Mexican drug cartels have burrowed dozens of tunnels in the past decade, outfitted them with rail and cart systems to whisk drugs under the U.S. border and, after being discovered by authorities, abandoned them. At least six previously discovered border tunnels have been reactivated by Mexican trafficking groups in recent years, exposing a recurring large-scale smuggling threat, according to U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials.
Category: Drugs
Guilford Mom Shines Spotlight On Opioid Epidemic
Sue Kruczek didn’t know that when she began talking a year ago about how her son died of a drug overdose at the age of 20 that she would become one of the go to spokespeople on the opioid epidemic plaguing the state of Connecticut. She was at the side of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy last May when he signed landmark legislation placing a 7-day cap on opioid prescription, a law sponsored by Guilford State Rep. Sean Scanlon, another politician that Kruczek has spent much of the past year with at events concerning the opioid crisis.
Sessions suggests Trump admin could stamp out legal pot
Sen. Jeff Sessions indicated at his confirmation hearing Tuesday that as attorney general, he might break the federal government’s truce with states on marijuana. During President Barack Obama’s administration, states have been allowed to “experiment” with legalizing pot, and the Justice Department, under Attorneys General Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch, has allowed many legal operations to continue without laying down the full weight of federal law against them.
US Sen. Warren seeks to pull pot shops out of banking limbo
As marijuana shops sprout in states that have legalized the drug, they face a critical stumbling block – lack of access to the kind of routine banking services other businesses take for granted. U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, is leading an effort to make sure vendors working with legal marijuana businesses, from chemists who test marijuana for harmful substances to firms that provide security, don’t have their banking services taken away.
Rising Prescription Opioid Deaths Spark Reform In New Hampshire
Regulations to combat opioid overdoses, which are ravaging communities throughout New Hampshire, went into effect Sunday, enforcing stricter rules on doctors when prescribing prescription painkillers. Doctors in the state are now required to conduct a comprehensive patient-risk evaluation to determine the possible effects a pill may have on a patient.
Mexico eyes border, migration as leverage in talks with Trump
Mexico aims to defend free trade with the United States by using border security and immigration policy to gain leverage in talks with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump after he takes office next month, senior officials say. To defuse Trump’s threats to disrupt trade and investment, policymakers say Mexico aims to strike a balance between hearing out his concerns over illegal immigration and U.S. jobs, and adopting a firm posture to protect its own economic interests.
The Year’s Best Drug Scares
Marijuana was on the ballot in six states this year, and prohibitionists hauled out some familiar, even quaint, arguments against legalization. Three of those warnings made my list of the year’s most memorable drug scares, which is rounded out by the panic over adolescent vaping and the DEA’s decision to treat kratom as a public menace.
Top story of 2016 in Maine: Legalized marijuana
In this Dec. 19, 2016 file photo, Lorry Fleming, center, of Bath, Maine, a supporter of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, shouts at Donald Trump supporter Tom Thompson, left, of Topsham, Maine, outside the State House in Augusta, Maine, where the electoral college was meeting to elect the president. The split of Maine’s presidential electoral votes for the first time was among the state’s top stories in 2016.
Top story of 2016 in Maine: Legalized marijuana
In this Dec. 19, 2016 file photo, Lorry Fleming, center, of Bath, Maine, a supporter of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, shouts at Donald Trump supporter Tom Thompson, left, of Topsham, Maine, outside the State House in Augusta, Maine, where the electoral college was meeting to elect the president. The split of Maine’s presidential electoral votes for the first time was among the state’s top stories in 2016.
Villanova still No. 1 in AP Top 25 men’s hoops; UCLA at 2
The Latest on the Electoral College meeting Monday to formally elect Donald Trump the nation’s 45th president : The Latest on the Electoral College meeting Monday to formally elect Donald Trump the nation’s 45th president : U.S. women are increasingly using pot during pregnancy, sometimes for morning sickness. That’s according to an analysis of annual U.S. government drug surveys.
Drug overdose deaths increased significantly in past 5 years
Drug overdose deaths have increased by 33 per cent in the past five years across the country, with some states seeing jumps of nearly 200 per cent. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 30 states saw increases in overdose deaths resulting from the abuse of heroin and prescription painkillers, a class of drugs known as opioids.