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☆ CNN Exclusive: Adderall prescriptions have been filled less often amid ongoing shortage in the US
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-02 | by ( Deidre Mcphillips | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

CNN —About 1 in every 10 people in the US who uses Adderall or similar combination drugs to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been affected by an ongoing shortage, a new analysis suggests. The US Food and Drug Administration announced that Adderall was in shortage in mid-October 2022, and the share of people with ADHD who filled their prescriptions for Adderall and related medications plunged in the following months. Patients were considered eligible for a monthly prescription fill if they had filled one within the previous two years. Prescriptions for medications used to treat ADHD surged during the Covid-19 pandemic, especially among young adults and women, one study found. But it’s been about a year and a half since she’s been able to fill her Adderall prescription in a “totally uneventful” way, she said.

Persons: Adderall, Robert Califf, Anne Milgram, David Goodman, ”, Mary Beth King, it’s, she’s, ” King, King, ” Goodman, John Mitchell, ” Mitchell, they’re, ’ ”, –, “, Dr, Sanjay Gupta, hasn’t Organizations: CNN, US Food and Drug Administration, Drug, of Psychiatry, Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, American Professional Society, New, Psychiatric Institute, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, Duke University School of Medicine, Get CNN, CNN Health Locations: Sweden

Guidepost didn't immediately respond to an email asking whether Morris & Dickson remains a client. Neither the DEA or Morris & Dickson immediately responded to a request for comment. While Morris & Dickson has managed to stay open, several of the pharmacies it supplied have closed, had their licenses revoked by the DEA or have been criminally prosecuted. Yet Morris & Dickson never suspended any shipments to the pharmacy. Over three years, it filed just three suspicious order reports to the DEA – none of which resulted in shipments being suspended.

Persons: Anne Milgram, Morris, Charles Dorman, Milgram's, Louis Milione, Milione, Morris & Dickson, Guidepost didn't, Dickson, ”, Katherine Pfaff, Judge Dorman, Wilkinson, Keith Wilkinson laundered, ___ Goodman Organizations: U.S . Drug, Morris, Dickson Co, Associated Press, AP, DEA, Morris & Dickson, Purdue Pharma, Guidepost Solutions, Morris &, Wilkinson Family Locations: Shreveport, La, New York, Morris, New Orleans, Miami, Mustian, Investigative@ap.org

Louis Milione retired from the DEA a second time this summer amid reporting by The Associated Press on potential conflicts caused by his prior consulting for the pharmaceutical industry. Milione had spent four years at Guidepost prior to his return, leveraging his extensive experience and contacts from a 21-year DEA career. “Should we say Welcome Back?” Guidepost quipped in a social media post this week announcing Milione’s rehire as president of global investigations and regulatory compliance. His career stands out for two cycles through the revolving door between government and industry, raising questions about the potential impact on the DEA’s mission to police drug companies blamed for tens of thousands of American overdose deaths. Morris & Dickson is still challenging the ruling, which threatens to put the $4 billion a year company out of business.

Persons: Louis Milione, Milione, Anne Milgram’s, “, ” Guidepost, Milione’s rehire, they’re, ”, Jeff Hauser, Viktor Bout, rehire Milione, Milgram, Lou Milione, Morris, Dickson, ” Milgram Organizations: WASHINGTON, Enforcement, Purdue Pharma, Associated Press, Guidepost Solutions, Justice, DEA’s, Dickson Co, DEA, AP, Morris, Department of Justice Locations: New York, America, Shreveport , Louisiana, Investigative@ap.org

☆ Ig Nobel prizes go to research into nose hairs, dead spiders and licking rocks
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-15 | by ( Catherine Nicholls | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

The scientists who researched these questions are among the winners of this year’s Ig Nobel Prizes – an accolade that has no affiliation to the Nobel Prizes – which aim to “celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative and spur people’s interest in science, medicine, and technology.”Rice University graduate student Faye Yap with a dead wolf spider for use as a necrobotic gripper. Brandon Martin/Rice UniversityThe Ig Nobel Prize’s 33rd ceremony took place virtually on Thursday night, with prizes awarded by “genuine, genuinely bemused” Nobel laureates over Zoom. Geologist Jan Zalasiewicz won the coveted Chemistry and Geology Prize for his research into why many scientists like to lick rocks. The Medicine Prize was awarded for research into how many nose hairs are in each of a person’s nostrils. The researchers will have the opportunity to meet one another at a companion Ig Nobel Face-to-Face event in Cambridge, Massachusetts in November.

