Free Republic

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Austin Police said Tuesday they’re launching an investigation into who provided drugs that resulted in 51 suspected overdoses and possibly eight deaths throughout Austin. During a news conference Tuesday afternoon, detectives told reporters they detained at least two people, calling them persons of interest in this deadly overdose investigation. One of those people is now facing a felony charge of in possession of a firearm, police said. However, more charges and arrests could be forthcoming. “It is apparent there is a deadly batch of illicit narcotics in our community,” APD Asst. Chief Eric Fitzgerald said, adding police...

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration will take a historic step toward easing federal restrictions on cannabis, with plans to announce an interim rule soon reclassifying the drug for the first time since the Controlled Substances Act was enacted more than 50 years ago, four sources with knowledge of the decision said. The Drug Enforcement Administration is expected to approve an opinion by the Department of Health and Human Services that marijuana should be reclassified from the strictest Schedule I to the less stringent Schedule III. It would be the first time that the U.S. government has acknowledged its potential medical...

The Speaker of the House of Commons has just kicked out Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre for refusing to retract his characterization of Justin Trudeau as a “wacko”, “radical”, and/or “extremist”. The comment that got Poilievre booted came when he was speaking on drug overdoses in BC and Trudeau’s failure to act on the BC government’s request to reverse their decision and recriminalize hard drugs, which have been killing thousands. “Mr. Speaker, it is a choice for [Trudeau] to implement extremist policies that have taken the lives of 2,500 British Columbians every single year. Since the NDP has asked [Trudeau] to...

A secret recording was leaked on Friday showing New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham slamming Joe Biden's border policies, but not for the reason one might think. Her anger at the administration wasn't for not securing the border. Instead, her anger was being pointed at Border Patrol agents for doing their job and seizing drugs.

The head of Mexico's detective service has acknowledged the country is “the champion” of fentanyl production, which appears to run counter to past statements by President Andrés Manuel López ObradorThe head of Mexico’s detective service acknowledged Tuesday that the country is “the champion” of fentanyl production, something that appears to run counter to past statements by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. López Obrador has hotly denied in the past that any fentanyl is produced in Mexico, saying Mexican cartels only press it into pills or add finishing touches. But Felipe de Jesus Gallo, the head of Mexico’s Criminal Investigation Agency,...

A BRITISH traitor who fled the UK to fight for Vladimir Putin in Ukraine claims he has been given Russian citizenship. Aiden Minnis, 37, who "hates" the UK and was disowned by his family, boasted about his new Russian passport in a sickening video. Putin's Kremlin cronies rushed through his citizenship, grasping at the opportunity to have a western toy in their propaganda machine. A state TV outlet then splashed the video of the spineless former drug addict boasting about his citizenship and joining the frontline. Minnis, from Wiltshire, brandished his new passport around and bragged in the pathetic video...

Even as all eyes are on the geographic Middle East, Iran’s agent, Hezbollah, has set up shop in Latin America and is heading here. The dangers from the steady stream of millions of unvetted migrants crossing illegally into our country should be clear to everyone. However, the most understated threat is that of terrorist infiltration. Reports of tens of thousands of military-age Middle Eastern men coming through should heighten everyone’s concerns about the potential for nation-ending terrorism. The Mexican cartel drug trafficking is far worse than most might think. Terrorist organization Hezbollah has partnered with the cartels and is active...

The City of Ithaca has been mandated by Tompkins County Environmental Health to clean up a section of homeless encampments known as “the Jungle,” after the area was declared a public health hazard. The city received a notice on April 9 to address the conditions of a specific triangular strip of city-owned land by May 10, due to the accumulation of waste including bicycles, shopping carts, hypodermic needles, and garbage.

Two women have been charged after a toddler died in October of 2023 from fentanyl exposure. One of the women was the mother of the child. Courtney Daniel Toney-Baylous is charged with child neglect resulting in death after her 3-year-old daughter died in October of 2023. Jessica Lindsey-Shelton has also been charged with child neglect resulting in death.

ORLANDO, May 24, 2013 – Online social networks can reveal alot. Including information about the relationshps of Ibragim Todashev, a 27-year-old mixed martial arts fighter and Chechen, that was fatally shot at his Orlando townhouse. During a meeting with FBI agents during which Todashev was allegedly being questioned about a triple murder that Boston Bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev is a suspect in, Todasheve was shot and killed, raising numerous questions in the minds of neighbors and revealing an interesting daisy chain of online links. Todashev lived, and was killed, in the Windhaven condominium complex located in Orlando, Florida, near the Universal...

