Tag: opioid epidemic

FBI Says Global Operation Led to 270 Arrests Targeting Dark-Web Drug Trafficking

The FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ) on Thursday announced that 270 people were arrested and that hundreds of pounds of fentanyl were seized as part of an operation targeting drug traffickers on darknet websites.

The arrests were made in Austria, Brazil, France, Germany, the Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States under “Operation RapTor,” according to the FBI. The name of the operation refers to the Tor software and browser that allows for anonymous web browsing and to access darkweb, or darknet, websites that are normally not accessible through standard browsers or search engines.

In a statement, the DOJ said that “more than $200 million in currency and digital assets, over two metric tons of drugs, 144 kilograms [317 lbs] of fentanyl or fentanyl-laced narcotics, and over 180 firearms” were also seized in the operation.

FBI officials noted that one kilogram, or 2.2 pounds, of fentanyl has the potential to kill up to 500,000 people. That drug has led to hundreds of thousands of overdose deaths in the United States over the past decade or so, and it’s currently the leading cause of overdose deaths in the country, federal health officials say.

“By cowardly hiding online, these traffickers have wreaked havoc across our country and directly fueled the fentanyl crisis and gun violence impacting our American communities and neighborhoods,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement on Thursday. “But the ease and accessibility of their crimes ends today.”

An operation targeting an apartment in Los Angeles that was being used as a hub to distribute cocaine and methamphetamine on the dark web also led to the seizure of “large amounts of cash and suspected drugs,” the FBI said.

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Sinaloa cartel leaders charged with narco-terrorism after authorities seize nearly 2 tons of fentanyl

Two leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel were hit with narco-terrorism charges on Tuesday for their involvement in allegedly trafficking “massive” amounts of drugs into the United States, according to federal officials.

Pedro Inzunza Noriega and his son, Pedro Inzunza Coronel, were both named in an unsealed federal indictment on Tuesday and charged with narco-terrorism, material support of terrorism, drug trafficking and money laundering as members of the Beltran Leyva Organization (BLO), which is a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel.

Five other BLO leaders were charged with drug trafficking and money laundering.

The charges come after the Trump administration designated the Sinaloa Cartel as a Foreign Terrorist Organization on Feb. 20.

Prosecutors alleged in court documents that Noriega works closely with his son to both produce and “aggressively traffic” fentanyl into the United States.

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China: Fentanyl Is Not Our Problem

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun insisted on Friday that “fentanyl is the U.S.’s problem, not China’s.”

“The U.S. and the U.S. alone has the responsibility to solve it,” Guo said at a press briefing.

“Despite the goodwill China has shown, the U.S. slapped tariffs on Chinese imports and blames it on fentanyl. This is bullying through and through, and highly damaging to dialogue and cooperation on counter-narcotics,” he complained.

“The U.S. should know that vilifying others will not hide its failed responsibility, to punish those who try to help will not solve any problem, and intimidation or threats are certainly not the right way to engage with China,” he said.

Guo was responding to reports about slow progress in talks between U.S. and Chinese officials about curtailing China’s supply of precursor chemicals for the deadly fentanyl drug. U.S. officials told Reuters on Wednesday that the Chinese “are failing to negotiate in good faith.”

These officials said China is “exchanging intelligence about traffickers,” but its proposals to resolve the fentanyl crisis have been “inadequate.”

Also, while China might be willing to share intel about traffickers, it rarely takes serious action against illicit chemical manufacturers. This is partly because fentanyl precursor chemicals also have legitimate uses, and the Chinese government is reluctant to compromise the profits of their huge chemical companies.

“Start putting big, important people behind bars as a signal to the whole industry or black market. We just haven’t seen that,” one U.S. official said.

The Trump administration wants China to aggressively prosecute those who produce and sell fentanyl chemicals, while China is merely offering to regulate the chemicals a little more tightly. Even this offer seems largely rhetorical to U.S. negotiators, who said “talk is cheap,” but China never seems to do anything meaningful to shut down the chemical pipeline.

Trump’s first round of 20 percent tariffs on China in February was presented as punishment for China failing to take the fentanyl crisis seriously enough. China responded by saying it would do nothing further to “address the fentanyl problem” until the tariffs were lifted.

American officials noted that China is a member of the U.N. Commission on Narcotic Drugs, which unanimously agreed to place tighter controls on fentanyl chemicals at a March 2024 meeting in Vienna, Austria. China’s proposals to regulate more chemicals are, therefore, a “bad faith” offer to do something it already pledged to do over a year ago.

Pressed on the issue, Chinese officials have lately been repeating Guo’s talking point that fentanyl is entirely an American problem, even though no one disputes that most of the chemicals come from China.

The biggest change in fentanyl production since the first Trump term has been that China no longer ships the precursor chemicals directly to American drug dealers – instead, it ships the chemicals to Mexican cartels, who manufacture the fentanyl and smuggle it across the U.S. border. Fentanyl users and traffickers in the United States say there has been very little reduction in the supply of the drug since China promised to crack down on chemical producers.

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Southern California mayor’s twisted plan to wipe out homeless people sparks widespread condemnation

A Southern California mayor has sparked mass condemnation after revealing he’d give homeless residents ‘all the fentanyl they want’ in an effort to wipe them out.

