Addict amnesty: Gloucester police give heroin addicts rehab, not jail

Addict amnesty: Gloucester police give heroin addicts rehab, not jail

GLOUCESTER, Mass. (AP) — The young woman nursing a fresh black eye has come to the police station in this old fishing city for help. But she's not looking to report a crime or seek someone's arrest. She wants help kicking her heroin addiction.

"It was better than the alternative," says the woman, in her mid-20s, as she waits wearily for her ride to a detox center, following a long night that involved a stint in the emergency room, wrestling with the early pains of withdrawal and, finally, sleep in a police holding cell. "I just knew if I was let go, I'd just go out and use."

Critics of carbon regs use mine spill to skewer EPA
Barack Obama

Critics of carbon regs use mine spill to skewer EPA

Associated Press

Written by Michael Biesecker

WASHINGTON (AP) — Authorities say rivers tainted by last week's massive spill from an abandoned Colorado gold mine are starting to recover, but for the Environmental Protection Agency, the political fallout from the disaster could linger.

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