Free Republic

Are Hong Kong's liberties gradually being taken away? THROW a frog into boiling water and it jumps out; gently bring it to the boil, and the frog, never noticing the incremental increases in heat, allows itself to be cooked. Is Hong Kong a frog in a pot in Beijing's kitchen? If so, then on September 24th the temperature rose another notch. On that day, Hong Kong's government formally began—by circulating a consultation paper—the process of enacting a controversial set of laws against subversion, sedition, treason and other ills, as required by Article 23 of the Basic Law, the territory's constitution....

Fatal fentanyl overdoses among teenagers are on the rise across the country as Center for Disease Control and Prevention numbers show deaths annually have topped 100,000.

On January 3, 2020, near Baghdad's airport, a U.S. air raid targeted Qasem Soleimani, commander of Quds Force, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (“IRGC’s”) terrorist arm. He was killed instantly. To understand how important this is, one needs to understand who Qasem Soleimani (1957-2020) was. Soleimani, a one-time construction worker and weightlifter, joined the IRGC after the 1979 revolution and soon headed one of the IRGC’s main cadres. Khomeini assigned Soleimani to suppress a Kurdish movement in Mahabad, Western Azerbaijan. Soleimani's brutality earned him command over a Quds Guard Corps unit in Kerman. The Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) gave Soleimani opportunities...

Despite the U.S. declaring an “Open Door Policy” in support of China’s sovereignty, U.S. Marines on May 31, 1900 invaded China to help defeat the Boxer Rebellion. With imperial Great Britain, Germany, Austria-Hungary, France, Japan, and Russia trying to carve China into colonies, Secretary of State John Hay in the fall of 1899 declared the United States would honor an “Open Door Policy” that respected Chinese territorial and administrative integrity and allowed equal trading privileges for all nations. Nineteenth-century imperialists had forced China’s ruling Qing Dynasty to accept foreign dominance over much of China’s economic affairs. Two Opium Wars with...

Gets paid to hook them, then paid again to UNhook them..?! Richard Sackler, whose family owns Purdue Pharma, the company behind the notorious painkiller OxyContin, was granted a patent earlier this year for a reformulation of a drug used to wean addicts off opioids. The invention is a novel form of buprenorphine, a mild opiate that controls drug cravings, which is often given as a substitute to people hooked on heroin or opioid painkillers such as OxyContin. (more at link)

Researchers at the University of York and the British Museum have discovered traces of opiates preserved inside a distinctive vessel dating back to the Late Bronze Age. Vessels of this type, known as 'base-ring juglets', have long been thought to have links with opium use because when inverted they resemble the seed head of the opium poppy; they are known to have been widely traded in the eastern Mediterranean ca. 1650 - 1350BC. Researchers used a range of analytical techniques to study a particular juglet housed in the British Museum, which is a sealed vessel, allowing the contents inside to...

Jointly published by the United States Committee for a Free Lebanon and the Middle East Forum   Vol. 2   No. 6 Table of ContentsMEIB Main Page 1 July 2000  Lockerbie Trial Document: Susan Lindauer Deposition4 December 1998 Last month, MEIB reported that Dr. Richard Fuisz, a major CIA operative in Syria during the 1980s, met with a congressional staffer by the name of Susan Lindauer in 1994 and told her that that the perpetrators of the December 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland were based in Syria [see "The Lockerbie Bombing Trial: Is Libya Being...

The maker of the powerful painkiller OxyContin said it will stop marketing opioid drugs to doctors, bowing to a key demand of lawsuits that blame the company for helping trigger the current drug abuse epidemic. Purdue's statement said it eliminated more than half its sales staff this week and will no longer send sales representatives to doctors' offices to discuss opioid drugs. Its remaining sales staff of about 200 will focus on other medications. The company announced its surprise reversal on Saturday. OxyContin has long been the world's top-selling opioid painkiller, bringing in billions in sales for privately-held Purdue, which...

This is the third of a three-part series on the most serious crisis America confronts. Part one and part two defined the problem. Today we address how to handle the problem and face it head on. Gary Mendell of Shatterproof focuses totally on solving this epidemic. He realizes he cannot have a 100% success rate, but he believes we can reduce this crisis facing our country by half in a few short years with very little additional funding as he outlined to the Presidential Commission headed by Governor Christie.One means is obviously to cut down the quantity of opioids that...

