Virginia Republicans announced their top legislative priorities for the new year, with curbing fentanyl deaths chief among them.

Under current case law, it is difficult to charge a drug dealer with the murder of a user who died from fentanyl they had purchased unless they are in the proximity of that dealer, according to GOP legislators.

State Senate Minority Leader Ryan McDougle, R-New Kent, told Fox News Digital on Tuesday that Virginia hopes to address that legislative insufficiency.

"This [law] would say if you sell the drugs, it doesn't matter if you're in physical proximity," he said.

VIRGINIA DEMS ‘ASKING THE WRONG QUESTION’ AMID OUTRAGE OVER TRUMP'S FEDERAL WORKFORCE CUTS PLAN, GOP SAYS

McDougle and Senate Republican Caucus Leader Mark Obenshain are spearheading the effort.

Fox News Digital reached out to Obenshain, of Harrisonburg, for additional comment.

However, at a related press conference, Obenshain said that as long as people are "dying in every corner of Virginia, of every socioeconomic background, that means there’s people out there peddling this poison."

A pair of Senate special elections on Tuesday were set to determine whether Republicans will take a slightly belated majority in the chamber this term, as Democrats currently control it by one seat. 

Voters went to the polls in both Loudoun County and a swath of more red counties, including Buckingham, Fluvanna and Goochland.

On Wednesday, multiple outlets projected Democrats will hold their slim single-seat majority – requiring one liberal to side with McDougle and Obenshain on their counter-fentanyl proposal.

In 2022, the Old Dominion ranked 14th among states for total fentanyl-related deaths, with 1,973 fatalities, and was positioned near the national average in terms of death rate per capita, according to CDC data.

TOP DOGE SENATOR DEMANDS LAME-DUCK BIDEN AGENCIES HALT COSTLY TELEWORK, CITING VOTER MANDATE

For comparison, neighboring West Virginia leads the nation in fentanyl deaths per capita, but total deaths were 1,084, less than Virginia.

Seven out of 10 pills seized by the DEA contain a lethal dose of fentanyl, according to OnePillCanKill Virginia.

A representative for Gov. Glenn Youngkin said he believes prosecuting fentanyl dealers should receive bipartisan support:

"As Governor Youngkin has said time and time again, any person who knowingly and intentionally distributes fentanyl should be charged and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," spokesman Christian Martinez told Fox News Digital.

"We cannot continue to let makers and dealers get away with murder – and it is time Democrat lawmakers side with victims' families over fentanyl makers and dealers."

In April, Youngkin signed Obenshain’s prior fentanyl-related bill, SB 469, which made unlawful possession, purchase or sale of encapsulating machines for the purpose of producing illicit drugs a Class 6 felony.

It also imposed felony penalties for subjects who allow a minor or mentally incapacitated person to be present during the manufacture of any substance containing fentanyl.

"People are dying in every corner of Virginia, of every socioeconomic background, that means there’s people out there peddling this poison. I was proud of our bipartisan effort last year to crack down on pill presses and their deadly effects and I hope that our colleagues will bring the same bipartisan spirit to this effort," Obenshain told Fox News Digital.

Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares previously said an average of five people die each day from fentanyl overdoses throughout the state. 

"By enhancing penalties and criminalizing the possession and use of machines to produce counterfeit drugs, we are supplying law enforcement personnel with the tools they need to hold drug dealers accountable for poisoning our communities," Miyares said.

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After her husband signed the 2023 legislation, Virginia first lady Suzanne Youngkin said there is "nothing more important" than protecting families and communities in Virginia. "I applaud all persons working hard to fight the spread of this illicit drug taking the lives of far too many Virginians," she said.

Virginia Republicans also indicated this week that they will work to put Youngkin’s December plan curtailing taxation of gratuities into law. The plan somewhat mirrors President-elect Donald Trump’s "No Tax on Tips" campaign pledge.

"Hard-working Virginians deserve to keep the tips they earn for their service," McDougle said. "Governor Youngkin’s inclusion of this policy in the budget is an important step in our support of hard-working Virginians, and we’re proud to introduce the bill to put it in the Code of Virginia."

McDougle said Tuesday the chamber will also pursue a ban on transgender women competing in women’s and girls’ sports.

• A top M&A banker said Big Pharma will be on the hunt for more acquisitions in 2025.
• Major drugs including Keytruda and Eliquis will see patent exclusivity expire in coming years.
• Pharma companies look at areas such as obesity to supplement growth, Jefferies' Chris Roop said.