R. Rex Parris, the mayor of Lancaster, made the remarks in front of stunned residents and councilmembers at a city council meeting earlier in the year but footage of his speech has just emerged.

Huge swathes of California have been gripped by a fentanyl crisis as the highly addictive and deadly drug becomes more accessible and affordable on the streets.

Just a tiny, two milligrams dose of the drug is enough to kill a human.  

Most of California is also in the grips of a housing crisis, as home costs soar and new developments stagnate – made exponentially worse by the devastating bushfires which tore through Los Angeles in January.

The Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count registered as many as 6,672 people experiencing homelessness in Lancaster and its surrounding areas in 2024.

Asked about his vision to tackle the crisis, the 73-year-old Republican mayor did not mince his words.

‘What I want to do is give them free fentanyl,’ Parris told the February 25 meeting, to the bewilderment of everybody else in the room.

‘I mean, that’s what I want to do. I want to give them all the fentanyl they want.’ 

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CBD Helped Relieve Chronic Pain In More Than 98% Of Patients, Newly Published Study Finds

The marijuana component CBD can help patients manage chronic pain even at low dosages, making it “a promising alternative to conventional pain management strategies,” according to new research.

The peer-reviewed study, published in the journal Cureus, drew from responses to a survey posted on social media and in multiple medical clinics. Key findings, authors wrote, “are that the use of cannabinoids is positively associated with decreased chronic pain, even at low dosages (<100 mg).”

Most patients reported no side effects, while those who did reported only mild effects, the report says. No severe side effects were reported.

“These findings suggest that CBD may serve as a promising alternative to conventional pain management strategies,” the study concludes. “We believe these data point the way for new and continued avenues of research that can better optimize treatment regimens and help patients with chronic pain.”

The survey included 121 adults aged 21 and older who self-reported as having chronic pain, defined as pain lasting six months or longer. Questions involved demographics, patients’ perceptions of CBD’s effectiveness, dosage, frequency of use and side effects.

Authors wrote that they set out “to further explore this topic and add to the literature with the aim of asking chronic pain patients who use CBD for pain relief about their perceived benefits and side effects of CBD.”

Respondents were an average age of 37 years, and 61.2 percent were male. Most—100 people—said their pain had lasted two years or longer, while 21 said their pain had lasted 23 months or less.

As for causes of pain, the most common were arthritis (15.7 percent), disc herniation (14.9 percent), fibromyalgia (7.4 percent), headache or migraine (6.6 percent) and neuropathy (6.6 percent). Participants could select multiple responses.

Subjects were asked to rate their baseline level of chronic pain before CBD use on a scale from 1 to 10, as well as their pain level after beginning treatment.

“The average baseline level of chronic pain across participants before CBD was 5.4 ± 1.8,” the report says, “which decreased to 2.6 ± 1.7 (p < 0.0001, n = 121) after CBD, which is a decrease of 2.8 ± 1.7.”

Improvement was reported by 98.3 percent of subjects, while the remainder (1.7 percent, or two participants) reported no improvement at all. Three subjects “reported complete resolution of their baseline chronic pain after CBD,” according to the research.

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Canadian Banks Linked To Chinese Fentanyl Laundering Risk US Treasury Sanctions After Cartel Terror Designation

In an explosive interview with The Bureau’s Sam Cooper, David Asher – a former senior U.S. State Department official with close ties to the Trump administration’s financial and national security apparatus—issued a stark warning: Canadian banks could soon face a “new universe” of regulatory scrutiny from the U.S. Treasury. This follows the formal designation of Mexican cartels, including the Sinaloa group, as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs). According to Asher, the command-and-control structure for laundering proceeds from synthetic narcotics—produced using Chinese precursor chemicals—is largely orchestrated by Chinese triads operating out of Canada.

Asher warned that these transnational crime gang nexus seriously threatens both U.S. national security and the stability of the North American financial system. 

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A New Study Adds to the Evidence That Drug Busts Result in More Overdose Deaths

Prohibition makes drug use more dangerous by creating a black market in which quality and potency are highly variable and unpredictable. Ramped-up enforcement of prohibition magnifies that problem, as dramatically demonstrated by the deadly impact of restricting access to pain medication at the same time that illicit fentanyl was proliferating as a heroin booster and substitute. That sort of perverse effect pervades drug law enforcement, as illustrated by a new study that found drug seizures in San Francisco were associated with a substantial increase in overdose risk.

The study included 2,653 drug seizures and 1,833 opioid-related deaths from 2020 to 2023. “Within the surrounding 100, 250, and 500 meters,” RTI International researcher Alex H. Kral and his two co-authors reported in JAMA Network Open on Wednesday, “drug seizures were associated with a statistically significant increase in the relative risk for fatal opioid overdoses.”

That is not the result that local authorities expected. “Since fentanyl entered the unregulated drug supply in San Francisco, California, around 2019, overdose mortality rates have reached record highs,” Kral et al. note. “This has sparked increased enforcement of drug laws.”

