RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Brazilian rapper MV Bill added his voice to a chorus of criticism of President Jair Bolsonaro for downplaying the gravity of the new coronavirus epidemic in a video clip that urges people to protect themselves. His rap “Quarantine” r... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday aimed at preventing counterfeit products from abroad from being sold to U.S. citizens who shop online using Amazon.com, Walmart.com or other ecommerce websites, the White House s... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China will use its national drug bulk-buy scheme to lower the price of drugs currently sold at higher prices compared with other markets, it said in an official statement. The move could force international drugmakers to further cut prices ... More »
(Reuters Health) – Teens and young adults have a higher likelihood of taking up marijuana if their parents use the drug, a new study suggests. From a survey of nearly 25,000 parent-child pairs, researchers found that parental marijuana use was associated with ... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese actress Erika Sawajiri, famous for her role in 2005 drama “1 Litre of Tears”, has been arrested on suspicion of possessing drugs, NHK reported on Saturday citing unnamed sources. The 33-year-old actress, who this year starred in a TV... More »
MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Australia will provide A$3 million ($2.03 million) for research on the use of cannabis to help cancer patients, its health minister said on Sunday, as the demand for medicinal cannabis products grows rapidly. While legal in most of Austra... More »
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has sent a draft law to Congress that aims to grant amnesty to people serving jail time for lesser offenses, including abortion and possession of small amounts of drugs, the government said ... More »
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican prosecutors will target a former attorney general and his top aides in their investigation into the handling of a controversial probe into the disappearance five years ago of 43 student teachers, a government official said on Su... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Justice examined using fentanyl in lethal injections as it prepared last year to resume executing condemned prisoners, a then untested use of the powerful, addictive opioid that has helped fuel a national crisis of o... More »
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, in his first state of the union address on Sunday, doubled down on his approach to managing Latin America’s second-largest economy, saying the interests of private firms would be subordinat... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said on Monday that it will move ahead with a long-delayed expansion of its marijuana research program, in a sign that the Trump administration’s hostility to the drug may be waning as a growing n... More »
(Reuters) – An Oklahoma judge on Monday ruled that Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) was liable for its part in fueling the opioid epidemic and ordered the drugmaker to pay $572 million following a trial in a lawsuit brought by the state’s attorney general. J&J said i... More »
(Reuters) – A Florida man who was found to have ecstasy pills shaped like U.S. President Donald Trump’s head has been charged with unlawful possession of controlled substances, according Pinellas County court documents. Brendan Dolan-King, 23, was charged on F... More »
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – A masked Rio de Janeiro inmate dressed as a woman tried to break out of a Brazilian jail this weekend in a surreal act of derring-do, only to be thwarted on the cusp of freedom by state prison authorities. Clauvino da Silva, a drug d... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – A clumsy driver led police to a A$200 million ($140 million) drug bust in Australia after he crashed a van laden with 270 kg (600 lb) of methamphetamines into a patrol car parked outside a police station in suburban Sydney. The man, 28, slam... More »
MADRID (Reuters) – A Colombian man was detained at Barcelona’s international airport after half a kilo of cocaine was found hidden under an over-sized toupee, Spanish police said on Tuesday. Arriving on a flight from Bogota, the man attracted police attention ... More »
(Reuters) – Oklahoma’s attorney general is expected on Monday to urge a judge to find Johnson & Johnson responsible for flooding the market with painkillers and fueling the U.S. opioid epidemic, as the first trial in nationwide litigation over the drug crisis ... More »
MANILA (Reuters) – Impunity and unlawful killings continue unabated three years into the Philippines’ war on drugs, with a pattern of executions under the guise of police sting operations and a state unwilling to investigate them, a report said on Monday. The ... More »
CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) – Canada’s Calgary Stampede, known as the country’s biggest and booziest annual party, is banning the use of cannabis in the first year that legislators made the drug legal nationwide. The Stampede, which started on Thursday and runs... More »