Persons: Faye Yap, Brandon Martin, Jan Zalasiewicz, Zalasiewicz, ”, urologist Seung, Homei, Hiromi Nakamura, Stanley Milgram, Leonard Bickman, Lawrence Berkowitz Organizations: London CNN, ” Rice University, Rice University, Ig, Zimbabwe, Rice University in Texas, Mechanical, Communication, Public Locations: United States, United Kingdom, China, Cambridge , Massachusetts

☆ Pot stocks jump as federal agency reportedly seeks to downgrade cannabis from the hard-drug category
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-30 | by ( Filip De Mott | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The Drug Enforcement Agency received an official recommendation to downgrade marijuana. Currently, pot is classified as a Schedule I drug, on par with heroin. Marijuana's category downgrade would be a serious shift for the cannabis industry, easing restrictions on its use. The largest marijuana exchange traded fund, the AdvisorShares Pure US Cannabis ETF, gained around 19%. It was outpaced by the Roundhill Cannabis ETF, at 20%.

Persons: Anne Milgram, Cronos, SNDL Organizations: Drug Enforcement Agency, Service, Bloomberg, Department of Health, Human Services, Drug, DEA, Cannabis ETF, Cannabis, Aurora Cannabis Locations: Wall, Silicon

☆ Mexican president refutes DEA estimates of cartel strength
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The comments come in response to testimony from U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Chief Anne Milgram on Mexican cartels as part of a hearing in the U.S. Congress. Speaking at a press conference, Lopez Obrador questioned her figures and urged the DEA to share more details. The pushback from Lopez Obrador is the latest in ongoing tensions between the Mexican government and the DEA. His government dropped the case against Mexico's former Defense Minister Salvador Cienfuegos, who the DEA alleged colluded with drug lords. Lopez Obrador accused the DEA of fabricating the case.

Persons: Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Anne Milgram, Milgram, Lopez Obrador, Salvador Cienfuegos, Sarah Kinosian, Alistair Bell, Richard Chang Organizations: Mexico Presidency, REUTERS, REUTERS MEXICO CITY, U.S, . Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S . Congress, Jalisco New Generation, U.S ., DEA, Mexico's, Defense, Thomson Locations: Tepic, Nayarit, Mexico, REUTERS MEXICO, United, Sinaloa Cartel, Jalisco, Sinaloa, CJNG

☆ How El Chapo’s sons built a fentanyl empire poisoning America
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +23 min

Headed by Iván, El Chapo’s oldest son, the siblings have emerged as key figures in the Sinaloa Cartel, U.S. and Mexican anti-narcotics officials said. But he was killed in 2008 in Culiacán in a hail of bullets amid infighting between warring factions of the Sinaloa Cartel. The agency in April placed Iván on the list of its 10 Most Wanted Fugitives, joining Jesús Alfredo and Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, a Sinaloa Cartel legend and El Chapo’s alleged former business partner. They also kidnapped eight soldiers and surrounded military housing where wives and children of Mexican soldiers lived, Mexican officials said. Despite that blow to the Sinaloa Cartel, fentanyl keeps flowing north.

Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the charges at a news conference in Washington, alongside Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator Anne Milgram and other top federal prosecutors. The fentanyl trafficking, weapons and money laundering charges in three indictments involved a total of 28 defendants: 23 of whom are based in Mexico, four in China and one in Guatemala. A senior administration official on a call with reporters on Friday called the reward offers “unprecedented.”“These targets traffic fentanyl from around the world including from Mexico, (China) and Guatemala. These reward offers are part of a government wide attempt to put a halt to trafficking in illicit fentanyl and its precursor,” they added. And in late March, the US Food and Drug Administration approved an over-the-counter version of the opioid overdose antidote Narcan for the first time.

