The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/category/drugs/)
A coordinated 10-month effort on three continents has taken down a major drug and firearm ring operating on the Darknet, the murkiest area of cyberspace, the Department of Justice announced Tuesday. Some 150 individuals were arrested, including 65 in the U.S.
After years of being outmaneuvered by powerful drug gangs, the two countries are trying a new strategy that involves tackling the economic and social factors that allow organized crime to flourish.
Oregon law enforcement agencies are failing to issue violations akin to traffic tickets to drug-users, a key component of the recently passed Measure 110, which decided low-level drug possession in the state should no longer be a crime and that addiction should be treated as public health issue.
Colombia’s most-wanted drug lord, Dairo Antonio Úsuga, widely known by his alias, Otoniel, and the alleged leader of the notorious drug-trafficking group Clan del Golfo, or Gulf Clan, which dominates major cocaine-smuggling routes in the country’s north, has been captured by armed forces in his jungle hideout and faces extradition to the United States.
While California’s cannabis market is booming nearly five years after voters legalized recreational weed, the vast majority of pot sales are still underground, with the state’s illegal market approaching $8 billion annually.
Despite initially signalling that she would support a stay, Judge Colleen McMahon of the U.S. District Court in Manhattan has decided that the settlement can go forward while also suggesting it warrants review.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation aimed at assisting overdose sufferers get medication-assisted treartment.
The nation’s leading pharmaceutical chains — CVS, Walgreens, Giant Eagle, and Walmart —were in federal court Monday to face charges connected with their role in the opioid epidemic. While the case only focuses on two Ohio counties, many are looking to see how this legal precedent will turn out.
Canada’s largest mental health teaching hospital, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, says a surge in overdose deaths should persuade policymakers to think about substance use through a health lens, and focus “on how to help people be well, rather than face criminal penalties.”
The payout is the largest settlement in Cherokee Nation history.