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As news of Bourdain’s apparent suicide at 61 sent shockwaves across the Internet on Friday morning, many reflected on his early years — a time when Bourdain didn’t know if he was going to be a chef, let alone a household name, author, and culinary inspiration — and his close ties to Massachusetts. He left Cape Cod with restaurant experience and a suntan, and then headed off to culinary school and later, New York. But he also left with something else: An “ever-deepening relationship with recreational drugs.” Throughout the episode, Bourdain switches between his culinary explorations and highlighting the heroin...

The plane landed safely at San Jose Mineta International Airport, about 50 miles south of San Francisco. The airline says the passenger accused of smoking was turned over to law enforcement. The remaining 32 passengers were placed on other aircraft to continue their trips. Passengers reported smelling smoke, and one said he smelled marijuana. “It looked like that someone needed to smoke a joint on a plane, and he went into the bathroom, smoked his blunt, and set off the fire alarm,” passenger Jonathan Burkes said.

LELAND, N.C. (WECT) - It's every mother's worst nightmare. On Sunday, April 15, Shawn Winkler shot himself in the head in the garage of his Leland family home. He was 30 years old. "Shawn started out as a very happy, loving boy, " said his mother Sarah Winkler in a document she sent to WECT news. On the day Shawn killed himself, Sarah said he began acting erratically and trashing his room. Shawn, armed with a gun, told his mother he was going to Holly Ridge to kill his girlfriend and five others. Sarah said Sean believed everyone was in...

On May 1, Jason Bigelow’s body was discovered in an abandoned house near High Point. He had been missing from his Asheboro home for a week, and while the autopsy results are still pending, his wife, Anna, has no doubt what the cause of death was. On April 30, the day before he was found, she posted this on Facebook in one angry, anguished burst: “My husband is missing and no one has heard from him in 6 days. Even in his darkest of times he would have not gone that long without communication. It’s hard to know what...

During an appearance on CNN's Reliable Sources, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof admitted that the media has an addiction to covering President Trump, leading them to avoid covering other newsworthy topics. He flushed this argument out further in a recent New York Times op-ed titled “Our Addiction to Trump.” Host Brian Stelter appeared to agree with Kristof, declaring that “I'm a Trump addict. I think I’m willing to admit that. I think all roads lead to Trump right now.” Kristof then admitted that he also suffered from Trump Addiction: “My wife and I, we find ourselves, our pillow talk...

Cannabis is responsible for 91 per cent of cases where teenagers end up being treated for drug addiction, shocking new figures reveal...The findings also back up academic research, revealed in The Mail on Sunday over the past three years, that skunk is having a serious detrimental impact on the mental health of the young. At least two studies have shown repeated use triples the risk of psychosis, with sufferers repeatedly experiencing delusional thoughts. Some victims end up taking their own lives.

Nearly two-thirds of U.S. voters back legalizing marijuana, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday. Support for legalization hit 63 percent in the survey — the highest level of support recorded by a Quinnipiac poll. A third of American voters still oppose legalization, the poll found. Support for medical marijuana is even higher, at 93 percent. Only about 5 percent of respondents opposed it. The poll also found little support for Attorney General Jeff Sessions's decision earlier this year to rescind an Obama-era policy that paved the way for individual states to legalize marijuana without federal interference. Seventy percent...

Dear Honorable Jeff Sessions, I feel obligated to share the results of my five-year-long investigation into the medical benefits of the cannabis plant. Before I started this worldwide, in-depth investigation, I was not particularly impressed by the results of medical marijuana research, but a few years later, as I started to dedicate time with patients and scientists in various countries, I came to a different conclusion. Not only can cannabis work for a variety of conditions such as epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and pain, sometimes, it is the only thing that works. I changed my mind, and I am certain you...

As the nation’s opioid epidemic rages on, the federal agency charged with leading the government’s response to substance abuse is changing the way it helps local communities. But critics say the move risks leaving programs with fewer resources until the new plan is in place. The controversy began in January with a low-key announcement by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Rather than continue hiring contractors to pair experts with communities, as has been done for years, SAMHSA’s new approach will “utilize local expertise” to provide technical assistance and training. This effort will “focus on the specific needs...

Banking heir and cryptocurrency bigwig Matthew Mellon has died, a representative for his family said in a statement. Mellon, an early backer of global settlement network Ripple, was the ex-husband of Jimmy Choo guru Tamara Mellon and of designer Nicole Hanley, his second wife. A rep said in a statement: “Billionaire Matthew Mellon, 53, died suddenly in Cancun, Mexico, where he was attending a drug rehabilitation facility. Mellon made his fortune in cryptocurrency, turning a $2 million investment into $1 billion. He is survived by his three children, Force, Olympia and Minty. The family asks that their privacy be respected...