Big Pharma will hunt for more acquisitions in 2025 as industry giants face patent expiration for some of their best-selling drugs, according to a top M&A banker.

Merck's cancer drug Keytruda, the top-selling medication in the world, will lose patent exclusivity at the end of 2028.

Eliquis, made by Pfizer and Bristol-Myers Squibb to treat and prevent blood clots, will lose its exclusivity earlier that same year. The two drugs raked in $25 billion and $12 billion, respectively, for their manufacturers in 2023.

When patents expire, pharma company revenue can take a hit as rivals create similar offerings to take market share. Developing brand new drugs is a long, expensive, and risky process, so acquisitions of other companies with new medications in their pipelines offer a potentially faster way to generate new revenue.

This is partly why Chris Roop, head of M&A for the Americas at Jefferies, is expecting biopharma M&A to pick up in 2025.

"The gaps to fill are significant when you think about replacing drugs that achieve peak sales north of $20 billion or $30 billion drug before patent exclusivity expires," Roop told Business Insider in a recent interview.

Large, successful pharmaceutical companies can become victims of their own successes when patents run out on blockbuster treatments, he added.

AbbVie's popular arthritis drug Humira saw its patent exclusivity expire in 2023. In the third quarter of 2024, with patients increasingly turning to similar drugs or other prescriptions, AbbVie saw its revenue from global sales of Humira fall 37% from the previous year's quarter.

To make up for looming revenue gaps, Roop said Big Pharma will increasingly turn to M&A next year, buying smaller biotechs developing drugs in major markets such as obesity and oncology.

2025's top drug targets

Obesity is positioned to be biopharma's hottest market in 2025, Roop predicted.

2024's biggest pharma acquisition was in obesity. Novo Nordisk's controlling shareholder Novo Holdings closed a deal in December to buy development and manufacturing company Catalent for $16.5 billion. The deal gives Novo Nordisk more manufacturing power for its obesity drugs Ozempic and Wegovy.

Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, which makes Mounjaro and Zepbound, have a significant headstart in the exploding field of GLP-1 weight-loss treatments. Originally created to treat diabetes, injectable GLP-1 medications have surged in popularity. In May, the Kaiser Family Foundation reported that one in eight US adults had tried a GLP-1 drug.

Many other pharma companies want a piece of that pie, Roop said.

"Obesity is going to be a $100 billion to $150 billion market, so even if you come up with a third or fourth entrant in that market and only achieve 2% to 4% share, you still have a multibillion-dollar drug on your hands," he explained.

Beyond obesity, Roop sees immunology and inflammation drugs as big targets for biopharma M&A next year. That market saw a few large deals in 2024, including Vertex Pharmaceuticals' $4.9 billion purchase of Alpine Immune Sciences, which has a drug in development that targets Berger's disease, an autoimmune kidney condition.

Roop expects oncology to remain a focus area for Big Pharma next year.

He said pharmaceutical companies are especially interested in precision oncology M&A, including drugs targeting more specific cancers and even new methods of personalizing cancer treatment.

AstraZeneca made a precision oncology acquisition in March with its $2.4 billion purchase of Fusion Pharmaceuticals, which is developing a radiopharmaceutical drug, which uses radioactive isotopes to treat midstage prostate cancer.

Finally, Roop said Big Pharma will continue looking to buy companies with cardiovascular drugs in their pipelines. Heart disease and related conditions remain the leading cause of death. The global market for cardiovascular drugs was valued at about $150 billion in 2024, according to Precedence Research.

Novo Nordisk bought Cardior Pharmaceuticals in March in a deal worth up to $1.1 billion to strengthen its cardiovascular drug pipeline.

Roop said both private and public biopharma companies could be acquisition targets next year.

"A lot of what we're doing is trying to find that equilibrium to fund these companies to a point in time where pharma will say — on that data with that amount of patients and with a drug profile like this — I'm willing to take the risk, buy it from that point, and take it forward into late-stage development," he said.

"There are a lot of private and public companies that are in that lane today. We probably have more privates today with advanced data than we did three or four years ago," he added.

Roop said many of these private biopharma companies with advanced data are also well-positioned to potentially go public as the IPO window reopens.

• Ashley Dunham's experience of the festive season changed after she started using a weight loss drug in 2022.
• Semaglutide, one of several appetite suppressing drugs called GLP-1s, helped dampen her "food noise."
• Several of Dunham's family members are also on GLP-1s, and their Thanksgiving food bill is much lower now.

