
Continue reading...Home Office plans wording ‘update’ but campaigners call for new offence to help address low conviction rate
The Home Office has announced plans to “modernise” spiking laws in a move it claims will help bring perpetrators to justice. But experts said the changes will not make any difference without simultaneous investment in police training and other measures to improve the handling of cases on the ground.
Under plans unveiled this weekend, the government will amend the criminal justice bill to make clear that spiking is illegal. It is also drawing up new guidance to provide an “unequivocal” definition of the crime.
Continue reading...Two officers suspected of theft have been killed, prosecutors say, along with at least three others
A recent killing spree in the Mexican border city of Tijuana could have been lifted from a TV script: enraged drug lords hunting down corrupt police officers who stole a drug shipment.
Two of the officers suspected of the theft have been killed, prosecutors say. But so have at least three other officers, according to the city’s former police chief, suggesting the cartel believed to have owned the drugs may have launched a generalized retribution.
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