3 d. ago From bank robber to scholar: the Knoxville dropout fighting to change how we see addiction

Kirsten Smith was 19 when she first tried heroin; within a few years she was in prison. She says she willingly made bad choices and wants society to stop treating addiction as a diseaseKirsten Smith was 16 when a boy from school injected her with morphine, 18 when she and a date Googled how to crush up and inject themselves with oxycodone, and 19 when she first shot up heroin. Living in Knoxville, Tennessee and modelling herself on Pulp Fiction’s freewheeling Mia Wallace, Smith spent her days experimenting with alcohol, cannabis, ecstasy, mushrooms, LSD and benzodiazepines. She read Kurt Vonnegut and the Beats, and wrote poems on an actual typewriter while listening to the Velvet Underground. For Smith, as for thousands of Americans who came of age in the early 2000s, drug use was a seemingly harmless lifestyle choice.That is, until she ran out of money. After Smith dropped out of high school and started regularly using heroin, she was caught stealing credit cards and chequebooks fr...

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5 d. ago For many with HIV, drugs lifted their death sentence. Now they must face old age.

They survived HIV

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6 d. ago Pensioner left injured after horrific home invasion as police hunt suspects

A woman in her 80s was attacked after three suspects broke into the house

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8 d. ago ‘The water left nothing’: Pakistan’s Punjab province reels from deadly floods

Fears of disease as more than 1,400 villages under water after three large rivers overflow their banksIman Salim is used to seeing flood waters in the field of lush lilypads next to her home in the village of Kamanwala. But nothing prepared her for this week, when torrential monsoon rains that broke a 49-year record lashed the area, flooding her house with water that rose above her chest.“The whole house has drowned. The water left nothing,” the 24-year-old said. Continue reading...

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1 week ago Someone broke in and ransacked my house. Then I discovered the disgusting thing they left in my desk: JENNI MURRAY

Tough and courageous though I am, there are some moments in my life I've struggled to recover from. One of those was some 20 years ago now

Politics

1 week ago The moment of madness that got architect struck off just days after qualifying following five years of training

On a drunken rampage, Thomas Ford racially abused a taxi driver, assaulted him, stole his car and drove off with it before crashing into a fence, a disciplinary hearing was told.

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1 week ago Architect who went on a drunken rampage on night out celebrating qualifying for the profession after over five years of training is struck off

On a drunken rampage, Thomas Ford racially abused a taxi driver, assaulted him, stole his car and drove off with it before crashing into a fence, a disciplinary hearing was told.

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2 w. ago Knife pulled during mass street brawl as fights break out 'all over the place'

A huge mass brawl was caught on camera with punches, kicks and even a knife brandished as 'all hell broke loose' outside a row of houses in Showell Green Lane, in Sparkhill, Birmingham

Sport

3 w. ago Burglar addicted to drugs since age of 11 broke into house and stole car

Brian McCann, 41, and an accomplice burgled a family home and took car keys before taking a Mercedes car and dumping it nearby

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3 w. ago Teenager who murdered British mother in her Australian home has sentence REDUCED

The boy, who cannot be named as he was aged 17 at the time of the offences, fatally stabbed Emma Lovell in the heart after he broke into her family's house north of Brisbane about 11.30pm in 2022.

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3 w. ago Woman 'traumatised' after being dragged along by OWN car after thief stole it

Angela Johnson, 54, from Newport, Wales, had been working her weekend delivery job when a man stole her car as she was exiting the vehicle before she was pushed out

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3 w. ago Suspect arrested after shooting at Texas Target leaves at least three people dead

Austin police chief said the suspect fled the scene and stole two cars before being captured and taken into custodyA gunman opened fire at a Target store in Austin, Texas, killing at least three people, and a suspect has been arrested, police said.Austin police chief Lisa Davis said the suspect stole a car after the attack and fled the scene. But he wrecked that car and stole another before being captured in south Austin, where he was taken into custody, she said during a news conference. Continue reading...

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4 w. ago Elderly people being excluded from medical research in UK, charities warn

Exclusion of older people from research due to arbitrary age cut-offs could stall development of life-saving treatmentsPeople aged over 75 are being excluded from health research due to arbitrary age cut-offs, potentially stalling the development of life-saving treatments, leading charities and research institutes have warned.Some clinical studies restrict participation for older people due to concerns about the potential frailty of participants and a belief that age may reduce the effect of the drug or device being studied. Continue reading...

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