drug use

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One Woman's Controversial Mission to Help Drug Addicts

Louise Vincent focuses on 'harm reduction' approach instead of abstinence

(Newser) - One way to help addicts off of drugs is to get them to quit cold turkey, an approach favored by many US politicians as they push for legislation and tougher prison sentences to combat the emergence of such drugs as fentanyl and xylazine (aka "tranq," or "zombie...

Oregon Considers Reversing Course on Hard Drugs

Just 2 years after Measure 110 passed, officials are taking a hard look at whether it's working

(Newser) - Oregon became the first state to decriminalize all drugs , but with overdoses and public intoxication on the rise, officials are taking a hard look at whether the new law is working. The Wall Street Journal reports that Measure 110, which had 58% support in 2020, is declining in popularity after...

US Government Challenged Over Prince Harry's Visa
US Sued Over
Prince Harry's Visa

US Sued Over Prince Harry's Visa

Heritage Foundation raises questions of special treatment given his admitted drug use

(Newser) - A conservative think tank is suing the US government, saying its granting of a visa to Prince Harry reeks of special treatment. The Heritage Foundation requested the release of the Duke of Sussex's immigration records in March, arguing the granting of the visa despite the prince's admission to...

Scientists Uncover 3K-Year-Old Drug Trip
Scientists Uncover
3K-Year-Old Drug Trip
NEW STUDY

Scientists Uncover 3K-Year-Old Drug Trip

Human hair containing hallucinogens offers first direct evidence of prehistoric drug use in Europe

(Newser) - Scientists have discovered what's being touted as the first direct evidence of drug use in ancient Europe. The Bronze-Age inhabitants of what is now the Spanish island of Menorca ingested hallucinogens derived from plants, according to analysis of 3,000-year-old human hairs found in a cave that served as...

Car Crash Study Finds Drugs Are Prevalent

Over half of car crash victims had drugs in system

(Newser) - A large study by US highway safety regulators found that more than half the people injured or killed in traffic crashes had one or more drugs, or alcohol, in their bloodstreams. Also, just over 54% of injured drivers had drugs or alcohol in their systems, with THC, the active ingredient...

Pregnant Women Jailed Here for Drugs Have Only One Way Out

They're kept behind bars in Etowah County, Ala., unless they go to rehab, pay $10K

(Newser) - Multiple pregnant women or new moms are behind bars in an Alabama prison after being arrested for drug use, and they're being kept there for "weeks or months" on end under "special conditions," per AL.com . The outlet reports that the women involved, accused of exposing...

Justice Dept. Is 'Evaluating' Safe Injection Sites

Position is a big change from earlier stance

(Newser) - A year after winning a major court battle against the opening of so-called safe injection site—safe havens for people to use heroin and other narcotics with protections against fatal overdoses—the Justice Department is signaling it might be open to allowing them. In response to questions from the AP...

He Was Charged With Trying to Kill His Dad. Then, a Reckoning

Liam Ghershony, in recovery, hopes to show his father 'how much I've changed'

(Newser) - The low point for Liam Ghershony was being charged with the attempted murder of his own dad. Ghershony's mother called police in Bethesda, Md., in May 2021 to report her son had admitted to "dosing" her ex-husband five days prior. The Washington Post shares the story to "...

Guy Who Jumped From Plane Allegedly Smoked 'a Lot' of Meth
Guy Who Jumped Out of
Plane at LAX Hears His Fate
UPDATED

Guy Who Jumped Out of Plane at LAX Hears His Fate

Mexican national Luis Armando Victoria Dominguez will see 18 months behind bars in federal prison

(Newser) - Update: A Mexican national who jumped out of a plane at Los Angeles International Airport last summer has found out the consequences of his actions. KTLA reports that a judge on Wednesday sentenced Luis Armando Victoria Dominguez, 34, to 18 months in federal prison for the incident in June, in...