In December 2021, then-Mayor London Breed “declared a state of emergency in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco to enable ‘more coordinated enforcement and disruption of illegal activities.'” District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, who took office in July 2022, “made combatting open-air drug markets and holding drug dealers accountable a top priority of her administration,” her office brags. In May 2023, Kral et al. note, Gov. Gavin Newsom “authorized the assignment of California Highway Patrol and California National Guard personnel to a new multiagency operation with the San Francisco Police Department aimed at ‘targeting fentanyl trafficking, disrupting the supply of the deadly drug in the city, and holding the operators of drug trafficking rings accountable.'”

How did all of that work out? The day after cops busted drug dealers, Kral et al. found, the risk of fatal overdoses rose by 74 percent, on average, within 100 meters. The increase in risk persisted for as long as a week, falling to 55 percent after two days, 45 percent after three days, and 27 percent after seven days. That pattern reinforces the conclusion that these police interventions, which aimed to reduce drug-related deaths, had the opposite effect.

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Purdue Pharma Files New Bankruptcy Plan For $7.4 Billion Opioid Settlement

Drugmaker Purdue Pharma filed a new bankruptcy plan on Tuesday, marking a major step towards finalizing a proposed opioid settlement of $7.4 billion.

The maker of the powerful semi-synthetic opioid oxycodone—also marketed as OxyContin and by other names—filed a Chapter 11 reorganization plan and related disclosure statement with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.

According to a statement announcing the proposal, a new public benefit company “100 percent devoted to improving the lives of Americans,” would be created after Purdue is dissolved, and its assets transferred to the new company.

The Sackler family, which previously owned Purdue Pharma, would “have no ownership interest or role with the new company,” according to the statement, which noted family members have had no involvement in Purdue since the end of 2018.

The new company would have a core mission to abate the opioid crisis and improve public health, including by developing and distributing lifesaving opioid use disorder and overdose rescue medicines for no profit, the statement said.

It would also be run by a board appointed by state governments, the statement added.

Assuming full creditor participation, the plan would see the Sacklers pay out approximately $6.5 billion in installments over the next 15 years—subject to certain reserves—to states, local governments, and individuals harmed by the crisis.

They would pay $1.5 billion on the day the reorganization plan becomes effective and Purdue would contribute 100 percent of its assets, “with an expected $900 million in cash available for distribution on the day of emergence,” according to the statement.

Purdue said it expects widespread creditor support for the deal.

According to the statement, the latest plan “is the only opioid settlement to date that meaningfully compensates individual victims” and, assuming full participation, “individual victims will receive more than $850 million, subject to certain reserves.”

A court hearing to approve the disclosure statement is currently expected to take place in May, according to the statement.

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Illinois bill would allow addicts to use drugs legally at ‘overdose prevention sites’

Illinois legislators are proposing a bill that would let drug addicts use illicit substances at “overdose prevention sites” under the supervision of medical personnel.

House Bill 2929, introduced by Rep. La Shawn Ford (D-Chicago), would require the Department of Human Services to research the possibility of following the lead of New York and Rhode Island in creating sites where drug users could use pre-obtained substances in a safe environment, and be connected with treatment services.

The bill would grant criminal immunity to people who use drugs at the proposed sites.

Ford said no tax dollars would be used in the creation of the program.

“The opioid settlement fund will be the fund that we will use if this becomes law to fund the program, so there will be no general revenue funds,” he said.

Rep. Bill Hauter (R-Morton) told the Center Square he was torn over the proposal, but ultimately voted for it.

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Using Marijuana Every Day Could Help People Quit Opioids, New Study Indicates

A newly published study found that among drug users who experience chronic pain, daily cannabis use was linked to a higher likelihood of quitting the use of opioids—especially among men.

“Participants reporting daily cannabis use exhibited higher rates of cessation compared to less frequent users or non-users,” says the report, published last week in the journal Drug and Alcohol Review.

When results were split by sex, researchers observed that “daily cannabis use was significantly associated with increased rates of opioid cessation among males.” Those differences “suggest potential differences in cannabis use behavior and effects,” the paper says, and underscores the need for further research.

The report was authored by an eight-person research team from the British Columbia Centre on Substance Abuse as well as the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University.

Between June 2014 and May 2022, the team examined data from 1,242 people who used drugs (PWUD) while also living with chronic pain. Of those, 764 experienced “a cessation event.”

Daily cannabis use, it says, “was positively associated with opioid cessation.”

“Our findings add to the growing evidence supporting the potential benefits of cannabis use among PWUD, underlining the need for further research,” authors wrote.

Indeed, a growing body of research to date has examined the associations between cannabis reform and opioids, often finding reductions in opioid use in areas that legalize marijuana for medical or adult use.

A recent federally funded study in the U.S., for example, found an association between state-level marijuana legalization and reduced prescriptions for opioid pain medications among commercially insured adults—indicating a possible substitution effect where patients are choosing to use cannabis instead of prescription drugs to treat pain.

That research, which was supported by a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, looked at national records of opioid prescription fills as well as prescribing of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and other pain medications. Analysis showed that prescription opioid fills dropped following legalization in U.S. while prescribing of non-opioid pain medications saw “marginally significant increases.”

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