Drugs

A Nation Of The Walking Dead

April 6, 2017 Chris Hedges, www.truthdig.com Educate! Drugs, Opioids

By Chris Hedges for Truth Dig - Opioids and experiences that simulate the deadening effects of narcotics are mechanisms to keep us submissive and depoliticized. Desperate citizens in Aldous Huxley’s 1932 novel “Brave New World” ingested the pleasure drug soma to check out of reality. Our own versions of soma allow tens of millions of Americans to retreat daily into addictive mousetraps that generate a self-induced autism. The United States consumes 80 percent of opioids used worldwide, and more than 33,000 died in this country in 2015 from opioid overdoses. There are 300 million prescriptions written and $24 billion spent annually in the U.S. for painkillers. Americans supplement this mostly legal addiction with over $100 billion a year in illicit marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin.

Going After The Pain Profiteers

March 7, 2017 Sarah Anderson, www.inequality.org Resist! Drugs, Profit

By Sarah Anderson for Inequality.org - A labor leader whose son was a victim of the opioid epidemic has inspired a campaign to crack down on irresponsible drug industry CEOs. Travis Bornstein never told his friends about his son Tyler’s drug problem. He was too embarrassed. Then, on September 28, 2014, Tyler’s body was found in a vacant lot in Akron, Ohio. The 23-year-old had become addicted to opioid pain killers after several sports-related injuries and surgeries. Unable to afford long-term treatment, he ultimately turned to a cheaper drug — the heroin that killed him. “Now I have no choice but to speak out,” the elder Bornstein, president of Teamsters Local 24 in Akron...

Drug Firms Poured 780M Painkillers Into WV Amid Rise Of Overdoses

December 21, 2016 Eric Eyre, www.wvgazettemail.com Resist! Big Pharma, Drug use, Drugs

By Eric Eyre for Charleston Gazette-Mail - The trail of painkillers leads to West Virginia's southern coalfields, to places like Kermit, population 392. There, out-of-state drug companies shipped nearly 9 million highly addictive — and potentially lethal — hydrocodone pills over two years to a single pharmacy in the Mingo County town. Rural and poor, Mingo County has the fourth-highest prescription opioid death rate of any county in the United States. The trail also weaves through Wyoming County, where shipments of OxyContin have doubled, and the county's overdose death rate leads the nation. One mom-and-pop pharmacy in Oceana received 600 times as many oxycodone pills as the Rite Aid drugstore just eight blocks away.

How We Can Do Something Useful About Opiate Overdose Epidemic

December 15, 2016 Amanda Bent, www.alternet.org Create! Drugs, health

By Amanda Bent for AlterNet - On August 31, 2016 advocates around the world commemorated International Overdose Awareness Day. We do so each year, first and foremost, to honor the memories of those tragically lost to overdose, but also to build solidarity around preventing future tragedies. I spent part of my day strategically engaging with folks passing through a busy local intersection in my city. By holding up signs and passing out informational flyers, we drew attention to the alarming fact that overdose is the leading cause of accidental death locally and nationally, surpassing even car accidents. The brief but frank conversations I had with community members all centered on a very pressing and pointed question

Is There Are Drug/Alcohol Problem At Cove Point Gas Terminal?

October 27, 2016 Mark Hand, www.dcmediagroup.us Educate! Drugs, Export Terminals, Gas export

By Mark Hand for DC Media Group - Local police conducted a sobriety checkpoint in southern Calvert County, Md., to ensure construction workers at the Cove Point liquefied natural gas (LNG) export project, owned by Dominion Resources Inc., were not drunk or using drugs as they headed to work. The early morning checkpoint occurred on the same day that Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) employees traveled to Calvert County for a routine inspection of the Cove Point construction project.

Death Penalty for Heroin Dealers?

