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Geneva (AFP) - Alcohol kills three million people worldwide each year -- more than AIDS, violence and road accidents combined, the World Health Organization said Friday, adding that men are particularly at risk. The UN health agency's latest report on alcohol and health pointed out that alcohol causes more than one in 20 deaths globally each year, including drink driving, alcohol-induced violence and abuse and a multitude of diseases and disorders. Men account for more than three quarters of alcohol-related deaths, the nearly 500-page report found. "Far too many people, their families and communities suffer the consequences of the harmful...

NY SLIMES actually has a good article on the Fake Opioid Crisis. See the link.

DALLAS - Following the shooting death of Botham Jean by the hands of Dallas Police Officer Amber Guyger, multiple search warrants were executed at Jean’s apartment as part of the investigation. One of the warrants became a public record Thursday afternoon when it was returned to the judge who signed it. It was shortly after Jean’s funeral had ended. It listed several items found in Jean's apartment, including a small amount of marijuana.

A Missouri woman has been charged with stealing her terminally ill daughter’s pain medications. Medical staff found bed sores on the daughter and began suspecting the daughter wasn’t being given the prescribed doses of fentanyl and oxycodone, so they tested her urine. Police say it showed no signs of the medications..... … Bond is set at $100,000. No attorney is listed for Ballweg in online court records.

HAWTHORNE, Nev. (News 4 & Fox 11) — The family of a 27-year-old woman who died in a jail cell in Mineral County has filed a lawsuit arguing deputies left her to die after ignoring her serious medical needs. Kelly Coltrain was jailed in July of 2017 for unpaid traffic tickets after she was pulled over for speeding.

Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk has smoked marijuana live on the web during a podcast with comedian Joe Rogan. Mr Rogan offered his guest the drug, which is legal in California, as the pair discussed tech innovation and the public's perception of Mr Musk. "I mean, it's legal, right?" asked the Tesla founder, before taking a drag on the joint. Last month, Mr Musk said he was not "on weed" when he tweeted about plans to make Tesla a private firm. The business leader made the comments in an interview with the New York Times. He also told the newspaper he...

Ever since Donald Trump's improbable political rise, many have attributed his appeal among the white, male voter base to economic anxiety. Faced with unemployment and wage stagnation, these voters elected a president who promised to fight for jobs. A study published on Wednesday in the Journal of General Internal Medicine offers an additional explanation: declining health and rising death rates in rural Republican bastions helped tilt the presidential election toward Trump. "Changes in life expectancy were an independent factor in voting choices. Reduced health prospects are an important marker of dissatisfaction, discouragement, hopelessness, and fear — sentiments that may have...

Texas Representative Beto O’Rourke, who is seeking to unseat Incumbent Senator Ted Cruz, has been linked to a family that has had skirmishes with law enforcement, as well as the federal government over the past few decades, as well as covering potential ties to aiding drug cartels in El Paso since the 1980s, evidence shows. O’Rourke, who is playing up a “family man” and “good boy” picture, is quickly trying to scrub or censor any mention of his family’s wrongdoings, as well as his ethical violations from public view on social media. The criminal-like behavior and history dates back to...

In the fourth season of Showtime’s Weeds, drug smugglers use a tunnel connecting border towns in California and Mexico, with the American side of the tunnel opening up under a maternity shop. Yet when a drug-smuggling tunnel was found, last month, connecting a defunct Arizona KFC to a home in Mexico, all the references seemed to be to AMC’s Breaking Bad. I guess what stuck out in most people’s minds was the chicken. KFC is a fast-food chicken joint. And, in Breaking Bad, the show’s fictional crystal meth operation was run under umbrella of Los Pollos Hermanos, a southwest fast-food...

Former Beatle Paul McCartney has told a British newspaper he believes he once saw God during a psychedelic trip. The 76-year-old star told The Sunday Times he was “humbled” by the experience. He said that “it was huge. A massive wall that I couldn’t see the top of, and I was at the bottom. And anybody else would say it’s just the drug, the hallucination, but we felt we had seen a higher thing.” …

A Florida couple was arrested last week after they were caught allegedly selling drugs out of a drive-thru window they constructed out of the side of their mobile home. William Parrish Jr. and McKenzee Dobbs of Ocala, Florida, were arrested on Aug. 23 after investigators raided their mobile home following reports of four drug overdoses in the area, WFTV reported. Ocala Police said the couple had turned a kitchen window into a drive-thru so customers would not have to constantly enter and exit their home, potentially drawing unwanted attention, WFTV reported. The house had signs directing people where to drive...