The holiday season used to be conflicting for Ashley Dunham.

It was a joyous time to get together with family and friends over delicious food and drinks. But as someone who wanted to lose weight, navigating that brought internal turmoil and what felt like tests of her willpower.

Between Christmas and Thanksgiving, she expected to gain 15 pounds "just by eating pretty regularly, how I would typically eat for the holiday," she told Business Insider. And then came the grueling diets in January.

Now, everything is different.

In August 2022, Dunham, 33, from St John's, Florida, started taking a compounded form of the buzzy weight loss drug semaglutide (marketed as Ozempic and Wegovy).

The appetite-suppressing medication silenced the "food noise" in Dunham's head, meaning she ate less without trying and no longer felt guilty when she did eat. She also found she had more mental capacity to think about things aside from weight loss.

With family and friends now also on similar medications, known as GLP-1 agonists, Dunham's festive get-togethers have changed drastically, she said.

Her family isn't alone: The KFF Health Tracking Poll estimated in June 2024 that one in eight Americans either take or has taken one of these medications. While the drugs have been game-changing for many, others have experienced negative side effects, such as nausea and constipation that was so bad that they came off them.

Dunham experienced nausea, migraines, and constipation in her first few months on the medication but they faded with time.

Dunham used to gain weight every holiday season

2024 is Dunham's third holiday season on the weight loss drug.

In 2022, the year she started semaglutide, injecting it once a week, she lost 12 pounds between Thanksgiving and Christmas. "I could barely finish my plate," she said.

After 17 months on the medication, Dunham transitioned to what she described as a maintenance dose, which she continues to take every 10 to 14 days. In 2023, she was able to finish her plates of food, but prioritized protein and was satisfied without overindulging. Those on GLP-1s are advised to eat a high-protein diet and regularly exercise, including strength training, to minimize muscle loss.

Before taking semaglutide, Dunham used to tell herself she couldn't have any festive treats and then feel guilty if she did.

Now, she said she can happily go to festive events, enjoy one drink and one cookie, and be satisfied.

"I'm not scared that the cookie is going to have some negative repercussion," Dunham said. "I've lost a lot of the guilt from enjoying the holidays."

Dunham's Thanksgiving food shop was significantly smaller this year

At her Thanksgiving table this year, half the group was on a weight loss medication, Dunham said.

This meant that instead of buying and preparing green beans for 10, for example, Dunham cooked for six to reduce food waste, she said.

Dunham lives with her husband and six-year-old son, and since he started using GLP-1s five months ago, the family's grocery bill has dropped by about 50%, Dunham said.

"On a crazy month, we would typically spend $1,200 or £1,300 on groceries, but now we spend more like $600 or $700," she said.

She no longer makes weight loss New Year's resolutions

Before taking semaglutide, Dunham would resolve to lose weight at the start of every year.

"I don't really recall a year, even when I was in a smaller body, that I didn't have a resolution to lose weight," Dunham said. "Even when I was really skinny, it was always just about losing weight."

At the turn of 2024, for the first time, Dunham decided she no longer needed to.

Dunham said semaglutide has also come with cognitive benefits, such as improved focus. Her goals were to read more books and achieve things that had nothing to do with her weight, food, or calories.

"It was so freeing," Dunham said, "and a little jarring too because when your life no longer revolves around your weight, you have so much more brain space to actually achieve for your greater good, and even the greater good of society. Who knows?"

In a new report this week, the FDA highlighted several serious adverse events and deaths associated with the drug Librela. The drug's maker, however, claims that it remains safe and effective.

For every illegal drug, there is a combination of emojis that dealers and consumers use to evade detection on social media and messaging platforms. Snowflakes, snowfall, and snowmen symbolize cocaine. Love hearts, lightning bolts, and pill capsules mean MDMA, or molly. Brown hearts and dragons represent heroin. Grapes and baby bottles are the calling cards for codeine-containing cough syrup, or lean. The humble maple leaf, meanwhile, is the universal symbol for all drugs.

The proliferation of open drug dealing on Instagram, Snapchat, and X—as well as on encrypted messaging platforms Telegram and WhatsApp—has transformed the fabric of illegal substance procurement, gradually making it more convenient, and arguably safer, for consumers, who can receive packages in the mail without meeting people on street corners or going through the rigmarole of the dark web. There is no reliable way to gauge drug trafficking on social media, but the European Union Drugs Agency acknowledged in its latest report on the drivers of European drug sales that purchases brokered through such platforms “appear to be gaining in prominence.”

