| September 4, 2008 | - Xiguang, an elephant undergoing treatment on the Chinese island of Hainan, was off heroin and headed home.
| Source:
MSNBC
|
| September 3, 2008 | - Tens of thousands of copies of a Swedish food magazine were recalled after an error in a recipe for apple cake sent four readers to hospitals with nutmeg poisoning.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| September 2, 2008 | - It emerged that McCain did not properly vet Alaska governor Sarah Palin in selecting her as his running mate, and that he interviewed her in person only on the same day he offered her the position. Despite McCain's opposition to earmarks, Palin, when mayor of the 6,700-resident town of Wasilla (known to state troopers as Alaska's “meth capital”), hired lobbyist Steven Silver to help win federal earmarks totaling $27 million. It also emerged that Palin, 44, received her first passport in 2006.
| Source 1:
Washington Post
Source 2:
Boston Globe
Source 3:
Juneau Empire
Source 4:
Talking Points Memo
|
| August 31, 2008 | - A man concerned that he had injected air into his veins while shooting cocaine tried to amputate his own arm with a butter knife, and then a butcher knife, at a Denny's Restaurant in California,.
| Source:
CBS
|
| July 5, 2007 | - Experts claimed that prescription pills were becoming the new marijuana on college campuses.
| Source:
CNN.com
|
| May 10, 2007 | - The makers of OxyContin admitted that they had misled consumers about the risks of addiction.
| Source:
WP
|
| April 9, 2007 | - A Ukrainian woman was arrested after customs officials found hashish inside the battery compartment of her vibrator.
| Source:
Toronto Sun
|
| March 25, 2007 | - In the United States, crystal meth was now available in candy flavors.
| Source:
USA TODAY
|
| February 1, 2007 | - In Texas, elementary school children were increasingly becoming addicted to “cheese,” a potentially lethal combination of heroin and Tylenol PM. “Any child anywhere can afford a hit of cheese,” said a detective. “It's just horrific.”
| Source:
ABC News
|
| January 26, 2007 | - A molecular scientist who owns a café announced that he had found a way to put caffeine in a donut.
| Source:
AP via NY Post
|
| December 7, 2006 | -
Democrats in Congress announced that beginning in January members of the House would work five days a week. “Keeping us up here eats away at families,” said Rep. Jack Kingston (R., Georgia), who spends more than half his week at home. “Marriages suffer. The Democrats could care less about families--that's what this says.” The Democrats were also trying to stop smoking on the Hill, and attempting to block a $3,300 congressional raise.
| Source 1:
Washington Post
Source 2:
Washington Post
Source 3:
Washington Post
|
| November 30, 2006 | - Sheriff's deputies in Polk County, Florida, rescued a naked, drug-addled man from the jaws of an attacking alligator.
| Source:
CNN
|
| October 31, 2006 | - Due to the Lebanon war, Israel was facing an eight-fold increase in the cost of marijuana.
| Source:
Reuters via Yahoo! News
|
| October 12, 2006 | -
Canadian troops in Afghanistan were finding it difficult to destroy forests of ten-foot-tall marijuana plants where the Taliban hide. “That damn marijuana,” said one soldier.
| Source:
Reuters via CNN.com
|
| September 25, 2006 | - An appeals court ruled that a Montana mother who gave bong hits to her baby daughter should not have to spend five years in jail.
| Source:
Reuters via Yahoo! News
|
| September 8, 2006 | - Dapoxetine, a pharmaceutical believed to prevent premature ejaculation in men, remained in “regulatory limbo.”
| Source:
Medpagetoday.com via Google News
|
| September 2, 2006 | -
Afghanistan's
opium production was expected to increase by 59 percent this year, making the country the source of 92 percent of the world's supply.
| Source:
BBC
|
| September 1, 2006 | - In a courtroom in Duluth, Minnesota, a cocaine trafficker ate his own feces.
| Source:
Duluth News Tribune
|
| August 27, 2006 | -
Taiwanese apartment-dwellers were upset to discover that their water supply contained the corpse of a 27-year-old drug addict named Kuo.