Laura Ingraham did a segment on her show tonight. One of the guests was a pro-pot lawyer from Denver. Segment starts at the 40:18 mark, guest comes on at the 42:11 mark. Hilarity ensues.

The story of this extraordinary feat as related here , among other sources, and the background story, is that, BOSTON - Qualifying for the Boston Marathon is hard enough. Running the 26.2 miles on Patriot Day in Boston can be even more difficult. Lafayette man, David Clark, just ran the course four times in 24 hours. "I have 10 years of sobriety coming up this year and I wanted to do a run for addiction awareness," said Clark. A decade ago, Clark was 320 pounds and addicted to alcohol and painkillers. Today, he's 160 pounds and a seasoned ultramarathoner. "I...

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Former Mexican President Vicente Fox proposed on Wednesday the legalization of opium poppy production as a way to help end bloody turf battles fought by drug cartels in various parts of the country. Fox served as president from 2000-2006 with the center-right National Action Party but has since distanced himself from the party. In the past, he has also advocated for the legalization of marijuana. “The plants themselves are not harmful, we make them harmful, (especially) the criminals who use them for evil purposes,” Fox said at a pro-marijuana event in the capital. He also implored...

Is tonight’s dinner giving you heartburn? You’re in luck; there is a pill for that. Do you have high blood pressure? There’s a pill for that, too. How about going bald? Restless legs? Help in bed? Thinning eye lashes? Yes, yes, yes, and…yes – all maladies solved with the help of prescription drugs. In modern medicine today, there seems to be nothing that cannot be cured with prescription or over-the-counter remedies. Simply turn on television during a big game or an evening news program, and you’ll catch the latest drug ad from Astrazeneca, Merck, or Pfizer, hawking a treatment for...

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — Police responded to a disturbance call Thursday morning at a San Fernando Valley home reportedly belonging to the family of actress Tori Spelling. Officers arrived at the home on the 21200 block of Mullholland Drive in Woodland Hills just after 7 a.m., according to LAPD Media Relations. Dispatch audio described a “female mental illness” call, according to Entertainment Tonight, which was awaiting a response to a request for comment. While police wouldn’t confirm any details, sources told TMZ the call came after Spelling became “very aggressive” in her home.

Nearly all cannabis on Britain’s streets is now super-strength skunk that could be fueling the rise in mental health problems, scientists have warned. Researchers at King’s College London tested almost 1,000 police seizures from Kent, Derbyshire, Merseyside, Sussex and the capital in 2016, and found 94 percent were of a dangerously high potency. In 2005, just 51 percent of cannabis sold on the street was sinsemilla, also known as skunk. Dr. Marta Di Forti, Medical Research Council Clinician Scientist at King’s College warned that the powerful drug placed Britain’s 2.1 million cannabis users at risk of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression,...

Mom Lynda Cruz paid $50,000 to adopt alleged school shooter Nikolas Cruz from his “drug addict” biological mother when he was just 3 days old, and then dropped another $15,000 on his younger half-brother, Zachary, when she found out the troubled mom was pregnant again, according to a report. “Nik’s biological mother was just a complete screw-up, drug addict and thief,” former friend and neighbor Trish Duvaney told RadarOnline. “I even said to Lynda: ‘You don’t know the mother’s background.’ Both children were born after one-night stands. The birth mother, she didn’t even really know who the two biological fathers...

(Below are some excerpts from the article.) THE Jackass crew mesmerised and shocked the world with their hilarious and, at times, truly dangerous stunts. The likes of Johnny Knoxville, born Philip John Clapp Jr, became superstars in the process but it led many of them down a path of alcoholism, drug dependency and even suicidal thoughts. The series showcased wild stunts in a world before iPhones, social media and YouTube, airing for two years and eventually morphing into nine films and four spin-offs. But once the cameras stopped rolling, several of the show’s stars were left severely injured and...

A Hagerstown police officer has been arrested on drug charges after police received a video of him admitting he stole opioids from a disabled resident while he was on duty.Christopher Michael Barnett, a 15-year veteran of the Hagerstown Police Department, was taken into custody by Pennsylvania State Police Thursday evening at his home, according to Chief Victor Brito who held a press conference at noon Friday. Barnett is facing a list of charges related to the theft of opiate painkillers from a disabled resident of an apartment building in Hagerstown. Police say Barnett used a phony pretense to enter the...

Among President Donald J. Trump's (R) inspiring guests at his State of the Union address was Albuquerque Police Officer Ryan Holets and his wife Rebecca, who adopted a little girl they, significantly, named Hope.  While on duty Holets encountered a pregnant, heroin addicted woman, Crystal Champ, about to shoot up. Imploring her not to shoot up while pregnant he offered to adopt the baby.  He then worked with Champ and her partner, presumably the father, to get her into rehab but, as CNN reported last month, it was rough going.   After their story was reported, a number of substance abuse treatment centers offered...