Initial studies into drug sales on social media began to be published in 2012. Over the next decade, piecemeal studies began to reveal a notable portion of drug sales were being mediated by social platforms. In 2021, it was estimated some 20 percent of drug purchases in Ireland were being arranged through social media. In the US in 2018 and Spain in 2019, a tenth of young people who used drugs appear to have connected with dealers through the internet, with the large majority doing so through social media, according to one small study.

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Teen drug use continued to fall in 2024, extending a dramatic decline spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic that experts expected would reverse now that the acute phase of the global crisis is well over.

But, according to data released Tuesday, the number of eighth, 10th, and 12th graders who collectively abstained from the use of alcohol, marijuana, or nicotine hit a new high this year. Use of illicit drugs also fell on the whole and use of non-heroin narcotics (Vicodin, OxyContin, Percocet) hit an all-time low.

"Many experts in the field had anticipated that drug use would resurge as the pandemic receded and social distancing restrictions were lifted," Richard Miech, team lead of the Monitoring the Future survey at the University of Michigan, said in a statement. "As it turns out, the declines have not only lasted but have dropped further."

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One of Dr. Mo Sarhan’s patients was experiencing intense cravings for opioids and alcohol when the Florida-based doctor offered him a striking solution: the Eli Lilly weight-loss drug Mounjaro.

“Within days, all of his cravings were gone and he was much more effective in his engagement and treatment. He’s done great since,” Sarhan says.

Sarhan and his colleague Steven Klein at the Caron Treatment Centers in Florida and Pennsylvania have prescribed a range of so-called glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1s) to treat addictions, using them alongside traditional therapies, to around 75 patients.

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Earlier this fall, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported data showing that adult obesity rates—long trending upwards—had fallen modestly over the past few years, from 41.9 to 40.3 percent. The decline sparked discussion on social media and in major news outlets about whether the US has passed so-called “peak obesity”—and whether the growing use of certain weight-loss drugs might account for the shift.

An opinion piece in the Financial Times suggested that the public health world might look back on the current moment in much the same way that it now reflects on 1963, when cigarette sales hit their high point and then dropped dramatically over the following decades. The article’s author, John Burn-Murdoch, speculated that the dip is “highly likely” to be caused by the use of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists, or GLP-1s, for weight loss.

It's easy to see why one might make that connection. Although GLP-1s have been used for nearly two decades in the treatment of type 2 diabetes, their use for obesity only took off more recently. In 2014, the Food and Drug Administration approved a GLP-1 agonist named Saxenda specifically for this purpose. Then in the late 2010s, a GLP-1 drug named Ozempic, made from the active ingredient semaglutide, began to be used off-label. The FDA also authorized Wegovy, another semaglutide-based GLP-1 medication, explicitly for weight loss in 2021.

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Dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico tested positive for pharmaceuticals, as well as the opioid fentanyl.

Outgoing GOP Rep. Anthony D'Esposito, R-N.Y., is gunning to be the next leader of President-elect Donald Trump's Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), after Trump's first nominee withdrew his name from the running, a source familiar with the situation told Fox News Digital. 

D'Esposito has been working to consolidate support from regional law enforcement unions to support his bid, and he has been actively making calls to people in Trump’s orbit to get his name to the top, the source indicated, adding that D'Esposito has been "campaigning pretty hard for this."

SMALL TOWN POLICE ON FRONT LINES OF CARTELS' DRUG WAR COSTING AMERICANS THEIR LIVES

Trump nominated Florida Sheriff Chad Chronister for the role over the weekend, but Chronister withdrew his name from consideration on Tuesday. Chronister's decision came amid criticism from Republicans over how he handled lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic.

THOMAS MASSIE, CONSERVATIVE COMMENTATORS VOCALLY OPPOSE TRUMP'S DEA NOMINEE

After first being elected in 2022 to represent a Long Island congressional district that voted for President Biden in 2020, D'Esposito lost his bid for re-election last month to Democrat Laura Gillen.

On Wednesday, the Nassau County Detectives Association lobbied for Trump to nominate D'Esposito to be the next head of the DEA, which is an agency within the Department of Homeland Security. Trump's next DEA chief would be his point man to help stem the massive flow of fentanyl making its way into the U.S.

"As a respected member of Congress, D’Esposito has demonstrated leadership & commitment needed to help DJT in his goal of Making America Safe Again," the group wrote on social media Wednesday.

