Drug Abuse and Traffic

Animal Sedative Mixed With Fentanyl Brings Fresh Horror to US Drug Zones

PHILADELPHIA — Over a matter of weeks, Tracey McCann watched in horror as the bruises she was accustomed to getting from injecting fentanyl began hardening into an armor of crusty, blackened tissue. Something must have gotten into the supply. Switching corner dealers didn’t help. People were saying that everyone’s dope was being cut with something […]

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Biden Pardons Thousands of People Convicted of Simple Marijuana Possession

Udi Ofer, a Princeton University professor and former deputy national political director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said simple possession of marijuana is a crime “almost entirely prosecuted by the states.” The federal government tends to prosecute marijuana trafficking crimes, he said. Only 92 people were sentenced on federal marijuana possession charges in 2017, […]

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The Life and Death of Daniel Auster, a Son of Literary Brooklyn

In a Brooklyn subway station one April morning, as commuters waited for a G train, a 44-year-old man named Daniel Auster was found unconscious on a platform after a drug overdose. He was brought to the Brooklyn Hospital Center, where he died six days later, after being taken off life support. A D.J. and photographer […]

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Prison Personnel Describe Horrific Conditions, and Cover-Up, at Atlanta Prison

WASHINGTON — Widespread drug abuse, substandard medical and mental health care, out-of-control violence and horrific sanitary conditions are rampant at a federal prison in Atlanta, a new congressional investigation into the federal Bureau of Prisons has found. The problems plaguing the medium-security prison, which holds around 1,400 people, are so notorious within the federal government […]

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Biden’s Drug Czar Is Leading the Charge for a ‘Harm Reduction’ Approach

MANCHESTER, N.H. — During a recent interview here, Dr. Rahul Gupta, President Biden’s drug czar, appeared to be on the verge of supporting a radical shift in U.S. drug control policy. Asked for his views on supervised consumption sites, where users bring their own drugs to take under the supervision of trained workers in case […]

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Brittney Griner Pleads Guilty to Drug Charges in Russian Court

Brittney Griner pleaded guilty to drug charges in a Russian courtroom on Thursday, as the wrangling over the American basketball star’s fate shifted increasingly to the diplomatic arena — a daunting prospect for Ms. Griner’s supporters amid America’s rift with Moscow over the war in Ukraine. Appearing before a judge outside the Russian capital on […]

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When Brazil Banned Abortion Pills, Women Turned to Drug Traffickers

Women’s reliance on the black market for access to medication abortions means they may not follow best medical practice. When C., a 24-year-old teacher in Recife, bought misoprostol from a drug dealer last year, she searched Google to figure out how to take it. “Because it was illegal, there was no information about how to […]

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Violence in Rural Mexico Ensnares Doctors, Causing Worker Shortages

“They forget about a patient’s primary right, which is to be cared for wherever they are, and it’s because of this that we needed to resort to contracting foreigners,” Dr. Jorge Alcocer Varela, Mexico’s secretary of health, told reporters at a recent news conference. The announcement about the Cuban doctors provoked outrage among many Mexican […]

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Afghanistan Tries to Stamp Out Opium Again

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — For years, opium has been the monster too big to slay. One Afghan government after another has pledged to stamp out opium production and trafficking, only to prove unable to resist billions of dollars in illicit profits. The Taliban government of the 1990s ultimately managed to reduce opium cultivation. But after the […]

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