How Biden's New Opioid Initiative Could Create More Drug Addicts

White House set to make naloxone available over the counter. Experts say it won't help the opioid crisis.

A key component of President Joe Biden’s effort to combat the opioid crisis could backfire and lead to both an increase in overdoses and demand for narcotics, experts warn.

The White House is making naloxone, a drug used to reverse opioid overdoses, available over the counter. Public health experts say the policy is not only a tacit admission that deadly opioids such as fentanyl are here to stay but could end up creating more addicts or causing more overdoses.

"This move doesn’t address our addiction crisis in the slightest," said Dr. Keith Humphreys, a Stanford University professor who has helped craft drug policy in multiple White Houses and in the United Kingdom. "You would never say 'Okay, I’m rolling out a new plan for cancer for the country, we’re going to open a lot more hospice facilities.'"

The policy change was revealed on Tuesday as part of an initiative to crack down on illicit fentanyl supply chains. It comes amid bipartisan criticism that the Biden administration has largely overlooked the drug crisis that has claimed hundreds of thousands of American lives over the last decade.

The focus on easing the availability of naloxone continues the White House’s broader focus on so-called harm reduction, a public health theory that posits governments should work to minimize the potential hazards surrounding drug use, rather than work to end it. The Biden administration’s harm reduction approach, which most notably included their funding for safe smoking kits that contain crack pipes, has garnered widespread criticism.

At least 106,699 Americans died from a drug overdose in 2021, the year with the most recently available data. Most of those deaths were due to fentanyl or other synthetic opioids. The rate of overdose deaths in the United States has more than tripled since 2001.

There is no disputing the fact that naloxone saves the lives of someone suffering from an opioid-related overdose. If immediately supplied—typically in the form of a nasal spray—to someone who ingested a fatal amount of fentanyl, for example, naloxone essentially blocks the effect of that drug.

But naloxone does not treat addiction and may actually encourage more drug use. At least one study concluded in 2018 that proliferation of the drug increased opioid-related deaths by 14 percent in the midwest. The authors also found "that broadening naloxone access increased the use of fentanyl."

"Being addicted to drugs sucks," said Humphreys. "That’s not reduced by things such as naloxone."

https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/how-bidens-new-opioid-initiative-could-create-more-drug-addicts/

Redfield warned Fauci not to 'give terrorists recipe' to modify bird flu to kill 5%-50% of infected

NIH-funded scientists published instructions for making such a pathogen cross the "species barrier" to humans, recounted former CDC Director Robert Redfield.

Former CDC Director Robert Redfield's biggest fear for a future pandemic is a genetically manipulated bird flu, given that NIH-funded scientists in 2012 published instructions for making such a pathogen cross the "species barrier" to humans, a highly unlikely result from viral evolution.

"I didn't think we needed to give terrorists a recipe" for modifying a bird flu to kill 5%-50% of people it infects, Dr. Redfield told "Just the News, No Noise," recalling his argument to then-National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci — his future antagonist on COVID origins and gain-of-function research — against publishing the research.

"I think it's a miracle that no one's used that yet," Redfield said. "But I do think we're at high risk for laboratory-created bird flu that will have high pathogenicity for man," given the "highly inadequate" biosecurity of dozens of labs handling dangerous pathogens.

The "probability of a spillover event" from a lab "is very, very high," he warned, "and I suspect that in the next decade we will have, unfortunately, a major pandemic as a consequence of either gain-of-function research or bioterrorism."

"And this is why I think we need to really look seriously about not only having a moratorium in our own country, but actually having a global moratorium on gain-of-function research until society can decide: Should it really be done? Is the benefit there? And if they decide the benefit's there, then how do you do it in a safe, responsible and effective way?"

Redfield is highly critical of officials in both the Trump and Biden administrations for squelching an "honest public debate" on both COVID origins and public health response.

NIH organized a "single narrative" that COVID emerged from a "spillover event," contrary to Redfield's favored lab-leak explanation, and "really tried to sideline anybody that didn't agree with them," he said, claiming to have received "hate mail," including a suicide suggestion from "good scientists in the National Academy" of Science.