According to an affidavit, Jones told investigators that about 3 a.m. April 2, she heard R.J. crying. He had been primarily breastfed, Jones said, but she had recently started using formula because she worried that he wasn't getting enough milk and wasn't sleeping. She was too tired to make a bottle of formula, according to the affidavit, so she decided to nurse him. She then dozed on and off for a few more hours. Before her husband, Vincent McGovern, left for the day, he made R.J. a bottle and left it with Jones. She remembers feeding R.J., putting him back...

OWENS CROSS ROADS, ALA. — An Alabama 13-year-old found dead in a wooded area last month was beheaded after she saw two men stab her grandmother to death, an investigator testified Thursday.

Tens of thousands have gathered for the deranged nine-day festival of excess, which is unique among others in frowning at any hint of commercialism. Incredible photos show attendees donning outrageous Mad Max-style outfits, or even forgoing clothes at all, under the relentless sun. Some are seen traveling around the temporary city in post-apocalyptic "art cars" and bicycles. And the ritualistic burning of a giant human-shaped effigy is seen sending smoke and flames billowing into the empty skyline.

A tunnel that stretches from a former Kentucky Fried Chicken in Arizona all the way to a home in Mexico was discovered last week by investigators, who believe the secret passageway was used for drug smuggling, KSWT reports. Homeland Security Investigations said the tunnel was discovered on August 13, after the owner of the former KFC, Ivan Lopez, was pulled over by the San Luis Police Department. A canine unit alerted officers to two toolboxes in Lopez' truck. Inside the boxes, authorities say they found 118 kilograms of methamphetamine, six grams of cocaine, three kilograms of fentanyl, 13 kilograms of...

On August 16, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave the green light to Teva Pharmaceuticals USA ($NYSE:TEVA) to produce the first generic version of EpiPen, the portable epinephrine (adrenaline) device carried by millions for severe allergic episodes. It will also produce a generic version of EpiPen Jr. which is used on children who weigh 33 to 66 lbs. The announcement comes while there is a nationwide shortage of EpiPens — right when schools are getting back in session — to which the FDA also announced an extension on expiration dates for certain lots of the drug. Currently, those who...

Nov. 17 Northampton, Penn. Pennsylvannia State Troopers pull over an urban suspect for suspicion of DUI, get into a massive brawl. Apparently the man is a paranoid schizophrenic. The perp seems to take over A FULL MINUTE of non-stop tasering, impeded from fighting only at first. Both cops seem to perform a full mag dump on the guy. HE DRIVES AWAY...! (full video of the brawl and gunfight at above source link) ...???

In a scene that could be straight out of hit television series “Breaking Bad,” Mexican marines found a huge underground methamphetamine lab on Friday, according to Reuters. The lab was found in the mountains outside the capital of Sinaloa state. If the Sinaloa drug cartel rings a bell, that’s because it was infamously run by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman for years. Guzman is currently facing trial in the United States. What makes the discovery both remarkable and terrifying is the fact that Mexican officials found 50 tons of meth in the lab. The drugs were reportedly incinerated on site, due...

To solve a problem, one must first diagnose its cause. This rings true in all walks of life. Yet this fundamental principle seems to be ignored when the problems of inner-city crime and poverty are considered. For decades, urban areas have been rife with pain and suffering due to violence. Chicago, Illinois is a prime example of this modern American tragedy. The city’s murder rate is among the highest in the nation. Shootings, drug-dealing, car-jacking, gang activity, and other categories of crime are at epidemic levels. Almost the entire conversation about criminal activity and violence in the city, as well...

When even Rolling Stone thinks you are doing too many drugs that means you are probably named Tom Arnold. When not noting Arnold's drug intake, Rolling Stone writer Brian Hiatt in his August 12 profile expressed skepticism of his credibility, especially in regards to the Trump tapes that he is supposedly hunting down but which never seem to materialize.  Hiatt cast aspersions upon Arnold's confused veracity right from the first paragraph of "Who’s Afraid of Tom Arnold?"