BOSTON/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd said on Sunday it had agreed to pay an $85 million settlement with the state of Oklahoma days before the company was set to face trial over allegations that it and other drugmakers helped fuel the... More »
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Teva Pharmaceutical Industries’ chief financial officer on Sunday reiterated that the company has done nothing wrong in the wake of a price-fixing lawsuit filed by 44 U.S. states. Mike McClellan told a conference in Israel that the suit w... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. states filed a lawsuit accusing Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc of orchestrating a sweeping scheme with 19 other drug companies to inflate drug prices – sometimes by more than 1,000% – and stifle competition for generic drugs, state pr... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – China has pledged to stem a flood of the synthetic opioid fentanyl onto America’s streets, where it kills thousands of people a month, but U.S. security experts are skeptical about whether Beijing is willing, or even able, to follow thro... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll: a new movie about the antics of 1980s metal hellraisers Motley Crue, a band known as much for their hedonism as their music, has it all. “The Dirt”, based on the band’s best-selling autobiography, charts the ris... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he may extend a March 1 deadline for reaching a trade deal with China while keeping current tariffs in place, adding that the negotiations are “very complicated.” “There is a possibility that I ... More »
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel’s cabinet approved on Sunday a law to allow exports of medical cannabis in a move expected to boost state revenues and the agriculture sector, and which frustrates critics who fear it could lead to more recreational use of the drug... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – A Chinese court on Monday sentenced a Canadian man to death for drug smuggling after prosecutors said an original 15-year sentence given in November was too lenient. Dalian Intermediate People’s Court in the northeast province of Liaoning r... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – As a partial U.S. government shutdown neared the three-week mark, Democrats on Wednesday were set to test Republicans’ resolve in backing President Donald Trump’s drive to build a wall on the border with Mexico, which has sparked an impa... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump urged Congress in a televised speech on Tuesday to give him $5.7 billion this year to help build a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico but stopped short of declaring a national emergency to pay for the barrier with... More »
LISBON (Reuters) – Who would bring a suitcase full of olive oil to Portugal, one of the world’s biggest producers of the stuff? Police at Lisbon airport were already suspicious of one passenger before they discovered 24 bottles of extra virgin olive oil marked... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – The Lebanese army killed a suspected drug dealer and seven others during a raid in northeast Lebanon on Monday, the army said. During the raid, which took place near the town of Brital, not far from the border with Syria, soldiers were fired... More »
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel’s Together Pharma said on Tuesday it will set up a new company with Premier Dead Sea to sell cosmetics based on cannabis and Dead Sea minerals. The firm said the products would be based on CBD, or Cannabidiol — a constitute of the ... More »
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli pharmaceuticals company PainReform has received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to begin late-stage clinical studies for a pain relief drug that is a departure from opiate-based narcotics, it said on Tues... More »
GENEVA (Reuters) – Poverty in the United States is extensive and deepening under the Trump administration whose policies seem aimed at removing the safety net from millions of poor people, while rewarding the rich, a U.N. human rights investigator has found. P... More »
(Reuters) – Latin America must give serious thought to legalizing drugs in order to reduce the human cost of prohibition, the head of a United Nations agency for the region said on Monday. Tens of thousands of people across Latin America have died in violence ... More »
NILAI, Malaysia (Reuters) – Malaysia has made its largest ever seizure of crystal methamphetamine, officials said on Monday, finding nearly 1.2 tonnes of the drug disguised as tea in a shipment from Myanmar, and arrested six suspected traffickers. The bust com... More »
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican business leaders called out the government on Monday over a recent wave of criminal activity that has terrorized large swaths of Latin America’s second-largest economy and led some prominent firms to cut back operations. Two of ... More »
(Reuters) – Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner said on Monday he is seeking to reinstate the death penalty for mass murder and killing a police officer, a move that comes when capital punishment nationwide is at lows not seen for about a quarter century. Rauner, a... More »