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/health/redfield-warned-fauci-not-give-terrorists-recipe-modify-bird-flu-kill-5-50

Biggest Lie in World History: There Never Was A Pandemic. The Data Base is Flawed. The Covid Mandates including the Vaccine are Invalid

The PCR "Covid-19 Confirmed Cases" are Meaningless. The Multibillion Dollar Antigen and Home Test Project is Fake

The focus is to refute the Covid narrative by examining the timeline, the (official) data and definitions pertaining to the Covid-19 pandemic. The data presented in this article pertain to January 2020-March 2022.

Introduction

Destabilizing the social, political and economic structure of 190 sovereign countries cannot constitute a “solution” to combating the virus. But that was the imposed “solution” which was implemented in several stages from the very outset of the corona crisis in January 2020. It’s the destruction of people’s lives. It is the destabilization of civil society.

Fake science was supportive of this devastating agenda. The lies were sustained by a massive media disinformation campaign. 24/7, Incessant and Repetitive “Covid alerts” in the course of the last two years.

The historic March 11, 2020 lockdown triggered economic and social chaos Worldwide. It was an act of “economic warfare”: a war against humanity.

This diabolical agenda has undermined the sovereignty of nation states.

It has contributed to a wave of bankruptcies. It has impoverished people Worldwide.

It has led to a spiralling dollar denominated global debt.

The powerful structures of global capitalism, Big Money coupled with its intelligence and military apparatus are the driving force.

Using advanced digital and communications technologies, the lockdown and “closure” of the global economy is unprecedented in World history.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/biggest-lie-in-world-history-the-data-base-is-flawed-there-never-was-a-pandemic-the-covid-mandates-including-the-vaccine-are-invalid/5772008

ABSTUDY students allege mistreatment in government-run scheme

Chris Long says he was 14 years old when he was taken "out bush" to be disciplined for wagging school.

Key points:

An ABC investigation into one Indigenous hostel in outback Queensland can reveal allegations of fraud, neglect and assault of children as young as 13

Parents and advocates are speaking out about the sector, which they say is at risk of systemic abuse

More than $170 million is granted to boarding facilities to support First Nations students study away from home, but there's little oversight

He was more than 700 kilometres away from home, attending a local high school and living in a private student hostel nearby.

A hostel worker had brought him, alone, to "a long stretch" of road, he said, to teach him a lesson.

"He told me to jump out of the car and … just grabbed me by my shirt and then just punched me with one hand," Mr Long said.

"He said to me that he was going to chuck me in a cage and feed me to the dogs.

"The way he was treating me, that's not a good lesson."

The teenager said he was left beside the road to walk back into town alone.

Now 19 years old, the Alyawarr man is from the Indigenous community of Alpurrurulam, known locally as Lake Nash, in the Northern Territory, 300km west of Mount Isa.

Like thousands of other First Nations families with limited access to education, his parents sent him away from home to attend high school.

Mr Long was sent to the Barcaldine Prep-12 State School, and lived at accommodation nearby, known as the Alice River Student Hostel.

There were dozens of other kids there from across Queensland and the Northern Territory, including from the remote towns of Doomadgee, Camooweal and Boulia.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-16/parents-and-children-speak-out-about-ab-study-provider/102215372

Violence erupts in Sudan as paramilitary says it has taken control of presidential palace

Sudan's RSF paramilitary says it has taken control of the country's presidential palace, the residence of the army chief and Khartoum's international airport as violent clashes erupt with the army amid an escalating power struggle.

Key points:

Violent clashes have broken out in Sudan's capital, Khartoum, between the country's army and the paramilitary RSF

The two groups disagree as to how the RSF should be integrated into the army before Sudan transitions to democratic rule

The US ambassador to Sudan has called the escalation of tensions "extremely dangerous"

Civilians were forced to run for cover and at least three non-combatants were confirmed dead as heavy gunfire and explosions rocked the Sudanese capital Khartoum on Saturday, with both sides accused the other of attempting to carry out a coup.