October 14, 2016 Maya Schenwar, www.truth-out.org Educate! Death Penalty, Drugs, Heroin, War On Drugs

By Maya Schenwar for Truth Out - April, former Attorney General Eric Holder told Frontline that the drug war "is over." Over the last part of his final term, President Obama has echoed that refrain, granting clemency to hundreds of people incarcerated for drug offenses and emphasizing that the US has relied too much on the criminal punishment system to address drug-related problems.

Disturbing Report Makes Compelling Case For Decriminalizing Drug Possession

October 13, 2016 Ryan J. Reilly and Nick Wing, www.huffingtonpost.com Educate! Decriminalization, Drugs, Marijuana

By Ryan J. Reilly and Nick Wing for The Huffington Post - WASHINGTON ― Criminalizing the personal use and possession of drugs results in “devastating harm,” and states and the federal government need to decriminalize such low-level offenses, according to a new report released Wednesday by Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union. Police are making more arrests for drug possession than any other crime, the report said. With more than 1.25 million such arrests each year, someone gets busted for drug possession in the U.S. every 25 seconds.

Public Outcry Forces DEA To Withdraw Ban On Kratom

October 13, 2016 Christopher Ingraham, www.washingtonpost.com Resist! Ban, DEA, Drugs

By Christopher Ingraham for The Washington Post - The Drug Enforcement Administration is reversing a widely criticized decision that would have banned the use of kratom, a plant that researchers say could help mitigate the effects of the opioid epidemic. Citing the public outcry and a need to obtain more research, the DEA is withdrawing its notice of intent to ban the drug, according to a preliminary document that will be posted to the Federal Register Thursday.

DEA Wants To Ban A Popular Plant-Based Treatment For Addiction

September 7, 2016 Kit O'Connell, www.mintpressnews.com Educate! DEA, Drugs

By Kit O'Connell for Mint Press News - AUSTIN, Texas — The Drug Enforcement Administration appears set to schedule kratom, a plant used in traditional medicine in Southeast Asia that has gained popularity in the United States as a chronic pain management tool and a way to kick opiate addiction. On Aug. 31, the DEA announced the impending kratom ban, due to take effect on Sept. 30. At that time, kratom will join other “Schedule I” substances like heroin, cocaine and cannabis which the government deems both dangerous and lacking in medical use.

Drugs And Privilege: Big Business, Congress And The EpiPen

September 2, 2016 Michael Winship, www.billmoyers.com Educate! Congress, Drugs

By Michael Winship for Bill Moyers Company - This new price gouge is the latest example of a corrupt system that hurts regular Americans — but we will hold accountable those who are responsible. Cash and carry has become nothing more than standard operating procedure in politics and government, and it’s wrecking the republic. The whole system is rotten to the core, corrupted by big business and special interests from the seventh son to the seventh son.

Study Finds Drop In Prescription Drugs In Medical Marijuana States

July 27, 2016 Nina Golgowski, www.huffingtonpost.com Create! Drugs, Marijuana

By Nina Golgowski for The Huffington Post - States looking for a way to reduce Medicare spending and prescription drug use may want to turn to legalizing medical marijuana, a new study suggests. The District of Columbia and the 17 states that had medical marijuana as an alternative to prescription drugs in 2013 saved an estimated total of $165.2 million in Medicare program and enrollee spending that year, researchers at the University of Georgia reported in the journal Health Affairs this month.

Corporations Killed Medicine. Here’s How To Take It Back.

February 17, 2016 Fran Quigley, www.fpif.org Create! Drugs, Finance, health, Labor, Trade

By Fran Quigley for Foreign Policy In Focus and The Nation - Along the path toward the creation of a global capitalist system, some of the most significant steps were taken by the English enclosure movement. Between the 15th to 19th centuries, the rich and the powerful fenced off commonly held land and transformed it into private property. Land switched from a source of subsistence to a source of profit, and small farmers were relegated to wage laborers. In Das Kapital, Marx described the process by coining the term land-grabbing.

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