(Reuters Health) – A growing number of American parents are using marijuana when they still have children living at home, according to a new study that suggests cannabis may be complicating efforts to limit kids’ exposure to second-hand smoke. Researchers exam... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said on Friday it had suspended a Louisiana pharmaceutical distributor from selling controlled substances for allegedly selling unusually large quantities of opioids to pharmacies without reportin... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A Virginia judge ruled on Thursday there was enough evidence to proceed with a felony drug case against actress and anti-sexual-harassment activist Rose McGowan, a prosecutor said. McGowan, one of the first women to accuse Hollywood prod... More »
HARARE (Reuters) – Zimbabweans can now apply for licences to grow cannabis for medical and research purposes, the government has said in a legal notice, making the southern African nation the second country in Africa to legalize cultivation of the plant. Lesot... More »
(Reuters) – Both advocates and opponents of legalized marijuana reacted with caution on Saturday to signs from the White House that growers in U.S. states where the drug is permitted would be shielded from federal prosecution, saying it was too early to know t... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump will lift his administration’s plans for a possible crackdown on states that have legalized marijuana after talks with a Colorado senator, the White House said on Friday, an action that undercuts U.S. Attorney Gene... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China will remove import tariffs on cancer drugs from May 1, state media reported on Thursday, citing a meeting of the State Council, or cabinet, chaired by Premier Li Keqiang. China will also strengthen intellectual property right protecti... More »
The U.S. government’s Supreme Court battle with Microsoft Corp over whether technology companies can be forced to hand over data stored overseas could be nearing its end, after federal prosecutors asked that the case be dismissed. President Donald Trump on Mar... More »
(Reuters) – Arkansas’ attorney general on Thursday joined the widening mass of litigation against opioid manufacturers, accusing three drugmakers of promoting addictive painkillers in ways that falsely denied or trivialized their risks. Arkansas Attorney Gener... More »
U.S. President Donald Trump talks to his adviser Kellyanne Conway during an opioid summit being held at the White House in Washington, U.S., March 1, 2018. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday called for a feder... More »
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein talks to reporters in Jakarta, Indonesia February 7, 2018. REUTERS/Beawiharta GENEVA (Reuters) – The top United Nations human rights official called on Iran on Friday to halt executions of young peo... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate on Thursday confirmed John Demers to head the Justice Department’s national security division, after a Republican senator lifted a hold he had put on some of the department’s nominees in protest against the government’s m... More »
The top of five of U.S. President Donald Trump’s eight border wall prototypes are shown near completion along U.S.- Mexico border near San Diego, California, U.S., October 23, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump will unveil h... More »
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, U.S., February 9, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump will roll out an infrastructure plan on Monday that already f... More »
FILE PHOTO – White House budget director Mick Mulvaney is interviewed outside the White House in Washington, U.S., January 19, 2018. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House said on Sunday its budget proposal would include $200 billion for... More »
A man, whose wife was arrested during an anti-drug operation and has a bout of tuberculosis, coughs outside a window while his daughter plays with candles inside a shanty in Navotas, Metro Manila, Philippines, December 6, 2017. REUTERS/Dondi Tawatao MANILA Reu... More »
FILE PHOTO: A box of the Fentanyl-based drug Subsys, made by Insys Therapeutics Inc, appears in an undated photograph provided by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Alabama. U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Alabama/Hando... More »
ICSS – Securing Sport 2015 – Harold Pratt House, New York – 3/11/15 Governor of Arizona, Doug Ducey, speaking at Day 1 of Securing Sport 2015 – the annual conference of the International Centre for Sports Security (ICSS) Photo Hilary Swift for ICSS PHOENIX (Re... More »
Philippines’ President Rodrigo Duterte Rodrigo Duterte gestures during a news conference on the sidelines of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Pasay, metro Manila, Philippines, November 14, 2017. REUTERS/Dondi Tawatao NEW DELHI (Reu... More »
FILE PHOTO: Marijuana is seen for sale at Harborside, one of California’s largest and oldest dispensaries of medical marijuana, on the first day of legalized recreational marijuana sales in Oakland, California, U.S., January 1, 2018. REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage/F... More »