"These five guys are not a threat to the United States," says Clinton. "They are a threat to the safety and security of Afghanistan and Pakistan. It's up to those two countries to make the decision once and for all that these are threats to them. So I think we may be kind of missing the bigger picture here. We want to get an American home, whether they fell off the ship because they were drunk or they were pushed or they jumped, we try to rescue everybody." Last week President Obama traded the Taliban 5, who were being...

I remember a LOT of discussion during the '80s and '90s about what was going to happen in the future to the kids whose parents were feeding them mood-altering drugs like Ritalin to calm the little hellions down. Are we seeing the results right now?

Researchers from the University of Texas have discovered what they say is a powerful painkiller that acts on a previously unknown pain pathway. The synthetic compound, known as UKH-1114, effectively relieves neuropathic pain in injured mice, but it works at a much lower dose, with a longer duration of action. If the researchers can demonstrate that the drug is safe, effective and nonaddictive in humans – a process that can take years – the discovery could address one of today’s biggest public health challenges: the opioid crisis. Opioids are addictive and users quickly develop a tolerance for the drugs, requiring...

Waiting staff in the US rely heavily on their tips to make up for their low wages, but one server in Rockford, Illinois, was surprised to find the reason for the lack of a gratuity written on a receipt. "Can't tip someone who doesn't love Jesus! Bad tatoo [sic]" wrote the customer, instead of a tip, for Samantha Heaton, who bears rainbow-coloured equality bars on her arm, and has been serving at Buffalo Wild Wings for a year. "It was shocking. I couldn't help but feel hurt," Samantha told the BBC. "I would've openly discussed my tattoo with them, had...

Many critical issues tied to fundamental bureaucratic reform and redirection of federal policies await the Trump/Pence cabinet. But one cabinet pick, often forgotten and vital to redirecting national policy at a time of crisis, is the so-called “Drug Czar.” Formally, this post is known as the White House Director of the Office of National Drug Control (ONDCP). This position has never been more important, nor has any president been better positioned to shape the future with such an appointment. Opiate addiction has skyrocketed, leading to a breathtaking loss of 47,055 lives last year. Deaths by synthetic drugs quintupled in some...

Deaths in the U.S. due to prescription drug overdose are reaching crisis proportions. The increase in the death rate due to all prescription drugs has been primarily due to the increase in prescription opioid pain medications. State governments are looking for a solution to the problem. Historically, it has been very easy for people to obtain opioid prescriptions from multiple doctors; therefore, an obvious solution is to monitor who is receiving all opioid prescriptions. States enacted Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMP) which record who is filling opioid prescription medications at every pharmacy in the state. The information goes into a...

For the last five years, I have been taking part in a terrible battle. I have been on the front lines of a war that I did not sign up for. I was drafted against my own will to fight. Or, so I thought. Five years ago somebody wreaked havoc on the life of my Mother. Somebody who was suppose to take care of her and protect her. This someone was a doctor. She approached this doctor seeking help for serious back pain that was keeping her from doing her job. He was an ally and someone she thought that...

law-enforcement official tells The Associated Press that tests show Prince died of an opioid overdose.

For years you've been telling your friends, family, co-workers and anyone who will listen that you're addicted to cheese. It's a part of every meal or snack, and you think about it constantly. According to a new study from the University of Michigan, cheese crack is a real thing. And so is your addiction. The study, published in the U.S. National Library of Medicine, examines why certain foods are more addictive than others. Researchers identified addictive foods from about 500 students who completed the Yale Food Addiction Scale, designed to measure if someone has a food addiction. Pizza, unsurprisingly, came...

Pennsylvania is near the top of the national statistics for drug overdose deaths, but neighboring states West Virginia and Ohio are being hit even worse, according to a report released last week. Use of prescription drugs and heroin is fueling the problem, and the number of deaths from drug overdoses now surpasses car accident-related deaths in Pennsylvania and 35 other states. The report, published by the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, breaks down all injury-related deaths by state. Pennsylvania fell in the middle of the pack for all injury-related deaths, coming in at No. 23,...

Doctors at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs medical center in Tomah hand out so many narcotic painkillers that some veterans have taken to calling the place "Candy Land." They call the hospital's chief of staff, psychiatrist David Houlihan, the "Candy Man." Current and former hospital staff members describe patients who show up to appointments stoned on painkillers and muscle relaxants, doze off and drool during therapy sessions, and burn themselves with cigarettes. They told The Center for Investigative Reporting that Houlihan himself "doped up" or "zombified" their patients and that workers who raised questions have been punished. Data obtained...