Oregon lawmakers have moved to reintroduce criminal penalties for the possession of hard drugs, in effect ending the state’s groundbreaking three-year decriminalization experiment. In 2020, nearly 60% of voters moved to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of illicit drugs with the passage of Measure 110, but the new law had grown increasingly controversial as […]
Tag: Fentanyl
90-day state of emergency declared in Portland
A 90-day state of emergency has been declared by officials in Portland as part of an effort to tackle the use of fentanyl in Oregon’s largest city. A synthetic painkiller 50 times more powerful than heroin, fentanyl has been blamed for a rise in US drug deaths.In Oregon, the rise coincided with a move to […]
“Fentanyl is your problem” says Mexican president to U.S.
Mexico’s president said Thursday that his country does not produce or consume fentanyl, despite enormous evidence to the contrary. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador appeared to depict the synthetic opioid epidemic largely as a U.S. problem, and said the United States should use family values to fight drug addiction. His statement came during a visit […]
Art teacher overdoses on fentanyl in front of students at New Jersey school
A New Jersey middle school teacher has been arrested after police say he overdosed on fentanyl in front of his students last November. The incident happened just after 9 a.m. EST on Nov. 29, when another staff member at Roosevelt Intermediate School in Westfield reported an unconscious teacher found inside a classroom on the second […]
Teen Fentanyl overdoses soar
Teen overdose deaths have never been higher in the US as young Americans are increasingly poisoned by the synthetic opiate fentanyl, even as fewer teens use drugs. More than 100,000 Americans died of drug overdoses last year – the vast majority were adults – but the fastest growing group to die of overdoses were teenagers. […]
Border patrol has seized enough fentanyl to kill US population 8 times over
A memo circulating among Senate Republicans this week details how the fentanyl crisis continues to worsen across U.S. communities as southern border drug seizures and encounters reach record highs. Those who have witnessed activity at the border believe the crisis at the border and the fentanyl crisis are correlated. CBP agents seized an unprecedented 10,500 […]
DEA seizes million fentanyl-laced pills linked to Mexican cartel
In a record-breaking drug bust, the Drug Enforcement Administration said on Thursday it seized approximately 1 million fake pills containing fentanyl in Inglewood, California, earlier this month. The counterfeit pills were seized on July 5 during a raid of a home tied to a Los Angeles-area drug trafficking organization believed to be linked to Mexico’s […]
US fentanyl deaths keep rising, states look for answers
As the addiction and overdose crisis that has gripped the U.S. for two decades turns even deadlier, state governments are scrambling for ways to stem the destruction wrought by fentanyl and other synthetic opioids. In statehouses across the country, lawmakers have been considering and adopting laws on two fronts: reducing the risk to users and […]