FILE PHOTO: A pharmacist holds prescription painkiller OxyContin, 40mg pills, made by Purdue Pharma L.P. at a local pharmacy, in Provo, Utah, U.S. on April 25, 2017. REUTERS/George Frey/File Photo (Reuters) – A federal judge pushing for a quick settlement of l... More »
A Rhode Island rapper whose songs include "Sell Drugsz" and "Feds Watching" has been sentenced to three years in federal prison for trafficking heroin and fentanyl, federal prosecutors said on Wednesday. More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Kmart Corp, a unit of Sears Holdings Corp, has agreed to pay $32.3 million to settle allegations that its pharmacies failed to report discounted prescription drug prices to federal health programs, the U.S. Justice Department said on Fri... More »
Marijuana plants are seen in an indoor marijuana plantation of a marijuana smokers club in the outskirts of Montevideo, Uruguay July 16, 2017. Picture taken July 16, 2017 REUTERS/Andres Stapff LONDON (Reuters) – An ingredient in cannabis called cannabidiol or ... More »
A late night Tweet is seen from the personal Twitter account of U.S. President Donald Trump May 31, 2017. The Tweet reads, “Despite the constant negative press covfefe”. Donald Trump/Twitter/Handout via REUTERS NEW YORK (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s Ova... More »
Opioid drug abuse has killed more Americans than the Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam wars combined, and U.S. veterans and advocates this Veteran's Day are focusing on how to help victims of the crisis. More »
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said on Thursday that it would classify illicit versions of the synthetic opioid fentanyl at the same level as heroin, allowing criminal prosecution of anyone who possesses, distributes or manufactures illicit versions ... More »
The billionaire founder of Insys Therapeutics Inc, John Kapoor, has resigned from the company's board of directors, Insys said in a statement on Sunday. More »
Eagle Pharmaceuticals Inc said on Friday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration tentatively approved its diluted version of Eli Lilly and Co's blockbuster cancer drug Alimta. More »
The billionaire founder of Insys Therapeutics Inc was arrested on Thursday on U.S. charges he participated in a scheme to bribe doctors to prescribe a fentanyl-based cancer pain drug, marking a step by authorities to fight the opioid epidemic. More »
U.S. President Donald Trump declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency on Thursday, stopping short of a national emergency declaration he promised months ago that would have freed up more federal money. More »
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions equated the opioid epidemic to a personal failing by many Americans who cannot "say no" to drugs on Thursday, and he said that marijuana could be serving as a gateway to the problem. More »
Peru's conservative Congress passed a bill to legalize medical marijuana late on Thursday with a 68-5 vote in favor of allowing cannabis oil to be produced, imported and commercialized. More »
Actor Shia LaBeouf pleaded guilty in a Georgia court on Thursday to one count of obstruction and was sentenced to community service and a year of probation following his July arrest on charges of public intoxication and disorderly conduct. More »
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he would review a report that his nominee for drug czar championed a law that weakened the government's ability to fight the nation's opioid epidemic, and said he could consider jettisoning the pick. More »
A group of civil society organizations has demanded that Apple Inc (AAPL.O) remove from its app store games it said violated the tech firm's guidelines and promoted violence and killings commonplace in the Philippines' war on drugs. More »
New Jersey on Thursday accused Insys Therapeutics Inc of engaging in a fraudulent scheme to boost sales of a fentanyl-based cancer pain drug, as Massachusetts announced a $500,000 settlement with the drugmaker to resolve similar allegations. More »
The Philippines' top police commander on Tuesday said he would not prevent officers involved in the country's bloody war on drugs from seeking church protection and testifying to their alleged abuses, providing they told the truth. More »
A judge in Mexico ordered on Thursday that bank accounts linked to businesses owned by soccer star Rafa Marquez be unfrozen, following a designation in August by the U.S. government that the sportsman was linked to a suspected drug trafficker. More »
Washington state on Thursday sued OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP, becoming the latest state or local government to file a lawsuit seeking to hold pharmaceutical companies accountable for a national opioid addiction epidemic. More »
Canada's biggest licensed producer of medical marijuana has bought land next to its greenhouse production site that will allow it to more than double the total volume of cannabis it can grow, its chief executive said on Thursday. More »
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte told police on Monday they could kill "idiots" who violently resist arrest, two days after hundreds of people turned the funeral of a slain teenager into a protest against his deadly war on drugs. More »