The Sudanese air force said it was conducting operations against the RSF (Rapid Support Forces), and military jets were spotted flying above Khartoum.

The RSF also said it had taken over airports in the northern city of Merowe and El-Obeid in the west.

The violence follows days of tension between the quasi-government militia RSF and the country's official army, the Sudanese Armed Forces, with the dispute mostly surrounding plans for a transition to democracy.

Sudan has been governed by a "Sovereign Council" of military generals since a coup in 2021.

In a series of statements, the RSF — which is under the command of the council's vice-president, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, widely known as Hemedti — accused the army of sparking the conflict by attacking its forces first at one of its bases in southern Khartoum.

Hemedti told the Qatar-based Al Jazeera network that army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan was a criminal carrying out a plot by loyalists of ousted former president Omar al-Bashir, and said he would either hand General al-Burhan over to justice or he would be dead.

The RSF claimed it now "completely controlled" Khartoum's Republican Palace, the seat of the country's presidency, as well as Khartoum International Airport, where smoke was seen billowing from the tarmac.

Saudia Arabia's national carrier Saudia said one of its Airbus aircraft "had an accident" at the airport before its scheduled departure to Riyadh on Saturday, after video emerged showing it on fire on the tarmac.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-15/sudan-coup-clash-in-khartoum/102227850

The Netherlands makes it legal to euthanise terminally-ill children aged as young as 12 at their parents' request

The extension of the current laws would apply to five to 10 children per year

Dutch Government say plans are 'reasonable alternative' to a child's suffering

It comes nearly four years after Noa Pothoven, 17, was legally allowed to die

Parents in the Netherlands can now euthanise their terminally ill children aged 12 and under plans to widen the countries existing end of life laws.

The Dutch Government announced plans to expand euthanasia regulations to include doctor-assisted death for terminally ill children between one and 12 years old on Friday.

The rules would apply to an estimated five to 10 children per year, who suffer unbearably from their disease, have no hope of improvement and for whom palliative care cannot bring relief, the government have said.

'The end of life for this group is the only reasonable alternative to the child's unbearable and hopeless suffering,' the government said in a statement.

It comes nearly four years after 17-year-old Noa Pothoven was legally allowed to die at home after medics allowed her to refuse food and drink.

The Dutch teen from Arnhem felt that life had become unbearable and she could no longer carry on after she was attacked and sexually assaulted on three separate occasions, beginning when she was just 11 years old.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11974839/Parents-euthanise-terminally-ill-children-aged-12-Netherlands.html

How NATO states sponsored ICC prosecutor’s Putin arrest warrant

ICC prosecutor general Karim Khan raised millions from NATO states by crafting an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin while freezing investigations into well-documented US and Israeli war crimes. Along the way, he won powerful friends in Washington, London, Kiev — and Hollywood.

Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, stood before a podium on March 3, 2023, and issued an unusual qualifier: “Of course the prosecutor of the ICC does not, whatever affection and regard I may have for my dear friends in Ukraine – has no special affinity to any particular country. We’re not a party to any hostilities.”

“We have an affinity to legality,” Khan insisted in British-accented English. “We have an affinity and commitment to the rule of law.”

Khan made his declaration of legal independence while headlining the “United for Justice” conference, an event personally organized in Lviv, Ukraine, by President Volodymyr Zelensky. There, he pressed the flesh with Ukraine’s president and conferred with US Attorney General Merrick Garland, who had stopped in to advance the Biden administration’s effort to haul Russian President Vladimir Putin before an international war crimes tribunal.

It was Khan’s fourth visit to Ukraine since the Russian military invaded the country in February 2022.

On March 17, 2023, Khan introduced a formal ICC warrant for Putin’s arrest, accusing the Russian president of the “unlawful deportation” of Ukrainian children to a “network of camps” throughout Russia. The warrant arrived days before the 20th anniversary of the NATO invasion of Iraq, a crime directed by US and UK officials whom the ICC has refused to prosecute to this day.

