�������ýҕ�l

The U.S. Justice Department on Friday filed criminal charges against four Chinese chemical manufacturing companies and eight individuals over allegations they illegally trafficked the chemicals used to make fentanyl - a highly addictive painkiller that has fueled the opioid crisis in the United States. The indictments mark the first time the U.S. has sought to prosecute any of the Chinese companies responsible for manufacturing precursor chemicals used to make the painkiller. (Lynch and Cohen, 6/24)

Cocaine demand and supply are booming worldwide and methamphetamine trafficking is expanding beyond established markets, including in Afghanistan where the drug is now being produced, a United Nations report said on Sunday. (6/25)

The effects of fentanyl are considered the cause of death for Adam Rich, the child actor known as “America’s little brother” for his role on the hit family dramedy “Eight is Enough.” The former television star’s death this January has been ruled an accident by the Los Angeles County Medical-Examiner Coroner’s office, according to an autopsy report. Rich died in his Los Angeles home at age 54. (6/24)

Josh Askins woke up in the crawl space of an abandoned house with nausea, chills and a shooting pain in his legs. It had been seven hours since he last smoked fentanyl, and already he could feel his withdrawal symptoms worsening by the minute. He rolled over in his sleeping bag and stared at the graffiti he’d carved into the rotting floorboards. “Fentanyl is HELL,” he had written a few weeks earlier, but now he got up to start looking for more. (Saslow, 6/25)

To his fans, JJ Smith—not his real name—was a breath of authenticity chronicling the harsh truths and human stories of the Tenderloin and a reality check on the grandiose plans of politicians. ... Over the past nine months, he had been seemingly everywhere in the Tenderloin, reviving people from the brink of drug-induced death and once barreling into a burning building while recording it all for his 12,500 Twitter followers. ... After The Standard began reporting a story looking into his background and activities, his Twitter account disappeared. (Sjostedt, 6/23)