| Source:
China Post
|
| August 14, 2006 | - An empty submarine suspected of cocaine smuggling was found floating off the coast of Spain.
| Source:
BBC
|
| August 2, 2006 | - Bungs, drugs, and wholesale cheating were declared to be the norm in all major sports.
| Source:
Observer UK
|
| July 25, 2006 | - In Maryland one U.S. Senate candidate said he did not knowingly pay for 20 heroin addicts to come to his campaign rally, while another was arrested for raping his 19-year-old mail-order bride.
| Source:
Washington Times
|
| July 10, 2006 | -
Scientists in Maryland found that two thirds of people who consumed the hallucinogenic drug
psilocybin had extremely meaningful experiences.
| Source:
The Wall Street Journal
|
| July 8, 2006 | - It was reported that Senator
Orrin Hatch intervened to get a record producer out of a Dubai jail after he was sentenced to four years for possession of cocaine.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| July 7, 2006 | - Three people were arrested for plotting to sell Coca-Cola secrets to PepsiCo.
| Source:
Voice of America
|
| June 29, 2006 | - A Vermont teenager was convicted of stealing the bowtie and eyeglasses from a corpse and cutting off its head to make a bong.
| Source:
NBC5.com
|
| June 27, 2006 | -
Rush Limbaugh was detained at an airport when authorities found Viagra in his luggage.
| Source 1:
Hamilton Spectator
Source 2:
local6.com
|
| May 30, 2006 | - A potent drug cocktail killed at least 48 people in Detroit.
| Source:
Detroit Free Press
|
| May 23, 2006 | - In Australia, a psychiatrist named Stephen Allnutt testified that financier Brendan Francis McMahon had believed he was helping animals when he mutilated 17 rabbits and a guinea pig while under the influence of methamphetamine. "I wonder," McMahon reportedly said, "if I made a mistake because I never asked the rabbits?"
| Source:
The Sydney Morning Herald
|
| April 29, 2006 | - The Mexican senate passed a bill legalizing the possession of small amounts of marijuana, opium, cocaine, and heroin; President Vicente Fox was expected to approve the bill.
| Source:
Reuters via Yahoo! News
|
| April 24, 2006 | - Twenty percent of U.S. teenagers admitted to huffing household products in order to get high.
| Source:
MSNBC
|
| April 20, 2006 | - A woman in El Salvador was in trouble for allegedly attempting to smuggle a live grenade and marijuana into a prison via a container stuffed into her vagina.
| Source:
NewsNet5.com
|
| April 19, 2006 | -
Scientists reported that ichthyoallyeinotoxic fishes--such as mullet, goatfish, tangs, damsels, and rabbitfish--could produce LSD-like hallucinations in those who ate them.
| Source:
Practical Fishkeepingg
|
| April 14, 2006 | - In London, a woman's skeletal remains were found two years after her death, propped in front of a still-on TV. “I did notice a kind of rotten smell,” said a neighbor, “but the bins downstairs are strong and the stairwells smell with junkies.”
| Source:
BBC News
|
| April 4, 2006 | - Doctors in London reported that a man who has taken 40,000 doses of Ecstasy was having trouble with his short-term memory.
| Source:
The Guardian
|
| February 16, 2006 | -
Scientists in Italy found that the effects of Ecstasy on rats were intensified when the rats were made to listen to loud music.
| Source:
BBC News
|
| January 30, 2006 | - In Gary, Indiana, an Iraq war veteran killed a 79-year-old man when the man refused to give him money for crack.
| Source:
IndyStar.com
|
| January 29, 2006 | -
Marine James Blake Miller, whose face became emblematic of the Iraq war after he was photographed smoking a cigarette during the November 2004 attack on Fallujah, was at home in Kentucky, where he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and had cut back to a pack and a half a day.
| Source:
SFGate.com
|
| December 19, 2005 | - Evo Morales appeared to have won the presidency of Bolivia; he plans to legalize coca farming. Morales, who admires Fidel Castro, said that he wanted to maintain Bolivia's ties to the United States but did not want “a relationship of submission.”
