drugs

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Oakland Proposes Nation's First Pot Tax

City council approves pot levy; voters to decide in July

(Newser) - Oakland’s city council has approved a provision to apply a 1.8% tax to marijuana sold at medical dispensaries. If voters endorse the measure in July, Oakland would be the first city in the US to tax pot, reports the Wall Street Journal. Backers say it would bring in...

Legal 'Party Drug' Blamed for 20 British Deaths

British government slammed for failing to ban GBL

(Newser) - The British government is facing calls to ban a substance doctors blame for at least 20 deaths, the Daily Telegraph reports. GBL—an industrial solvent banned for personal use in the US years ago—is metabolized into banned drug GBH when ingested. Doctors warn that even tiny amounts can be...

WWJD? OK Medical Pot: Pastors
WWJD? OK Medical Pot: Pastors

WWJD? OK Medical Pot: Pastors

60 Ill. clerics push lawmakers on cannabis measure

(Newser) - More than 60 Illinois religious leaders want state lawmakers to legalize medical marijuana, saying their faith compels them to show mercy, the Chicago Tribune reports. "Jesus lived his life healing those where he could and bringing those to the absence of pain," said one minister. "This...

Legalized Pot, Cocaine Work OK in Portugal

(Newser) - Portugal decriminalized drug possession 8 years ago, so it must have high abuse rates, right? Not according to a new study from the Cato Institute, Time reports. Teen drug use and HIV infection from needles have declined, and more addicts now enter treatment programs. "Judging by every metric, decriminalization...

Bad Vitamin Killed Polo Horses: Team Captain

Common drug was tainted, he claims

(Newser) - A tainted vitamin supplement killed the 21 horses that collapsed before a polo match in Florida last weekend, the captain of the Venezuelan team claims. He notes that five horses not given the drug are fine. The French drug, called Biodyl, is commonly administered in Europe but not approved for...

Case on Vaccines Far From Closed: Carrey

Scant, biased evidence not enough to rule out dangers

(Newser) - The media act as though questions about vaccines’ potential harm to children have all been answered, but that’s based on “a huge leap of logic,” Jim Carrey writes for the Huffington Post. The court convened to rule on the vaccine cases said vaccines hadn’t caused autism...

High Court Skeptical of Strip-Search Case

And sounds skeptical

(Newser) - Savana Redding’s lawyers made their case before the Supreme Court yesterday, condemning the strip-search of a 13-year-old in a hunt for ibuprofen as unreasonable search and seizure. But the justices were skeptical, the LA Times reports, with their questions indicating they were leery of limiting school officials’ powers to...

Violence Plummets as Mexican Army Polices Juárez

But human rights violations said to be rampant

(Newser) - Since Mexico’s army took over for police in the drug haven of Ciudad Juárez, killings have dropped: In 2009’s first two months, there were 434 drug-related murders. In March, 5,000 troops arrived—and murders plummeted to 51, the Washington Post reports. With 10,000 soldiers now...

Twitter: LSD for Our Time
 Twitter: LSD for Our Time 
OPINION

Twitter: LSD for Our Time

(Newser) - The parallels between Twitter and LSD are just too trippy for blogger Phil Baumann to ignore. “What was once a side project, a sort of laboratory experiment,” he writes, “has now seeped into the public domain and everyday more and more people are tripping tweeting.” Highlights...

Companies Leak Drugs Into US Drinking Water

(Newser) - Federal regulators have consistently looked away as Big Pharma and other manufacturers poured at least 271 million pounds of drugs into waterways that supply US drinking water, the AP reports. Records kept unintentionally by the FDA and EPA show that 22 compounds, some considered dangerous by scientists, have leaked into...

Obama Moves to Halt 'River' of Guns, Drugs to Mexico

Adds top cartels to 'drug kingpin' list

(Newser) - On the eve of an important meeting with Mexico’s president, President Obama yesterday imposed sanctions against the top Mexican drug cartels in a move intended to slow cross-border drugs and weapons trafficking, the Washington Post reports. After speeding up a process that normally takes a year, he added three...

Number of Blacks Jailed for Drugs Declines

But number of white inmates increases

(Newser) - A profound shift may be under way in the racial makeup of the nation's prison population, the Washington Post reports. For the first time in 20 years, the number of blacks imprisoned for drug offenses is falling sharply while the number of whites is rising, the Washington Post reports. One...

New Drug Could Halt Alzheimer's

Treatment removed damaging protein from blood, brains of patients

(Newser) - British researchers believe a new drug has the potential to stop Alzheimer's disease in its tracks, reports the BBC. Testing found that the drug, called CPHPC, removed a protein thought to play a key role in Alzheimer's from the blood and, unexpectedly, the brain, in five patients treated for 3...

Fawcett's Son Busted for Drugs

Redmond nabbed at jail checkpoint as mom is in critical condition in LA hospital

(Newser) - As actress Farrah Fawcett lay in critical condition in a Los Angeles hospital yesterday, her 24-year-old son was busted for drugs at a jail where he was visiting a friend, authorities said. It was Redmond O'Neal's second drug bust in seven months, reports Entertainment Weekly. Police didn't say what drugs...

New York to Roll Back Strict '70s Drug Laws

Gov., legislative leaders make deal to repel mandatory sentences

(Newser) - New York's governor and legislative leaders have agreed to repeal some of the nation's most draconian drug laws, the New York Times reports. The move to dismantle strict mandatory sentencing guidelines set down in 1973 means judges will have the option of sending many first-time nonviolent drug offenders to treatment...

Clinton in Mexico: US Demand Fuels Drug Wars

Envoy frank on Mexico violence, promises more American help

(Newser) - America’s “insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade,” Hillary Clinton said in Mexico today, striking an unusually blunt tone in addressing the US role in that country’s disastrous drug-related violence. “Our inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to...

White House Adds Troops to Mexico Border Drug Fight

US will beef up presence on border

(Newser) - The Obama administration says it is sending more agents and equipment to the southwestern US border to combat Mexican drug cartels. Speaking at the White House today, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said officials were still considering whether to deploy the National Guard to the border. She plans to meet...

School Strip-Search Case Heads to Supreme Court

Law is murky on the limits of privacy in school

(Newser) - In 2003, staff at an Arizona middle school strip-searched Savana Redding, then 13, after getting a tip that she had prescription-strength ibuprofen. They didn't find any, and Redding sued. Next month, the Supreme Court will hear arguments on whether the school's policy violated Redding's constitutional rights, reports the New York ...

Mexican Drug Violence Seeps Into US

Cartels' reach extends to Canada

(Newser) - Drug violence has killed more than 7,000 in Mexico since January 2008—and now it’s spreading into the US, the New York Times reports. Home-invasion investigators in Arizona have seen 200 cases since their squad formed last year, and violence has reached across the continent: there have been...

Smuggler Makes Dishes From Cocaine
Smuggler
Makes Dishes From Cocaine

Smuggler Makes Dishes From Cocaine

42-piece set includes cups, plates, saucers, and 20kg of drugs

(Newser) - Spanish police have seized a 42-piece crockery set—complete with cups, plates, bowls, you name it—that happens to be made entirely of cocaine, the Times of London reports. Police say a smuggler got nabbed trying to sneak the bogus dishware from Venezuela to Catalonia, by way of London. It's...

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