April 14 (Reuters) - The United States has charged leaders of the Mexico-based Sinaloa Cartel with running a fentanyl trafficking operation fueled by Chinese chemical and pharmaceutical companies, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said on Friday. Federal prosecutors unsealed three separate indictments charging more than two dozen defendants based in Mexico, China and Guatemala, eight of whom are in custody. Among those awaiting extradition is Ovidio Guzman Lopez, one of El Chapo's sons, who was arrested in Mexico earlier this year. Prosecutors also charged four owners of Chinese companies that allegedly provided precursor chemicals to the cartel. "The PRC government must stop the unchecked flow of fentanyl precursor chemicals that are coming out of China," he said, referring to the People's Republic of China.

☆ Justice Department to announce charges against more than 24 Mexican drug cartel members
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Mirna Alsharif | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

The Justice Department plans to announce charges against more than 24 Mexican drug cartel leaders and members, according to senior law enforcement officials. The announcement is expected on Friday morning and is part of the Drug Enforcement Administration's push to target the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) groups, the officials say. "The Sinaloa cartel and the Jalisco cartel and their affiliates control the vast majority of the fentanyl global supply chain, from manufacture to distribution," DEA Administrator Anne Milgram told Congress last month. The Sinaloa cartel "remains the most powerful" drug trafficking organization in Mexico despite the conviction of El Chapo, experts said. El Chapo's arrest also led to intensification of bloody clashes with the CJNG, which split from the Sinaloa Cartel in 2010.

☆ Italian drugs cartels conceal payments via Chinese shadow banks
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Emilio Parodi | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +10 min

[1/3] Seized drugs are seen following an investigation on drugs cartels operating in Italy increasingly using shadow networks of unlicensed Chinese money brokers to launder their proceeds in this handout photo obtained by Reuters on April 4, 2023. Carabinieri/Handout via REUTERSMILAN, April 6 (Reuters) - Drugs cartels operating in Italy are increasingly using shadow networks of unlicensed Chinese money brokers to conceal cross-border payments, according to Italian judicial and law enforcement authorities. U.S. authorities have said Chinese “money brokers” represent one of the most worrisome new threats in their war on drugs, as a Reuters investigation in 2020 found. Chinese authorities have previously vowed to crackdown on underground banking. One of the first probes to come to light involving use of Chinese money brokers by Italian mobsters was linked to the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta group, one of the largest crime gangs in the world.

[1/6] Pills are pictured at a fentanyl pill manufacturing center and a methamphetamine lab seized by the Mexican Army, in Culiacan, in Sinaloa state, Mexico February 14, 2023. Reuters GraphicsThe hiked up figures are not credible, say two former senior law enforcement figures in Mexico and the United States, as well as two serving Mexican security sources. The description of the drugs the Mexicans say they seized in the labs also raises questions about the accuracy of the lab data, said two of the security sources. Laboratory busts, often in hard-to-reach mountainous areas, have historically been a key metric for how active Mexican security forces have been in targeting drug trafficking groups. In 2022, FGR reported 18 lab raids by all security agencies, compared to the army's count of 492 raids.

☆ Mexican president says more fentanyl enters the U.S. and Canada than Mexico
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

However, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told a news conference it was not Mexico that was responsible for the introduction of most fentanyl into the United States. "I maintain that more fentanyl reaches the United States and Canada directly than reaches Mexico," he said. Lopez Obrador, who has bristled at suggestions the U.S. could intervene in Mexico, said Mexican officials had explained to him that only blue fentanyl pills turned up in Mexico. "Over in the United States they've got all colors and flavors," the president said. Asked whether there were fentanyl production labs in the country, Lopez Obrador said "yes" but underlined that the raw materials used to make the drug were coming from Asia.

☆ A Senate hearing on drug trafficking shows how meaningless the world 'cartel' has become
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-26 | by ( Steven Dudley | Insight Crime | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

During a recent Senate hearing on fentanyl trafficking, lawmakers and officials used the word "cartel" 90 times. InSight Crime analysisA Sinaloa Cartel leadership chart from November 2015 with "El Chapo" Guzmán and two of his sons, Ivan Archivaldo and Jesus Alfredo. The Sinaloa Cartel, for instance, has at least three major poles of power, each of which is controlled by different leaders. Sinaloa cartel chief Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman arrives in New York after his extradition in January 2017. Milgram, for instance, pointed to the DEA's laser focus on the Sinaloa Cartel and the CJNG as the path to success.