| Source:
BBC News
|
| December 19, 2005 | - An Ohio man named Wayne Green was suing a police drug
dog for illegal search. “They've got a mean ol' dog,” he explained. “You know what I'm saying?” The dog, Andi, signed with a paw print when served with the complaint.
| Source:
CourtTV.com
|
| December 15, 2005 | - A Florida
owl was found to be high on marijuana.
| Source:
9News.com
|
| December 6, 2005 | - A Memphis, Tennessee, woman was arrested after she hired a hit man to kill four other men and take their cocaine; the hit man turned out to be an undercover police officer, and the cocaine turned out to be queso fresco cheese.
| Source:
The Washington Post
|
| December 1, 2005 | - It was reported that Iraqi militants, before they carried out raids or suicide bombings, were taking a methamphetamine-based drug called “pinky” that made them feel superhuman.
| Source:
The Daily Mirror
|
| October 14, 2005 | - More details emerged in the case of the New Zealand financier arrested in Australia for bestiality with rabbits. Police said that when they arrested the man he had scratches on his hands and face; the man's lawyer said he molested the rabbits under the influence of methamphetamine. The head of the Australian Companion Rabbit Society pointed out that prostitutes were once called “bunnies.”
| Source:
The Advertiser
|
| October 14, 2005 | - A study by scientists at the University of Saskatchewan found that injecting rats with THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, stimulated the growth of new brain cells.
| Source:
CTV.ca
|
| October 10, 2005 | - The FBI was thinking it might start hiring people who have admitted to using illegal drugs.
| Source:
Chicago Sun-Times
|
| October 10, 2005 | -
Londoners were concerned about crack-addicted
squirrels.
| Source:
The Register
|
| September 11, 2005 | - Doctors in New Orleans admitted that they had euthanized critically ill patients rather than leaving them to sufferin the wake of Hurricane Katrina. "Those who had no chance of making it," said an emergency official, "were given a lot of morphine and lain down in a dark place to die."
| Source:
Daily Mail
|
| September 8, 2005 | - Emergency officials in Louisiana requested 25,000 body bags for victims of Hurricane Katrina, and a total evacuation of New Orleans was ordered. Much of the city was still underwater, though several people who lived on high ground objected to the evacuation. "I haven't even run out of weed yet," said one woman.
| Source 1:
The Guardian
Source 2:
The New York Times
|
| August 13, 2005 | - In Victoria, Canada, methamphetamine addicts were stealing large numbers of bicycles because disassembling the bikes soothes them while they tweak.
| Source:
Canada.com
|
| August 8, 2005 | - Pfizer patented a drug that cures premature female orgasm.
| Source:
All Headline News
|
| August 5, 2005 | - An estimated $400,000-worth of cocaine was flowing through the Italian River Po every day.
| Source:
Yahoo! News
|
| August 4, 2005 | - In Los Angeles, cocaine was found in the bloodstream of a toddler who died when her father used her as a shield in a shootout with police.
| Source:
AZCentral.com
|
| July 12, 2005 | - A thirteen-year-old boy in Kalamazoo accidentally burned down the family meth lab.
| Source:
WWMT.com
|
| July 12, 2005 | - An eating-disorder and female-self-esteem expert collapsed in a Connecticut supermarket after huffing nitrous oxide from whipped cream canisters.
| Source:
Boston.com
|
| June 15, 2005 | - In Bullskin Township, Pennsylvania, four men were accused of butchering a pet pygmy goat so that they could trade its meat for either money or crack cocaine.
| Source:
Post Gazette
|
| June 6, 2005 | - The Supreme Court made it impossible to obtain medical marijuana.
| Source:
Bloomberg.com
|
| April 28, 2005 | - A Colorado high school student decided to test Army recruitment policies by telling a recruiter that he had dropped out of high school and was addicted to marijuana. The recruiter told the student how to get a fake diploma over the Internet and instructed him to take a detoxification formula so that he could pass the Army's drug test.
