In The News

Medicine Shortages? South China Morning Post

Simone McCarthy March 4, 2020
China has ordered closures of businesses and schools to prevent the spread of COVID-19. “As the world’s top producer of active pharmaceutical ingredients, … China’s disrupted factory output has the potential to upset global supply chains, and regulators have been watching with concern,” reports Simone McCarthy for South China Morning Post. The US Food and Drug Administration named 20 drugs with...

OxyContin and Foreign Sales: New York Times

Matthew Goldstein, Danny Hakim and Jan Hoffman September 10, 2019
The United States strives to bring an end to the opioids crisis, preventing addition and punishing pharmaceutical companies, distributors and physicians that doled out pills in alarming numbers. Purdue Pharma is in negotiations with litigators, but the owners “want to keep selling OxyContin and other drugs abroad for as many as seven more years, through another company they own, Mundipharma,...

Ebola Treatments Show Promise: Popular Science

Nicole Wetsman August 14, 2019
Preliminary data suggest two experimental treatments for Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo are improving survival rates. The fatality rate for Ebola is 67 percent, and with the antibody treatments, risk of death fell to 10 percent, reports Nicole Wetsman. She explains how the World Health Organization developed a plan for ethical testing of treatments during such emergencies after the...

Fentanyl Fuels Cartel: Associated Press

February 14, 2019
Despite the conviction of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the US demand for illegal drugs has not subsided. The Sinaloa drug cartel is under new leadership, less flamboyant and violent, and still maintains an international network bringing in product from places near and far, whether Colombia or Malaysia. “Those heaping bags of fentanyl – sourced in China – and plastic tubs of crystal meth, heroin...

Stratfor: Wall No Help on US-Mexico Border Dilemma

Scott Stewart January 23, 2019
The US government shutdown continues as the Donald Trump demands $5 billion to construct a wall along the US-Mexican border. Most analysts suggest a wall is unnecessary. Countries have reason to control borders, including crime control, but a wall will not end the greed behind delivery of illegal drugs and low-wage workers. Terrorists do not enter the United States from the southern border,...

AP: World’s Largest Legal Marijuana Marketplace

Rob Gillies and Gene Johnson October 17, 2018
Sales of legal recreational marijuana became legal in Canada as of October 17, the second country after Uruguay, and long lines and a celebratory spirt greeted the new product. An announcement is planned on pardoning those with previous convictions for possessing small amounts. Legal retail and online sales will contribute to tax revenues. “Canada has had legal medical marijuana since 2001 and...

BBC: Fentanyl Crisis and Source of Illegal Drugs

September 24, 2018
The escalating trade quarrel between China and the United States prompts other worries and accusations. “The US believes factory-produced opioids - powerful painkillers increasingly abused by US citizens - are being made in China and sold from there too,” reports BBC News. ”One of the main ones is fentanyl - 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine - which is only approved in the US for severe pain...