All posts tagged "Heroin"

On today's Morning Joe, commentator Steven Rattner highlighted a Pennsylvania State study exploring the link between deaths from drugs, alcohol and suicide and the election of Donald Trump. And no, it's not that everyone who voted for Donald Trump is on "heroin," Joe Scarborough made sure to point out.

The U.S. has a long history of criminalizing drug addicts with lengthy prison sentences in lieu of rehabilitation or treatment. The tough on crime rhetoric has always been the go-to strategy for Republican politicians like Ronald Reagan, who famously signed mandatory minimums for drug abusers into law back in 1987. If someone had a drug problem, it was always seen as their fault and their lack of responsibility that led to the addiction.

Opiate addiction continues to tear through the U.S., but fortunately the Gloucester Police Department in Massachusetts has come up with an unconventional way to combat the epidemic. Instead of criminalizing addicts, they're focusing on battling the root of the problem while also offering rehabilitation to those who seek help.

The Supreme Court in Colorado, a state that has legalized marijuana for both medicinal and recreational use, has just ruled that employers can fire workers if they happen to smoke pot during off-duty hours for medical reasons. It doesn't matter if the employee is an excellent worker, or if he isn't impaired while on the job.

Russian police on Tuesday said they had arrested a Siberian surgeon on suspicion of stealing heroin that he had extracted from the stomach of a drug mule.