| Source:
CBS 4 Colorado
|
| April 14, 2005 | - U.S. marshals arrested more than 10,000 people on outstanding warrants, nearly half of them for minor drug offenses.
| Source:
KRT Wire
|
| April 14, 2005 | - A Vermont teenager was accused of breaking into a tomb and beheading a corpse. He apparently wanted to use the skull as a bong.
| Source:
The Barre-Montpelier Times Argus
|
| April 1, 2005 | - Five American soldiers were arrested for trying to use military aircraft to smuggle cocaine from Colombia into the United States.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| March 11, 2005 | - A Georgia man was arrested for setting up a methamphetamine lab in a Kmart bathroom.
| Source:
News4Jax.com
|
| March 6, 2005 | - Darryl Strawberry said that baseball players who use steroids lack discipline.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| February 26, 2005 | - Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said he had no regrets about his past steroid use.
| Source:
Sports Illustrated
|
| February 20, 2005 | - Secret tapes made of George W. Bush between 1998 and 2000 indicated that Bush once considered John Ashcroft for Vice President and that he most likely smoked marijuana in the past.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| February 18, 2005 | - An expert witness in the Robert Blake
murder case testified that he once crawled into a cage filled with crack-smoking
monkeys.
| Source:
E! Online
|
| February 11, 2005 | - Actor Tom Sizemore tried to cheat on a drug test by using a fake penis to pass urine.
| Source:
SFGate
|
| February 8, 2005 | - a Canadian clinic planned to offer prescription heroin.
| Source:
AP
|
| January 28, 2005 | - and scientists discovered that drinking green tea turns mice into better swimmers.
| Source:
CBC News
|
| January 21, 2005 | - A cartoonist was sentenced by a Greek court to six months in prison for depicting Jesus as a pot-smoking hippie.
| Source:
Ananova
|
| January 13, 2005 | - In Colombia, a Black Hawk helicopter crashed while on a counter-narcotics mission, killing all twenty onboard.
| Source:
Washington Post
|
| December 22, 2004 | - A poll found that teens are increasingly likely to abuse the painkiller OxyContin.
| Source:
USA Today
|
| December 19, 2004 | - Pfizer admitted that Celebrex doubled the risk of heart attack in certain patients, but declined to take it off the market,
| Source:
Reuters
|
| December 19, 2004 | - and a survey found that one fifth of all FDA scientists had been pressured to recommend approval of a new drug.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| December 16, 2004 | - Representative Billy Tauzin, an author of the House Medicare Drug Law, announced that he will become a lobbyist for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| December 14, 2004 | - The DEA told the University of Massachusetts it couldn't grow marijuana on campus.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| December 3, 2004 | - In testimony before a federal grand jury that was leaked to the press, several professional baseball players confessed to using performance-enhancing steroids. Barry Bonds, who has hit more home runs in a season than any other player, told the court that his steroid use was accidental; he believed he was rubbing flaxseed oil and arthritis ointment on his aching muscles.
| Source:
San Francisco Chronicle
|
| November 30, 2004 | - Cocaine and heroin prices hit a twenty year low.
| Source:
Knight Ridder
|
| November 7, 2004 | - Voters in Montana approved the use of medical marijuana; they also approved a "right to hunt" amendment. Florida and Nevada raised the states' minimum wage.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| November 6, 2004 | - A six-year-old Florida girl took $1,000 worth of crack cocaine to school; her mother said she must have got it trick-or-treating.
| Source:
Associated Press
|
| October 26, 2004 | - Young mice treated with Prozac, a study found, grow up to be depressed.
| Source:
New Scientist
|
| October 24, 2004 | - Six Buddhist monks from Ratchaburi, Thailand, were arrested and defrocked for holding wild drug and alcohol parties.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| October 16, 2004 | - The FDA ordered all antidepressants to carry a "black box" warning that the drugs might cause children and adolescents to have suicidal thoughts.
| Source:
Associated Press
|
| October 1, 2004 | -
Merck & Co. withdrew its arthritis drug Vioxx because it apparently doubles the risk of heart attack.