As The Grayzone has reported, the ICC’s warrant was inspired by a State Department-funded report that contained no field reporting, no concrete evidence of war crimes, and no proof that Russia was actually targeting Ukrainian youth with a massive deportation campaign. In fact, the investigators acknowledged finding “no documentation of child mistreatment, including sexual or physical violence, among the camps referenced in this report.” What’s more, the inquiry’s lead author told The Grayzone’s Jeremy Loffredo that “a large amount” of the Russian youth camps his team researched were “primarily cultural education – like, I would say, teddy bear.”

Though Khan pledged his absolute independence in his hunt for Putin, he is closely aligned with the same Western governments that are currently engaged in a proxy battle with Russia on the Ukrainian battlefield. Meanwhile, he has stalled the ICC’s case against Israel, frustrating human rights lawyers who represent the victims of grisly violence in the besieged Gaza Strip. Additionally, Khan formally dropped the international court’s case against the US military for its actions in Afghanistan.

Through his focus on Ukraine, Khan has presided over a massive surge in Western financial support for his office, with much of the money earmarked for his investigation into Russian officials. The ICC’s issuance of Putin’s arrest warrant happened to coincide with a major donor’s conference for the court in London, England.

The ICC prosecutor’s political entanglements do not stop there. Celebrity lawyer Amal Clooney has worked as a special advisor to Khan’s office while simultaneously counseling the Ukrainian government on its initiative to target Russian officials with prosecution, either by the ICC or another international body. Clooney has also served as a special liaison to the British Foreign Secretary.

It is perhaps no surprise, then, that after two decades of unremitting hostile relations with the ICC, official Washington is suddenly warming up to the court, and is endeared by its top prosecutor.

https://thegrayzone.com/2023/04/13/nato-states-icc-prosecutor-putin/

US lawmakers urge probe into military aid to Israel

A group of top progressive Democrats is urging President Joe Biden to “shift” US policy on Israel, citing escalating violence

A group of 14 top Democratic members of the US Congress has penned an open letter to President Joe Biden, urging him to re-examine Washington’s enduring support of Israel. Specifically, the group called for a probe into whether US weapons were used in violence against Palestinians, and for assurances that “US taxpayer funds do not support projects in illegal settlements.”

The open letter was published on Thursday, spearheaded by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Representative Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), and signed by 12 other prominent Democratic Party lawmakers. The group went into detail about the ongoing tensions in Israel.

“Israeli forces and settlers have killed over 85 Palestinians in 2023, including 16 children. At least 14 Israelis have been killed, including two children,” the letter read. The uptick in violence comes after the previous year became “the deadliest for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since 2004” and has also seen the “Israeli military’s killings of two American citizens,” the group noted.

The lawmakers also blasted the controversial judicial reform being undertaken by the Netanyahu government. The legislation, criticized as a power grab attempt by the prime minister, ended up being shelved after weeks of violent unrest in the country.

This Israeli government’s anti-democratic mission to dismantle the rule of law is a threat to Israelis and Palestinians alike. In addition to explicitly hateful, anti-Palestinian policies, this government is attempting to destroy the independent Israeli judiciary. This move would threaten the rights of all citizens of Israel, enable more corruption by Prime Ministers, and open the path towards further annexation of Palestinian lands.

The group also stressed that the continuing Israeli occupation of the West Bank, as well as the settlement-building policies of its government, not only constitute a “violation of the international law,” but also contradict Washington’s repeated advice on these sensitive matters.

“Israeli legal experts deem the government’s decision to transfer most governing authority in the occupied West Bank from the military to a civilian minister, Finance Minister Smotrich, to be a form of annexation – a move your administration has warned against,” the letter reads.

To tackle the piling issues, the legislators urged Biden to “shift” US policy toward Israel. Namely, the group urged the administration to “ensure US taxpayer funds do not support projects in illegal settlements,” as well as to launch a probe into the use of weaponry of American origin by the Israeli military to establish whether it had been used to “commit or support gross violations of human rights.”

The lawmakers also urged Biden to tighten “end-use monitoring and financial tracking” of military aid to the country, asking him to respond with a “detailed plan” on how exactly the administration would plan to achieve such goals.

https://www.rt.com/news/574810-us-lawmakers-israel-probe/