Some good news this morning from the UK ... The ludicrous outright smoking ban and vaping restrictions (on flavors) will likely be defeated by Parliament.

Half of all patients discharged from hospital after a heart attack are treated with beta-blockers unnecessarily. This is according to a new study. Today, when patients are discharged from hospitals after an acute heart attack, they are regularly treated with beta-blocker drugs such as metoprolol and bisoprolol. Now new research shows that about half of them do not benefit from the treatment and should not receive it at all. These are the patients who have suffered a small heart attack and have retained heart function afterward. The study began in September 2017 and patients were followed up until November 2023....

Drug shortages have reached an all-time high in the United States, pharmacists are warning.During the first three months of 2024, there were 323 active medication shortages, according to American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) and Utah Drug Information Service. Previously, the record high was 320 shortages in 2014.This ASHP started tracking shortages in 2001.MORE: Patients, health care providers face shortages of critical drugs, Senate report finds"All drug classes are vulnerable to shortage," Dr. Paul Abramowitz, CEO of ASHP, said in a statement. "Some of the most worrying shortages involve generic sterile injectable medications, including cancer chemotherapy drugs and emergency medications...

A Mexican drug cartel used death threats to force a tribal leader to back out of testifying to Congress this week, according to another tribal leader who did show up to tell lawmakers just how much power the drug lords have accumulated.Jeffrey Stiffarm, president of the Fort Belknap Indian Community in Montana, said he didn’t want to name the fellow leader who backed out, but he said the threat seemed real and credible.“One thing that we really seem to overlook all the time is the threats, the death threats we get from cartel leaders,” he told the House Natural Resources...

Last year 70,000 Americans lost their lives to Communist China’s genocidal fentanyl offensive. To put that into perspective, we have already lost more innocent Americans to China’s unconventional warfare than we lost soldiers to Hitler in the entire course of World War II. Similarly, if one were to consider the 1,000,000 American deaths caused by COVID19, a biological weapon made in China’s military lab in Wuhan, one would begin to get an idea of the scope of China’s unconventional warfare efforts to bring America to its knees.If one were to add the complicity of the Biden White House in insuring...

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), along with other members of the U.S. intelligence community, are pushing for Congress to expand Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 in order to fight the ongoing fentanyl crisis.According to the Brennan Center of Justice, Section 702, “Authorizes the government to collect the communications of non-Americans located abroad without a warrant from a court. While this surveillance is supposed to target foreigners, it inevitably sweeps in Americans’ private phone calls, emails, and text messages too.” (snip) However, CIA officials believe in its current form, Section 702 limits the intelligence community from...

It is very easy to find fentanyl in New York. The drug that in 2022 alone killed nearly 110,000 Americans is readily available right here on the streets of this city. Over the past the year, I’ve been investigating the spread of this lethal drug across this country. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that has a potency many hundreds of times that of morphine. Largely made in China, its strength means it is easy to transport huge quantities of the drug. It floods into this country, mainly through Mexico. One recent evening in New York, I headed over to OnPoint,...

It didn’t take long for Oregon to realize decriminalizing hard drugs was a bad idea. On Tuesday, Gov. Tina Kotek, a Democrat, signed legislation that recriminalizes drug possession, reversing Measure 110, which 58 percent of voters approved in 2020. By August, however, 56 percent of Oregonians disapproved after a major uptick in overdose deaths and addiction in the state. Lawmakers from both parties got to work drafting legislation to reverse the measure.

Mass General Brigham announced Tuesday it would no longer report to state welfare agencies when a baby is born with drugs in its system because substance abuse in pregnant mothers “disproportionately affects black people,” Boston.com reports. The change will be rolled out later this month, with Dr. Sarah Wakeman, senior medical director for substance use disorder at Mass General Brigham, arguing the new policy is “based on sound science.”

I'm pondering starting to take CBD gummies as a crutch to stop smoking. But I'm also looking for work and many jobs require passing a drug test. Does anyone have any experience as to how and whether these items can cause a drug test fail? I DON'T smoke weed.