| Source:
New Scientist
|
| September 24, 2004 | - A Malawian
pothead decapitated two women with an axe.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| September 6, 2004 | -
Argentine researchers discovered that smoking and drinking are bad for men's semen.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| September 3, 2004 | - The Food and Drug Administration was trying to decide whether it's ethical to give children
amphetamines as part of a study.
| Source:
Associated Press
|
| August 27, 2004 | -
Colombian police discovered a genetically engineered variety of coca plant that produces up to four times more cocaine than the traditional varieties.
| Source:
Telegraph
|
| August 26, 2004 | - Social workers in Winnipeg, Manitoba, were handing out crack pipes to addicts as part of a "harm-reduction strategy."
| Source:
Globe and Mail
|
| August 24, 2004 | - A new study showed that the air pollution created by cigarettes is 10 times worse than diesel exhaust.
| Source:
New Scientist
|
| August 11, 2004 | - Scientists used a dopamine blocker to turn lazy monkeys into hard workers.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| August 8, 2004 | -
Prozac was found in Britain's drinking water.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| August 5, 2004 | -
Israeli officials were studying whether to use marijuana to treat soldiers suffering the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder from keeping the Palestinians down.
| Source:
Agence France-Presse
|
| July 25, 2004 | - The Bush Administration has decided that consumers should not be able to sue manufacturers of drugs that have been approved by the FDA.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| July 12, 2004 | -
Canadian patients were complaining about the quality of government-grown pot.
| Source:
Canadian Press
|
| June 26, 2004 | - Some drug companies were thinking about banning people who respond to placebos from clinical trials.
| Source:
New Scientist
|
| June 22, 2004 | - Scientists discovered that rats who snort a special virus do not get as high on cocaine.
| Source:
New Scientist
|
| June 18, 2004 | - New strains of Vancomycin-resistant
Staphylococcus aureus
bacteria were found in eight countries; Vancomycin is considered the antibiotic of last resort.
| Source:
New Scientist
|
| June 3, 2004 | - The attorney general of New York sued GlaxoSmithKline for suppressing studies that showed that its antidepressant drug Paxil might cause adolescents to have suicidal thoughts.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| May 26, 2004 | -
Malibu banned smoking on the beach.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| May 19, 2004 | - The Humane Society complained that racing
dogs in Florida were being given cocaine.
| Source:
Associated Press
|
| May 9, 2004 | -
Brazilians were worried that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva drinks too much.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| May 7, 2004 | - It was discovered that Paroxetine, an antidepressant, helps relieve irritable-bowel syndrome.
| Source:
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
|
| May 4, 2004 | -
Marijuana use was up in the United States.
| Source:
New Scientist
|
| April 16, 2004 | - The FDA admitted that it refused to permit its lead expert on the subject to testify publicly that antidepressant drugs cause children to become suicidal.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| April 15, 2004 | - The Spanish government said that the bombers in Madrid sold hash and ecstasy and drank holy water from Mecca.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| April 14, 2004 | - The Department of Health and Human Services held a hearing on the recent decision by Abbott Laboratories to quintuple the price of its essential AIDS drug Norvir, which used to cost about $1,500 a year but now costs $7,800.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| April 10, 2004 | - Poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, which produced three quarters of the world's opium last year, was said to be up 30 percent.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| April 7, 2004 | - President Hamid Karzai declared a jihad on drugs.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| April 4, 2004 | - A study found that teenage lesbians
smoke too much.
| Source:
New Scientist
|
| April 2, 2004 | - A study found that preschoolers are the fastest growing market for antidepressant drugs.
| Source:
Express Scripts
|
| March 26, 2004 | - It was found that health-care
lobbyists spent $237 million lobbying Congress in 2000, more than every other industry combined; drug companies spent $96 million, quite a bit more than other medical sectors.
| Source:
Case Western Reserve University
|
| March 25, 2004 | - British researchers found that strange murders have increased in recent decades and that, contrary to expectations, the murders are not being committed by crazy people; most strange homicides, it was discovered, are committed by young men on drugs.