Fox News Digital reached out to Trump's transition team to glean more details on where D'Esposito stands in terms of being named the next head of the DEA, but did not receive an on-the-record response by publication time.

Researchers in Poland have hypothesized that warriors used spoon-like artifacts to administer drugs during Roman-period wartime.

A Russian court has issued a life sentence to a man found guilty of being the kingpin of a dark web drug marketplace that supplied more than a metric ton of narcotics and psychotropic substances to customers around the world.

On Monday, the court found that Stanislav Moiseyev oversaw Hydra, a Russian-language market that operated an anonymous website that matched sellers of drugs and other illicit wares with buyers. Hydra was dismantled in 2022 after authorities in Germany seized servers and other infrastructure used by the sprawling billion-dollar enterprise and a stash of bitcoin worth millions of dollars. At the time, Hydra was the largest crime forum, having facilitated $5 billion in transactions for 17 million customers. The market had been in operation since 2015.

One-stop cybercrime shop

“The court established that from 2015 to October 2018, the criminal community operated in various regions of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus,” the state prosecutor’s office of the Moscow Region said. “The well-covered activities of the organized criminal group were aimed at systematically committing serious and especially serious crimes related to the illegal trafficking of drugs and psychotropic substances.”

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President Biden pardoned son Hunter Biden Sunday after repeatedly vowing he would not spare him from sentencing in a pair of separate federal court cases. 

Biden has just under 47 days remaining in the Oval Office before President-elect Trump’s inauguration as the 47th president. 

As Biden’s term comes to an end, a handful of elected officials and others have called on the president to issue pardons for other Americans, including the suggestion of "preemptive pardons" for Democrats ahead of Trump’s second term. 

HUNTER BIDEN PARDON WILL UNDERMINE PARTY'S 'SELF-PROCLAIMED AUTHORITY' ON RULE OF LAW: DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST

Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Ed Markey claimed after the election he expects Trump to act in a "fascistic way" as president and called on Biden to pardon Democrats who could face prosecution under a second Trump administration.  

"I think that, without question, Trump is going to try to act in a dictatorial way, in a fascistic way, in a revengeful first year at least of his administration toward individuals who he believes harmed him," Markey claimed during a local radio interview last month. 

"If it’s clear by Jan. 19 that that is his intention, then I would recommend to President Biden that he provide those preemptive pardons to people because that’s really what our country is going to need next year." 

Trump has long accused Democrats and the Biden administration of employing "lawfare" against him as he battled charges from racketeering to falsifying business records, with supporters such as Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., proclaiming last month that "accountability is coming" for those who targeted Trump. 

Under Markey’s argument, Biden could preemptively pardon Democrats who directly prosecuted Trump on charges Trump has slammed as "shams" and "witch hunts."

A handful of congressional Democrats — most notably representatives Ayanna Pressley, Mary Gay Scanlon and James Clyburn — called on Biden last month in a letter to issue sweeping pardons to convicts in a bid to "reunite families, address longstanding injustices in our legal system, and set our nation on the path toward ending mass incarceration."

The lawmakers requested the president pardon those who have languished in prison systems for years and rectify "draconian" sentences imposed on criminals. The letter specifically called for the president to consider pardons for the "elderly and chronically ill, those on death row, people with unjustified sentencing disparities, and women who were punished for defending themselves against their abusers." 

SPECIAL COUNSEL, IRS WHISTLEBLOWERS SAY DON'T BUY BIDEN'S ‘SPIN’ ABOUT HUNTER BIDEN LEGAL SAGA

"Now is the time to use your clemency authority to rectify unjust and unnecessary criminal laws passed by Congress and draconian sentences given by judges. The grant of pardons and commutations and the restoration of rights will undoubtedly send a powerful message across the country in support of fundamental fairness and furthering meaningful criminal justice reform," they wrote in a letter to Biden last month. 

Outgoing Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, a vocal critic of Trump's, said earlier this year Biden should have pardoned Trump from his indictments. 

"[Biden] should have fought like crazy to keep this prosecution from going forward," Romney told MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle in May. "It was a win-win for Donald Trump.

"You may disagree with this, but had I been President Biden, when the Justice Department brought on indictments, I would have immediately pardoned him," he said. "I'd have pardoned President Trump. Why? Well, because it makes me, President Biden, the big guy and the person I pardoned a little guy."