☆ Why is Ovidio Guzmán one of Mexico’s most wanted men?
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

MEXICO CITY — Mexican security forces on Thursday arrested cartel leader Ovidio Guzmán, son of incarcerated kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán, the country’s defense minister said. Guzmán, known by nickname as “The Mouse,” became a high-level leader in the Sinaloa Cartel after his father’s arrest in 2016 and extradition in 2017. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador months later said he personally ordered Guzmán’s release to protect the population. While López Obrador took office in 2018 promising to trade a hard-on-crime security approach for one that tackles the root causes of violence, homicides are near record levels. Guzmán’s arrest Thursday could signal the government is willing and able to stand up to them.

☆ Explainer: Why Ovidio Guzman is one of Mexico's most wanted men
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Brendan O'Boyle | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

REUTERS/Raquel CunhaMEXICO CITY, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Mexican security forces on Thursday arrested cartel leader Ovidio Guzman, son of incarcerated kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the country's defense minister said. Guzman's detention in Culiacan, the capital of the northwestern state of Sinaloa, the heartland of Mexico's drug trade, follows his short-lived detention in 2019. Guzman, known by nickname "The Mouse," became a high-level leader in the Sinaloa Cartel after his father's arrest in 2016 and extradition in 2017. WHAT DOES GUZMAN'S ARREST MEAN FOR THE GOVERNMENT? Guzman's arrest Thursday could signal the government is willing and able to stand up to them.

☆ The DEA is alleging Truepill, Cerebral's former pharmacy partner, broke the law in filling prescriptions for highly regulated drugs
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Blake Dodge | Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The agency alleges that the pharmacy startup unlawfully dispensed stimulants used to treat ADHD. Truepill partnered with the mental-health startup Cerebral to send prescriptions to its patients. The Order to Show Cause requires that Truepill show evidence to justify its prescribing practices for controlled substances, which are highly regulated drugs. If the evidence isn't convincing, the pharmacy startup could have its DEA license revoked, which would leave the company unable to fill prescriptions for controlled substances. In "numerous instances," the startup dispensed prescriptions that weren't issued for a legitimate medical purpose, the DEA alleges.

☆ The DEA says drug cartels are putting fentanyl in candy to sell to kids. Cartel operatives say it's 'actually the opposite.'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Luis Chaparro | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Two operatives in the Sinaloa Cartel told Insider they're actually trying to do the opposite. But operatives in the Sinaloa Cartel, the Mexican criminal organization behind the biggest shipments of fentanyl to the US, told Insider their intention is actually the opposite. US authorities began their campaign several months before Halloween, warning of alleged attempts by Mexican drug cartels to entice kids into drugs by selling rainbow-colored fentanyl pills and adding fentanyl to Halloween candies. "Rainbow fentanyl — fentanyl pills and powder that come in a variety of bright colors, shapes, and sizes — is a deliberate effort by drug traffickers to drive addiction amongst kids and young adults," Milgram said. The Sinaloa Cartel operative denied that his organization is targeting kids or young adults in the US as their final users.

Drug cartels are using brightly colored “rainbow fentanyl” pills to target children as young as middle schoolers, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration warned Monday, signaling a new threat in the opioid crisis. “This is another tactic that they’re using to get more fentanyl to more people,” Milgram said. The DEA and other law enforcement agencies have seized fentanyl in the colorful presentation in 21 states, she said. In recent weeks, Milgram said, the agency has been called to middle schools to investigate fake pills that looked like medication but were actually fentanyl. The district is offering the lifesaving drug Narcan at all schools free to reverse the effects of fentanyl.

☆ What is rainbow fentanyl? Colorful pills drive new warnings
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-25 | by ( Jacqueline Howard | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

"Colored fentanyl pills have been around for a few years. At the time, the agency said that it and its law enforcement partners seized the brightly colored fentanyl and fentanyl pills across 18 states. While he and his colleagues are aware of rainbow fentanyl warnings, he hasn't heard any patients or parents mention it. When it comes to rainbow fentanyl, "the fentanyl itself is going to be the same issue as the counterfeit pharmaceutical fentanyl. The only difference between rainbow fentanyl and the fentanyl products of the past appears to be the coloring.

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