Author: Patrick Maravelias
[ad_1] The Department of Justice has rescinded a DEA decision to fire a special agent who was let go due to a positive reading for CBD on a drug test. DEA special agent Anthony L. Armour will be re-hired as a special agent and be reimbursed for back pay and legal expenses after a years-long court battle that stretches back to 2019 when a routine drug test showed he had been using CBD, which Armour maintained in court was for the purpose of treating chronic pain in lieu of highly-addictive opioid based painkillers. “I’m excited to be getting back to…
[ad_1] The Mayor of Amsterdam wants to legalize and regulate the sale, possession and use of cocaine. In an interview with Dutch newspaper Financieele Dagblad, Mayor Femke Halsema very strongly voiced her opinion on drug prohibition and how the decriminalization and legal sale of drugs like cocaine would take power away from organized crime groups who threaten the safety and stability of Amsterdam. “We have handed the market to unscrupulous criminals. They earn billions. And in the meantime, the war on drugs is disrupting entire countries, causing countless victims and strengthening the criminal business model,” Mayor Halsema said. Indeed Dutch…
[ad_1] A lengthy new report from the Department of Defense found that during Trump’s administration, the White House Medical Unit was mishandling dangerous prescription drugs. The 80-page document released on January 8 detailed inappropriate mishandling of pharmaceuticals and their respective prescribing practices. The investigation into this matter began in 2018 after the Inspector General of the Department of Defense received complaints which included shoddy record keeping, overuse of brand name medications instead of cheaper generic alternatives, mishandling of medications such as one person picking up a prescription for another and so on. “Without oversight from qualified pharmacy staff, the White…
[ad_1] The Delaware state House legislature passed a bill on Tuesday that would allow people to have their bodies composted rather than buried or cremated. According to the Associated Press, the practice known as “natural organic reduction” was passed by a vote of 37-2 and now goes to Governor John Carney’s desk for ultimate authorization or denial. This bill would not allow people to just toss their dead relatives on their backyard compost pile willy-nilly. The process would still have to be undertaken by licensed morticians and otherwise approved handlers of dead people so as not to create a very…
[ad_1] A multi-million dollar cocaine smuggling attempt was thwarted last month when Chinese customs officials discovered the cocaine had been converted into liquid form and disguised as white wine. According to the South China Morning Post, two men local to Hong Kong were arrested in connection with a shipping container sent from Brazil to Hong Kong which was carrying 706 bottles of red wine, white wine and juice. The container was flagged for inspection at the Kwai Chung Customhouse Cargo Examination Compound due to Brazil’s status as a high-risk trafficking area based on the frequency of past narcotics seizures. Assistant…
[ad_1] Thousands of arrests of drug users and drug dealers have been reported in Sri Lanka in less than two months. According to reporting by the Associated Press, Sri Lankan authorities have initiated a crackdown operation on the drug trade in a country known widely for its role as an international narcotics trafficking hub. This crackdown, known as “Operation Yukthiya” which means justice, has been responsible for over 40,000 arrests since December of 2023. This is according to acting police chief Deshabandu Tennakoon, who also told the Associated Press that 65% of the drug trade in the entire country of…
[ad_1] Images taken using radar technology of an area near the equator of Mars have revealed what appears to be massive deposits of ice buried underneath the surface of the Red Planet. According to a press release from the European Space Agency, if the radar images do turn out to be water ice, it would be enough to cover the entire planet in a shallow ocean of water anywhere from 1.5 meters to 2.7 meters deep. This could potentially prove an extremely useful discovery for future human exploration and potential occupation of Mars. The European Space Agency’s Mars Express Orbiter…
[ad_1] Online retailer eBay will incur a multi-million-dollar court-ordered payout to avoid further criminal prosecution after eBay employees terrorized a Massachusetts couple who published a critical newsletter of the company. A court ruling handed down Thursday reported on by the Associated Press showed that eBay will pay $3 million dollars after employees in 2019 reportedly resorted to stalking and harassment of David and Ina Steiner who produced an online newsletter called ECommerceBytes. An eBay executive at the time described Ina Steiner and her reporting as a “biased troll who needs to get BURNED DOWN.” “EBay engaged in absolutely horrific, criminal conduct.…
[ad_1] As per a new law, the Department of Defense will begin tracking overdoses within the United States military in 2024 and begin to provide naloxone to service members beginning in 2025. Military overdose deaths have historically not been systematically tracked until the release of a report by Rolling Stone in 2022 detailing the steep rise in overdose deaths at Fort Bragg, which has since been renamed to Fort Liberty. The report detailed the shocking increase in deaths from fentanyl, counterfeit prescription pills laced with fentanyl and deaths in otherwise healthy young men from causes typically sustained from long-term drug…
[ad_1] Two American companies will attempt to land on the moon for the first time since the Apollo missions, and the first attempt launched early Monday morning. Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic Technology launched their lunar lander Monday morning and Houston-based Intuitive Machines launches in mid-February in tandem with a SpaceX flight, though both companies are aiming to land on the moon around the same time. Whichever company, if either, manages to safely land on the moon first will become the first private company in history to do so. “They’re scouts going to the moon ahead of us,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson…
[ad_1] A BBC investigation revealed a plethora of online pharmacies in the U.K. appear to be selling medication without doctor approval. The BBC said they bought over 1,600 prescription-only pills from 20 online pharmacies without general practitioner approval or any scrutiny other than an online questionnaire. The names of the pharmacies were withheld for obvious reasons, but they managed to purchase anti-anxiety medications, painkillers and sleeping pills as easily as one might purchase a sandwich at Subway. This problem has been increasing in frequency for years but especially since certain restrictions for online prescribing were eased during the COVID-19 pandemic.…
[ad_1] Nine convicted drug traffickers have been recently hanged in Iran, according to several middle eastern news sources all citing the Islamic Republic News Agency. Details on the matter were sparse, but it appeared that three drug traffickers were hanged at a prison in the northwest Iranian province of Ardabil on charges of buying and transporting heroin and opium. Iran is located more or less dead center on a major opium smuggling route between Afghanistan and Europe which has led to sky-high rates of opiate addiction in the area. The other six convicted traffickers were executed separately for trafficking charges…