Insys Therapeutics Inc has agreed to pay $4.45 million to resolve a lawsuit by Illinois' attorney general claiming it deceptively marketed an addictive fentanyl-based cancer pain drug for off-label uses. More »
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) on Friday proposed a 20 percent reduction in the manufacture of certain commonly prescribed opioid painkillers as well as other controlled substances for next year. More »
FILE PHOTO: Singer Aaron Carter poses on the red carpet at the 52nd annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles January 31, 2010. Singer Aaron Carter was arrested on Saturday in Georgia and charged with driving under the influence and possession of marijuana, accordin... More »
Two former Insys Therapeutics Inc sales representatives including the wife of its ex-chief executive pleaded guilty on Tuesday to engaging in schemes to pay kickbacks to medical practitioners to prescribe a drug containing the opioid fentanyl. More »
CVS Health Corp has paid $5 million to resolve allegations that pharmacies it operates in California failed to keep and maintain accurate records of prescription drugs, the U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday. More »
Endo International Plc said on Thursday it agreed to withdraw its long-acting opioid painkiller Opana ER from the market after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration declared its benefit did not outweigh public health risks associated with opioid abuse. More »
The main U.S. trade group for generic pharmaceutical companies filed a lawsuit on Thursday seeking to block a recently adopted Maryland law that lets the state attorney general sue generic drugmakers that sharply raise prices. More »
FILE PHOTO: Carrie Fisher poses for cameras as she arrives at the European Premiere of ”Star Wars, The Force Awakens” in Leicester Square, London, December 16, 2015. REUTERS/Paul Hackett/File Photo The death last year of actor Carrie Fisher, best known for her... More »
File photo: Luis Alberto Moreno, president of the Inter-American Bank, speaks during a news conference in Managua, Nicaragua April 21, 2016. REUTERS/Oswaldo Rivas U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposed spending cuts for Central America are “not a good sign” fo... More »
GW Pharmaceuticals is set to file its cannabis-derived drug with U.S. regulators imminently, following publication of detailed data on its success in fighting severe childhood epilepsy. More »
Two former executives of Heritage Pharmaceuticals who pleaded guilty to fixing drug prices in January have agreed to settle with 41 states and territories involved in the probe, the Connecticut attorney general’s office said on Wednesday. More »
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte attends the World Economic Forum on ASEAN at a hotel in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, May 11, 2017. REUTERS/Samrang Pring Philippine lawmakers started hearing an impeachment complaint against President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday, wh... More »
Vermont lawmakers on Wednesday approved a measure to legalize recreational use of marijuana, which if not vetoed by the governor would make the state the ninth to legalize the drug and the first to do so by legislation rather than ballot initiative. More »
A woman wears a jersey reading ‘Therapeutic Marijuana’ during a rally against drug trafficking and in favor of the legalization of self-cultivation of marijuana for medicinal and recreational purposes in Santiago, Chile, April 20, 2017. Picture taken April 20,... More »
(L-R) Canada’s Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale, Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, Health Minister Jane Philpott and Bill Blair, the government’s point man on the legalised marijuana file, arrive at a news conference in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, April ... More »
A pharmacy employee looks for medication as she works to fill a prescription while working at a pharmacy in New York December 23, 2009. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson Maryland lawmakers have passed a first-in-the-nation measure that lets the state attorney general sue ... More »
Magdalo Partylist Congressman Gary Alejano speaks during a news conference at the House of Representatives in Quezon city, Metro Manila in the Philippines March 30, 2017. REUTERS/Erik De Castro A Philippines lawmaker filed supplementary charges on Thursday to ... More »
Demonstrators hold up signs as they wait outside the Congress for the Senate to pass a law to legalise the medical use of cannabis in Buenos Aires, Argentina, March 29, 2017. The sign show a girl named Nayra, who suffers from refractory partial epilepsy and ha... More »
FILE PHOTO – A man injects himself with heroin using a needle obtained from the People’s Harm Reduction Alliance, the nation’s largest needle-exchange program, in Seattle, Washington April 30, 2015. REUTERS/David Ryder/File Photo Heroin use in the United State... More »
A man prepares a cigarette mixed with marijuana during Cannatech 2017, an annual global cannabis industry event, in Tel Aviv, Israel March 20, 2017. Picture taken March 20, 2017. REUTERS/Amir Cohen Israel, a leader in marijuana research and health technology, ... More »
