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Drugs

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

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

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?

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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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