| Source:
British Medical Journal
|
| March 23, 2004 | - Federal regulators issued a warning that antidepressant medication can drive some patients to suicide.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| March 12, 2004 | -
Switzerland moved to legalize absinthe.
| Source:
News24.com
|
| January 21, 2004 | -
Art Garfunkel got busted with pot.
| Source:
Associated Press
|
| January 5, 2004 | -
Afghanistan's loya jirga approved a new constitution; the country will be known henceforth as the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and no law will be made contrary to Islamic belief. "There is rain coming," said Sebaghatullah Mojadeddi, the council chairman, "and flowers are coming from my body."
| Source:
New York Times
|
| December 11, 2003 | - The British Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency warned doctors not to give antidepressants such as Zoloft, Paxil, and Celexa to children and adolescents, because the drugs have been linked to suicide and self-harm.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| December 8, 2003 | -
GlaxoSmithKline's head of genetics admitted that "the vast majority of drugs — more than 90 percent — only work in 30 or 50 percent of the people."
| Source:
Independent
|
| November 12, 2003 | - Environmentalists and consumer groups sued the Department of Agriculture to prevent companies from planting experimental
crops that have been engineered to produce pharmaceuticals; they said that planting in open fields risks spreading the modifications to other crops.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| October 15, 2003 | - The Supreme Court let a ruling stand that the federal government may not prevent doctors from recommending marijuana as a pain reliever.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| October 14, 2003 | - Men who smoke a lot of marijuana have a lower sperm count and sperm that swim "too fast, too early."
| Source:
Science Daily
|
| October 11, 2003 | -
Rush Limbaugh, who was forced to resign from ESPN after he made unkind comments about a black football player, admitted to being a drug
addict.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| October 4, 2003 | - and Prime Minister Jean Chretien of Canada said that he was thinking of trying marijuana: "Perhaps I will try it when it will no longer be criminal. I will have my money for my fine and a joint in the other hand."
| Source:
Reuters
|
| September 24, 2003 | - Australian health authorities warned that ice-cube enemas, which some people have been using in an attempt to revive people who have overdosed on the drug GHB, are bad for you. One expert told a gay newspaper that unexpectedly inserting an object into someone's rectum could cause a "vagal" reaction and stop the flow of blood to the brain.
| Source:
News.com.au
|
| September 23, 2003 | - The International Monetary Fund called for the destruction of Afghanistan's poppy fields, which supply a $2.5 billion opium export industry. The fund said that opium accounts for up to 50 percent of the Afghan economy.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| September 19, 2003 | - A new report from the British government claimed that Britons are the worst binge drinkers in Europe,
| Source:
Reuters
|
| September 18, 2003 | - and Danish scientists discovered that women who drink wine have an easier time getting pregnant.
| Source:
Agence France-Presse
|
| September 17, 2003 | -
Voters in Seattle rejected a proposed 10-cent tax on espresso.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| September 16, 2003 | - Canada's government-grown medical
marijuana was getting very poor reviews.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| September 11, 2003 | - Comedian Tommy Chong was sentenced to nine months in prison for selling bongs over the Internet.
| Source:
MSNBC
|
| September 2, 2003 | - Seattle was considering a tax on espresso.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| July 20, 2003 | - The Canadian government released a 59-page user's manual for marijuana.
| Source:
Canadian Press
|
| July 15, 2003 | - A new study found that fast foods with high fat and sugar content "alter brain biochemistry with effects similar to those in powerful opiates such as morphine."
| Source:
Undernews
|
| June 24, 2003 | - A German gardener lost his driver's license for driving a lawn mower while intoxicated.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| October 22, 2002 | -
Welfare families in Michigan can be required to submit to drug testing, a judge ruled, because the state's interest in not paying for illegal drugs is stronger than a citizen's right to privacy.
| |
| May 21, 2002 | -
Medical
marijuana advocates were complaining about the quality of the government-grown pot being provided to patients in California.
| |
| March 5, 2002 | -
A Las Vegas man was sentenced to three years in jail for stealing an African spot-nosed guenon monkey and trading it for crack cocaine.
