Category Archives: Drugs

Oregon: drug possession to be a crime again as decriminalization law expires

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First-in-nation trial comes to an end, as new law gives those caught with hard drugs option of charges or treatment

Oregon’s first-in-the-nation experiment with decriminalizing drugs will expire on Sunday as a new law taking effect will once again make it a crime to possess small amounts of hard drugs.

The new recriminalization law, HB4002, will give those caught with illicit drugs – including fentanyl, heroin and meth – the choice to either be charged with possession or treatment, which includes completing a behavioral health program and participating in a “deflection program” to avoid fines.

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Doctor charged in Matthew Perry death appears in court after reaching plea deal

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Mark Chavez, 54, to turn over medical license as lawyer says client is ‘incredibly remorseful’ for role in star’s death

One of two doctors charged in connection with Matthew Perry’s death made his first appearance in a federal court in Los Angeles on Friday after reaching a deal to plead guilty and cooperate with prosecutors.

Dr Mark Chavez, 54, of San Diego, reached a plea agreement with prosecutors earlier this month to plead guilty to conspiring to distribute the surgical anesthetic ketamine. He is the third person to plead guilty in the aftermath of the Friends star’s fatal overdose last year.

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Stray bullets and closed schools: Rio’s kids suffer as police crack down on gangs

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Thousands of schoolchildren in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas miss classes and risk violence as Brazil’s police battle drug gangs

Textbooks and marker pens are not all that science teacher Roberto Brandão, 54, takes with him each morning when he sets off for work in a school in one of Rio de Janeiro’s largest favelas. He also carries a first-aid kit in case he or any of his students is hit by a bullet.

“I always have it in my backpack because I could be shot at any time,” he said, displaying the red waterproof bag after attending a seminar on how police operations are affecting children’s learning in Maré.

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Meth worth nearly $6m found in fake watermelons at US-Mexico border

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Imitation fruits and vegetables are the latest ‘sophisticated’ tactic for Mexican cartels to smuggle drugs into the US

Everyday fruit and vegetables are some of the latest methods Mexican cartels are using to smuggle drugs into the US, recent seizures of methamphetamine suggest.

Around 2 tonnes of the powerful stimulant known colloquially as crystal meth was discovered recently in packages designed to look like bright green watermelons at the San Diego, California, port of Otay Mesa, according to US Customs and Border Patrol Protection officials.

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Matthew Perry allegedly took several doses of ketamine on day of his death

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Friends star asked his assistant to inject him with drug several times on day he died, court papers say

The Friends star Matthew Perry ordered his live-in personal assistant to give him several intravenous doses of ketamine on the day of his death last year, according to a statement by the assistant to investigators.

The actor, who was found drowned in a hot tub at his Los Angeles home last October, asked his assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, to give him a dose at 8.30am, according to court papers.

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New Zealand charity unknowingly gives out sweets with lethal levels of meth

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Up to 400 people received parcels that could contain the contaminated lolly as police open a criminal investigation

A charity working with homeless people in Auckland, New Zealand unknowingly distributed sweets filled with a potentially lethal dose of methamphetamine in its food parcels, after the items were donated by a member of the public.

Auckland City Mission told reporters on Wednesday that staff had started to contact up to 400 people to track down parcels that could contain the sweets – which were solid blocks of methamphetamine enclosed in lolly wrappers. New Zealand’s police have opened a criminal investigation.

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Cannabis could help people cut down or stop opioid use, research shows

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USC study finds cannabis can help manage withdrawal symptoms, as well as cravings and anxiety after withdrawal

New research from the University of Southern California shows that cannabis might help some people stop or cut down on their opioid use.

“We interviewed 30 people who were using opioids and cannabis and injecting drugs,” said Sid Ganesh, a PhD student at USC’s medical school and lead author of the study.

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UK shortage of drug used to prevent brain damage in alcoholics

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Experts say addiction patients are being treated as second-class citizens as ‘essential’ Pabrinex is withdrawn

Doctors have warned that a severe shortage of an “essential” medicine used to help protect alcoholics from degenerative brain conditions could disproportionately affect “some of the most vulnerable” in society.

Pabrinex, a multivitamin injection, is used to protect heavy drinkers from conditions such as Wernicke’s encephalopathy and Korsakoff syndrome, which can have symptoms similar to dementia. Doctors are concerned the incidence of these debilitating conditions may increase as a result of the shortages.

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Colombian congress debates banning souvenirs of drug lord Pablo Escobar

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Vendors selling to tourists criticize proposal, but those wanting to shed the country’s mafia boss image praise it

Souvenirs depicting the late Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar could be banned in Colombia if legislators approve a bill introduced this week in the nation’s congress. The proposal is criticized by vendors who sell his merchandise to tourists from around the world, but backed by those who believe the country should shed its image of mafia bosses.

The bill proposes fines of up to $170 for vendors who sell merchandise that depicts Escobar and other convicted criminals, and would also enable police to fine those who wear T-shirts, hats and other garments that “exalt” the infamous drug lord.

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Fifth of medicines in Africa may be sub-par or fake, research finds

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Analysis suggests extent of problem UN estimates is causing 500,000 deaths a year in sub-Saharan region

A fifth of medicines in Africa could be substandard or fake, according to a major research project, raising the alarm over a problem that could be contributing to the deaths of countless patients.