Deaths Spike as OD Antidote Price Soars

Expert attributes thousands of deaths to greed amid naxolone supply issues

(Newser) - The US has seen a record high in overdose deaths during the pandemic, and an addiction expert says "we can expect even more fatal overdoses" now that a medication that reverses overdoses has jumped up to 30 times in price. The Opioid Safety and Naloxone Network Buyers Club, a...

The 10 States With the Biggest Drug Problems

District of Columbia actually fares the worst on WalletHub list

(Newser) - Drug abuse has only gotten worse with the pandemic, with 87,000 overdose deaths in the 12 months ending in September—representing a 29% increase from October 2019 to September 2020, reports the New York Times . Breaking down the states most affected by drug abuse using 21 metrics—including per...

Bieber: Bodyguards Checked My Pulse While I Slept

Singer tells 'GQ' that he's been working on himself

(Newser) - Five years ago, Justin Bieber was in a bad spot. He'd spent the past several years as a rising teen superstar and had developed such a concerning drug problem that his bodyguards would check his pulse while he slept to make sure he was still alive, the Canadian singer...

Secret US Safe Injection Site Saved Dozens of Lives

Researcher say clandestine site reversed 33 overdoses

(Newser) - For years, addicts have been injecting themselves with drugs at a secret location in an undisclosed US city. Researchers say the clandestine safe injection site has saved dozens of lives and has probably prevented many HIV and hepatitis C infections. The site, based on legal ones in Europe and Canada,...

This Is the State With the Worst Drug Abuse

Missouri gets unwanted distinction in WalletHub list

(Newser) - As America remains mired in a drug crisis , the added weight of the coronavirus pandemic has only made things harder. That's per WalletHub , which looked at all 50 states and DC to see which areas are affected the most by drug abuse. It looked at nearly two dozen metrics,...

10 States With the Most Drug Abuse
10 States With the
Most Drug Abuse

10 States With the Most Drug Abuse

The epidemic continues

(Newser) - A recent sliver of hope in the US opioid crisis emerged in the form of a substantial drop in prescription opioid use in 2018. But that doesn't mean the country's drug epidemic is anywhere near over. Drug abuse continues to run rampant, and WalletHub looked at the problem...

She Was Called a Dead Reality Star. That's Not Quite Right

The 'New York Times' looks at the life of Lyric McHenry

(Newser) - Lyric McHenry was found dead hours after celebrating her 26th birthday in Manhattan, and the coverage of her death "reduced [her] to the facts as written in a hurried police report: black woman, pregnant, possible cocaine, deserted street in the Bronx," writes Zoe Greenberg for the New York ...

Opioids No Better Than Other Meds at Treating Pain
Tylenol, Advil Work
Just as Well as Opioids
NEW STUDY

Tylenol, Advil Work Just as Well as Opioids

Study finds they're not much better than over-the-counter meds for pain relief

(Newser) - Even after overdose and addiction risks became known, opioid prescriptions continued on the belief that the drugs were more effective at relieving pain than other medications. New research suggests that may not be the case. In a study in JAMA , scientists say opioids appear to be no better at treating...

10 States With the Biggest Drug Problems

DC leads pack, followed by Vermont, Colorado

(Newser) - The United States as a whole is battling an opioid epidemic, but certain states are harder hit by drugs than others. Colorado, for example, has the highest percentage of teenagers and adults who use illicit drugs, while West Virginia has the most overdose deaths per capita, reports WalletHub . The site...

Another Effect of Heroin Crisis: More Hepatitis C Infections

There were 2.4K new infection in 2015; that's probably fraction of actual number

(Newser) - The heroin epidemic is driving up hepatitis C infections, with the biggest increase in people ages 20 to 29, US health officials said Thursday. The number of new infections nearly tripled in five years, to about 2,400 in 2015, the AP reports. The virus is spread by sharing needles...

Your Fingerprint Can Reveal Drug Use

Scientists able to tell whether person has taken cocaine

(Newser) - Might the days of taking saliva or blood samples for drug tests be numbered? Scientists have figured out a way to use fingerprints instead, they report at Phys.org . Specifically, the researchers used a chemical analysis of the prints to determine whether a person had ingested cocaine. Currently, scientists are...

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