| |
| December 18, 2001 | -
Greece dropped spy charges against a group of British tourists who enjoy “plane spotting.” Federal officials arrested 35 people for smuggling cocaine using infants rented from poor families in Chicago.
| |
| December 18, 2001 | - The Drug Enforcement Agency agreed for the first time in two decades to permit research on the medical effectiveness of marijuana; the agency also decided to ban any food products that contain trace amounts of THC, the active ingredient in pot, which is a problem for many natural-foods companies that use hempseed or hempseed oil in their products. “Pasta, tortilla chips, candy bars, nutritional bars, salad dressings, sauces, cheeses, ice cream, and beer” containing hemp have been banned, but not hats, shirts, lotion, paper, or rope, because they “do not cause THC to enter the human body.”
| |
| December 11, 2001 | - In Missouri, a pharmacist admitted to diluting cancer
drugs; he did it because he needed to raise money to pay $1,000,000 in taxes and a pledge to his church.
| |
| November 27, 2001 | - A new study confirmed that abuse of stimulants used to treat attention-deficit disorder, such as Ritalin, was rampant among children and teens. “People don't realize what these drugs are,” one scientist said. “The similarities between them and cocaine are much greater than the differences.”
| |
| November 27, 2001 | -
Afghan
farmers were planting opium again.
| |
| November 13, 2001 | - Federal agents, who now believe the anthrax to be the work of a lone domestic terrorist, still have not gotten around to locating all the labs in the United States where the bacteria can be legally handled, though they were busy cracking down on medical
marijuana in California and assisted suicide in Oregon.
| |
| November 13, 2001 | - The first clinical trial of marijuana released preliminary findings suggesting that pot is a “wonder drug” for people suffering from osteoporosis, cancer, AIDS, arthritis, spinal injuries, and some forms of mental illness.
| |
| October 16, 2001 | - The crew of an Austrian military helicopter landed their aircraft in the parking lot of a wine bar near the Slovenian border, walked inside, and ordered lunch.
| |
| October 2, 2001 | - Prime Minister Berlusconi of Italy defended his remarks that Western civilization is superior to Islam and that it “is bound to occidentalize and conquer new people.” He said that criticism of his views was “artificial” and “based on nothing.” Benito Mussolini was enjoying a renaissance in Italy; portraits of Il Duce were showing up on wine bottles in Rome, as were pictures of Hitler.
| |
| September 11, 2001 | -
Medical staff at an old-folks' home in Denmark claimed that porn and prostitutes do more good than drugs in treating the elderly.
| |
| September 11, 2001 | -
British
scientists found that a marijuana spray applied under the tongue helped people with chronic pain.
| |
| August 21, 2001 | - Magazines such as Ladies' Home Journal were carrying advertisements for drugs such as Ritalin in their back-to-school issues.
| |
| August 7, 2001 | -
Canada's very cool medical
marijuana
law went into effect.
| |
| June 26, 2001 | - Coca-Cola announced that it would put its African distribution network to use in the dissemination of AIDS
drugs, condoms, and such.
| |
| June 5, 2001 | - Alejandro Toledo was elected president of Peru; 13 percent of the voters cast blank ballots, possibly to protest rumors that Toledo once used cocaine in an orgy with five hookers.
| |
| April 24, 2001 | - The pharmaceutical industry dropped its suit against the South African government over a law that will permit the importation of inexpensive anti-AIDS
drugs; the drug companies agreed to pay the government's legal costs and admitted that the law in question does in fact abide by international trade agreements.
| |
| April 24, 2001 | - Dr. Tshabalala-Msimang, South Africa's health minister, was asked what the government planned to do next, having won this important victory; she replied that actually there was no real need to use such drugs in a country with the highest rate of AIDS infection on earth.
| |
| April 24, 2001 | -
Scientists sequenced the genomes of two strains of drug-resistant staphylococcus bacteria; they discovered that the bacteria are capable of stealing genes from other organisms, which enables them very quickly to develop immunity to new drugs.
