Drug News

Heroin overdoses and deaths in Massachusetts surged last month after a decline over the summer, a sign that the wave of opioid addiction is overwhelming some efforts to curb the crisis. Ten months after then-governor Deval Patrick declared a public health emergency, State Police recorded 114 suspected opioid fatalities in December, nearly double the 60…

CARROLLTON, Ky. —Electronic cigarettes are used to help tobacco users quit smoking, but local authorities said some are using them as a disguise for drugs. E-cigarettes are composed of water vapor, flavoring and nicotine, but some are packing them with heroin and marijuana. “What they do is they take marijuana, then take the THC out…

Random drug testing rates for trucking company employees in safety sensitive positions, like truck drivers, will continue at 50 percent in the coming year, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announced Dec. 31. The agency says it based its decision to maintain the 50 percent rate on data from surveys conducted in 2012. Data from…

There is a new form of an old drug that has become Houston’s number one drug threat, and many people have never heard of it. In the sleazy underworld that is the methamphetamine trade, traffickers are getting more creative. Now, the drug in a liquid form is on the rise. “It can be put in…

(CNN) — Using marijuana at an early age could have long-term consequences on your brain and it may even lower your IQ, according to a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Researchers found that compared to nonusers, people who smoked marijuana starting as early as age 14 have less brain…

A CDC report published in last week’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report showed that heroin deaths in 28 states doubled from 2010 to 2012. The agency analyzed death certificate data from 28 states to come up with that finding, but it also reported that, despite this spike in the heroin-related death rate, more than twice…

SOUTH WINDSOR, Conn. (WTNH)– Police say a DATTCO bus driver was selling heroin out of his Manchester house and even though he’s been pulled off the road by the bus company, parents are very concerned. Police say they found a South Windsor school bus driver at the center of a major heroin ring operating out…

Drug dealers are peddling a new marijuana product called Wax that looks and feels like lip balm and packs a kick equivalent to smoking 15-20 joints of weed. Police in Roswell, Ga., discovered 80 grams of Wax during a recent drug bust. Roswell Police Officer Zachary Frommer told Fox 5 in Atlanta last week that…

WORCESTER — At least nine people have died here from suspected drug overdoses during the past six days, prompting authorities Wednesday to issue urgent health warnings as the state’s second-largest city became the latest front in the battle against heroin. “There’s something going on with the heroin,” Police Chief Gary Gemme said. “It’s either mixed…

With a booming startup culture cranked up by competitive VPs and adrenaline-driven coders and a tendency for stressed-out managers to look the other way, illicit drugs and black-market painkillers have become part of the landscape in Silicon Valley. For Google executive Forrest Timothy Hayes, heroin was the killer app. From the way the Santa Cruz,…