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Opioids

Officers gather kratom plants in Phang Nha province, Thailand. Thailand on Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2021, decriminalized the possession and sale of kratom, a plant native to Southeast Asia.

Thailand legalizes kratom, a mild narcotic leaf

Health & Medicine

For much of the pandemic era, bars in Thailand have shuttered, eviscerating the country’s food-and-beverage sector. But the legalization of kratom caught many by surprise, and now, some bar owners are hoping the drug can keep their businesses alive.

A fire medic holds a box containing naloxone hydrochloride which is carried in all their department's emergency response vehicles, in Akron, Ohio

With rising overdoses, British Columbia expands experimental prescription initiative

Health & Medicine
Chemicals seized during Asia’s largest-ever drug bust in Myanmar. 

A massive Asian drug bust has stirred a fentanyl mystery

Global Politics
Mae Salong

They were CIA-backed Chinese rebels. Now you’re invited to their once-secret hideaway.

Conflict & Justice
Bags of white powdery fentanyl on a table.

How the deadly drug fentanyl is making its way to the US

Health
A poppy farmer stands in front of a poppy plant and talks with a mic in his hand.

Could decriminalization of Mexico’s poppy farms reduce drug-cartel violence?

Conflict & Justice

Decriminalization of the poppy trade in Mexico’s Guerrero state may alleviate the catastrophic violence related to drug cartels vying for territory. But some say the plan does not have the best interests of poppy growers at heart.

An Afghan policeman destroys poppies during a campaign against narcotics in Jalalabad province, Afghanistan, April 4, 2017.

US airstrikes in Afghanistan are targeting drug labs that fund the Taliban

Conflict

The operation came days after a UN report showed opium production in Afghanistan — a key source of funding for the Taliban’s 16-year insurgency — soared 87 percent this year as the area under poppy cultivation hit a record high.

A pharmacist holds prescription painkiller OxyContin, 40mg pills, made by Purdue Pharma L.D. at a local pharmacy.

Why the opioid crisis is an American problem

Health

America leads the world in drug overdose deaths and opioid consumption. And it has a lot to do with the ways prescription painkillers are advertised and regulated in the US compared to other countries.