| |
| April 17, 2001 | - Seven retired Italians were arrested for smuggling ten pounds of cocaine inside bags of sausage and mozzarella.
| |
| April 10, 2001 | -
Israeli
religious leaders declared that Viagra was not kosher for Passover, though a rabbi can authorize its use “in the event of urgent medical
need.” Customs officials in New York arrested a Canadian stripper who tried to smuggle 78,771 hits of ecstasy into the United States inside some Legos.
| |
| April 3, 2001 | -
Researchers found that using ecstasy damages one's ability to remember things to be done in the future.
| |
| March 27, 2001 | - The European Union passed a resolution calling on 39 drug companies to drop a lawsuit against South Africa in which they seek to overturn a law that would lower the price of anti-AIDS
drugs.
| |
| March 20, 2001 | -
Scientists were testing the use of LSD and other hallucinogens to treat mental illness.
| |
| March 13, 2001 | - The Swiss government proposed legalizing the consumption of marijuana and hashish after a study showed that everyone was using the drugs anyway.
| |
| March 6, 2001 | - Belgium said it would legalize pot.
| |
| March 6, 2001 | - Traces of cocaine were found in a seventeenth-century pipe discovered in Shakespeare's house.
| |
| January 30, 2001 | - A grill cook at a Whataburger restaurant in Dallas, Texas, was arrested for lacing a taquito sold to a police officer with marijuana.
| |
| January 23, 2001 | -
President Clinton pardoned 140 criminals, including Patty Hearst, a revolutionary; his brother Roger, who had a fondness for cocaine; and former CIA director John Deutch, who found it difficult to leave classified information in the George Bush Center for Intelligence.
| |
| December 26, 2000 | -
Canada's Health Ministry gave a $3.8 million contract to a company that will grow medical
marijuana in a mine deep below a lake in Flin Flon, Manitoba, a famously remote town where there is little to do but play hockey and smoke medical marijuana.
| |
| December 26, 2000 | - Uruguay's president came out for legalizing drugs.
| |
| December 19, 2000 | - A new study found that marijuana slows the swimming of sperm in a test tube.
| |
| December 19, 2000 | - The Scottish scientists who made Dolly, the famous sheep clone, announced a plan to make genetically modified chickens that will lay eggs containing drugs.
| |
| December 12, 2000 | -
British
scientists succeeded in making marijuana soluble, which could enable a wide array of medical uses for the drug.
| |
| October 24, 2000 | - A new study found that children whose mothers received opiates or barbiturates during childbirth were up to five times more likely to abuse drugs later on.
| |
| October 17, 2000 | - Alaskans were debating whether to legalize the personal use of marijuana.
| |
| October 3, 2000 | - Members of a Coney Island gang called the Cream Team (which stands for Cash Rules Everything Around Me) were arrested on charges of kidnapping, assault, robbery, drugs, and attempted murder.
| |
| October 3, 2000 | - Jesús Gutiérrez Rebollo, the former head of Mexico's National Institute to Combat Drugs, was sentenced to 71 years in prison on drug and weapons charges.
| |
| September 12, 2000 | -
Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader called for the legalization of marijuana.
| |
| September 5, 2000 | - The Supreme Court issued an emergency stay preventing California from allowing the medical use of marijuana.
| |
| September 5, 2000 | -
President Clinton went to Colombia and met with President Andres Pastrana, who three years ago was unable to visit the United States because he had accepted a campaign contribution from Cali drug traffickers; the two men discussed “Plan Colombia,” a $7.5 billion plan to fight drug trafficking, of which $1.3 billion will be provided by America.
| |
| September 5, 2000 | - Hugo Chávez, the president of Venezuela, warned of “the Vietnamization of the entire Amazon region.” Vietnam returned the body of a Canadian woman, minus one ear, after she was put to death for drug trafficking.
| |
| August 29, 2000 | - A man was arrested for starting a Brooklyn stable fire that killed twenty-one horses; police said he had been smoking marijuana.
| |
| July 25, 2000 | - In California, a federal judge ruled that the government had failed to present convincing arguments against the medical use of marijuana.
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