The Federal Trade Commission, which thinks “lack of competition and contracting practices…may be contributing to drug shortages,” is soliciting public comments on that subject. But when it comes to opioid pain relievers, the problem is not a lack of competition between manufacturers, wholesalers, or distributors. Shortages of these safe and effective analgesics are instead a […]
In 2022, Reason reported that local police departments in Georgia were hassling vape and smoke shops for the legal products they sold. Two years later, those products remain every bit as legal as before, but cops are still making life difficult for vendors. On March 13, officers with the Newnan Police Department Drug and Vice […]
A federal indictment unsealed this week charges two men, Antonio Venti and Michael Kuilan, with supplying the drugs that killed transgender activist Cecilia Gentili. Among other things, Venti and Kuilan are accused of causing Gentili’s death by distributing a mixture of heroin and fentanyl, a felony punishable by a mandatory minimum of 20 years in […]
There’s no such thing as a universal millennial experience, but DARE comes close. Starting in 1983, the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program sent police officers into classrooms to teach fifth- and sixth-graders about the dangers of drugs and the need, as Nancy Reagan famously put it, to “just say no.” DARE embraced an abstinence-only model […]
In March, Oregon legislators overwhelmingly approved recriminalization of low-level drug possession, reversing a landmark reform that voters endorsed in 2020. Although critics of that ballot initiative, Measure 110, cited escalating drug-related deaths as a reason to reinstate criminal penalties, there is little evidence that decriminalization contributed to that problem. Deaths involving opioids have been rising nationwide for […]
New York’s botched attempt to roll out an adult recreational marijuana market is facing even more scrutiny amid claims of whistleblower retaliation, favoritism, and the unchecked spread of illegal dispensaries. The chief equity officer for New York’s Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) was put on administrative leave last week, and Gov. Kathy Hochul has ordered […]
Are American cities crime-ridden hellscapes right now? Have cities rebounded from pandemic-era homicide spikes? Why do subway shootings in New York and carjackings in D.C. keep making the news? “I think a lot of this has to be disaggregated: There is a public order problem, and there is a violent crime problem, and they’re not […]
In his State of the Union address this month, President Joe Biden declared that “no one should be jailed for simply using” marijuana or “have it on their record.” He amplified that message on X (formerly Twitter) that night, saying, “No one should be jailed just for using or possessing marijuana.” Biden said those things […]