Researchers from Bahir Dar University in Ethiopia analysed 27 studies in the review and found, of the 7,508 medicine samples included, 1,639 failed at least one quality test and were confirmed to be substandard or falsified.

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Cannabis vapes in Australia containing opioids spark calls for better access to anti-overdose drugs

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Vaping synthetic opioids can cause overdose or unconsciousness within minutes and from just six puffs, Victorian medical expert says

A teenager died and a young man was left struggling to breathe after vaping synthetic opioids, as doctors warn the potentially deadly drugs are contaminating a growing range of recreational substances.

The patients overdosed after vaping THC, the psychoactive component of cannabis, mixed with protonitazene, a synthetic opioid 100 times more potent than heroin.

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Mexico president asks cartels not to fight each other after arrest of drug lords

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Andrés Manuel López Obrador makes unusual public appeal after arrest of top leaders of Sinaloa cartel

Mexico’s president has taken the unusual step of issuing a public appeal to drug cartels not to fight each other following last week’s detention of the top Mexican drug lord Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and Joaquín Guzmán López.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said at his daily press briefing that he trusted that drug traffickers knew they would only suffer if they stepped up the internal wars that already plague the Sinaloa cartel.

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Drug smugglers targeting Oslo as gateway into Europe

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Mayor of Norwegian capital, Anne Lindboe, says drugs worth up to £570m have entered through the port

The mayor of Oslo has warned that drug smugglers are increasingly targeting the Norwegian capital as a gateway to Europe as authorities tighten controls on major ports such as Antwerp.

Oslo’s mayor, Anne Lindboe, said drugs worth up to £570m have been smuggled through Norway’s largest port, which receives 50-70 ships and 243,000 containers every week.

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Mexico president calls for ‘transparency’ amid secrecy over Sinaloa cartel arrests

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US announces arrest of two leaders of organised crime group as Mexican authorities say they were in the dark

The Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has called for “transparency” after the sudden and secretive arrests by US authorities of two top leaders of the Sinaloa cartel, one of Mexico’s most powerful organised crime groups.

Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García, 76, founded the Sinaloa cartel with Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, and has been a top target of US law enforcement for decades, with a $15m bounty on his head.

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Crisis at Tres Fronteras: how criminal syndicates threaten Amazon’s future

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At the lawless triple border between Brazil, Colombia and Peru, drug trafficking, illegal logging and gangs jeopardise the ecological and social fabric of the rainforest

The area of the Amazon where Brazil, Colombia, and Peru meet – referred to as Tres Fronteras (triple frontier) – brims with wildlife and natural resources. It is also a hotbed of illicit activity. Criminal groups are clearing the forest to plant coca and erect laboratories to turn the crop into cocaine. In the process of making coca paste, these labs discharge chemical waste – including acetone, gasoline and sulphuric acid – into rivers and soil.

Increasingly, these outfits are branching into illegal logging, gold dredging and fishing, in part because these activities allow them to launder money made from drug trafficking. These activities compound the environmental harm the groups are inflicting.

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Synthetic opioid detected in bodies of four people found dead in Melbourne home

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Police confirm drug’s presence after deaths of boy, 17, and three adults in Broadmeadows last week

A synthetic opioid has been found in the bodies of four people found dead in a Melbourne home last week, police say.

The bodies of the 17-year-old boy, two men aged 32 and 37, and a 42-year-old woman were discovered at the property in Broadmeadows, in Melbourne’s north, in the early hours of 25 June.

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Florida boaters find $1m worth of cocaine in Atlantic Ocean

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Wrapped in bald eagle packaging, 21kg of cocaine was found off the Florida Keys coast

Boaters have discovered $1m worth of cocaine off the coast of the Florida Keys, authorities announced.

In a Facebook post on Sunday, the Monroe county sheriff’s department announced that recreational boaters discovered a package containing approximately 21kg (61lbs) of packaged cocaine around seven miles (11km) off Islamorada, a village of islands in the Florida Keys.

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US woman faces up to 30 years in prison over bong water: ‘It’s just so wrong’

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Minnesota police charge Jessica Beske, 43, after traces of methamphetamine found in drug paraphernalia in her car

A woman who was pulled over by Minnesota police officers faces up to 30 years in prison after a bong containing water that tested positive for methamphetamine was discovered in her car, despite Minnesota decriminalizing drug paraphernalia last year.

The case shows how some are still affected by harsher laws from the “war on drugs” era.

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Rare birds at risk as narco-gangs move into forests to evade capture – report

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Cocaine traffickers have put two-thirds of Central America’s key habitats for threatened birds under threat, study finds

Cocaine consumption is threatening rare tropical birds as narco-traffickers move into some of the planet’s most remote forests to evade drug crackdowns, a study has warned.

Two-thirds of key forest habitats for birds in Central America are at risk of being destroyed by “narco-driven” deforestation, according to the paper, published on Wednesday in the journal Nature Sustainability.

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Akira Endo, ‘remarkable’ scientist who discovered statins, dies aged 90

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Biochemist found cholesterol-lowering compound in 1973 and the drugs have prolonged millions of lives

The scientist whose work led to the creation of statins, a chemical that prevents heart attacks and strokes, has died aged 90.

Akira Endo found the first cholesterol-lowering compound in 1973 in a lab in Tokyo. The Japanese biochemist was said to have been inspired by Alexander Fleming’s discovery of penicillin in 1928, which lead him to study mould or fungi in order to develop medicines.

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