Biden pardoning Trump is unlikely to happen and would only apply to his federal charges brought by special counsel Jack Smith. Legal cases against Trump have stalled since his win last month. 

ROMNEY SUGGESTS BIDEN MADE 'ENORMOUS ERROR' IN NOT PARDONING TRUMP: 'IT WAS A WIN-WIN'

Biden has pardoned 26 people during nearly four years in office, a review of DOJ data shows. The majority of those individuals were convicted of drug crimes, such as conspiracy to distribute marijuana, conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine or conspiracy to manufacture, distribute and possess with intent to distribute cocaine and cocaine base. 

In October, seven Senate Judiciary Committee members and Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock sent a letter to Biden calling on him to commute sentences for individuals who would have been handed shorter sentences under the 2018 First Step Act. The First Step Act was a criminal justice reform bill Trump signed into law following bipartisan support that reduced mandatory minimum sentences for some drug crimes. 

"This Administration has the opportunity to deliver justice to incarcerated people who were sentenced under overly harsh mandatory minimums that the bipartisan First Step Act corrected," Vermont Sen. Peter Welch, who signed the letter, told Politico earlier this year. "President Biden should heed our call and use the power of executive clemency while he has it."

2 TIMES BIDEN SAID HE WOULD NOT PARDON SON HUNTER BIDEN 

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is again earning support from lawmakers and others to be pardoned after years of legal woes over his publication of classified military documents leaked to him by a source in 2010. 

A bipartisan effort spearheaded by representatives James McGovern, D-Mass., and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., called on Biden last week to pardon Assange and "send a clear message" that his administration will not target journalistic activity.

REPS MCGOVERN, MASSIE URGE BIDEN TO PARDON JULIAN ASSANGE TO 'SEND A CLEAR MESSAGE' ON PRESS FREEDOM

"We write, first, to express our appreciation for your administration's decision last spring to facilitate a resolution of the criminal case against publisher Julian Assange and to withdraw the related extradition request that had been pending in the United Kingdom," the lawmakers wrote to Biden. "This brought an end to Mr. Assange's protracted detention and allowed him to reunite with his family and return to his home country of Australia."

Assange reached a deal with the U.S. Justice Department to end his imprisonment in the U.K. over charges related to publishing classified military documents. He had spent years in the U.K. to avoid extradition to the U.S.

BIDEN PARDONS SON HUNTER BIDEN AHEAD OF EXIT FROM OVAL OFFICE

He pleaded guilty in June to an Espionage Act charge of conspiring to unlawfully obtain and disseminate classified national defense information and was sentenced to time served. He returned to his native Australia after the plea deal. 

"The terms of Mr. Assange's plea agreement have now set a precedent that greatly deepens our concern," the lawmakers’ letter to Biden said. "A review of prosecutions under the Espionage Act makes clear that Mr. Assange's case is the first time the Act has been deployed against a publisher.

"A pardon would remove the precedent set by the plea and send a clear message that the U.S. government under your leadership will not target or investigate journalists and media outlets simply for doing their jobs." 

Biden’s pardoning of his son Sunday followed the president saying earlier this year he would not pardon his son before and after Hunter was found guilty in a June gun trial. 

"I am not going to do anything," Biden said after Hunter was convicted in the gun case. "I will abide by the jury’s decision."

Hunter Biden was found guilty June 11 of lying about his drug use when buying a gun in 2018. He was found guilty on three charges — making a false statement in the purchase of a gun, making a false statement related to information required to be kept by a federally licensed gun dealer and possession of a gun by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance. 

HUNTER BIDEN’S PARDON SETS TROUBLING PRECEDENT, RISKS POLITICIZING JUSTICE DEPARTMENT, CRITICS SAY

Hunter Biden had an extensive and well-documented history with addiction, which was best captured in his 2021 memoir "Beautiful Things," which walked readers through his spirals of crack cocaine use. 

Hunter Biden faced another trial regarding three felony tax offenses and six misdemeanor tax offenses over his alleged failure to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes in a California court in September. As jury selection was about to kick off in Los Angeles federal court, Hunter entered a surprise guilty plea. 

When grilled by the media about Biden pardoning his son after saying he would not take such an action, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the president will make other pardon announcements in the coming weeks but did not provide details. 

"As it relates to pardoning or any clemency, the president, as you know, at the end of the year, makes announcements. He’s thinking through that process very thoroughly," Jean-Pierre said Monday. 

"I’m not going to get ahead of — of the president on this. But you could expect more announcements, more … pardons and clemency at the end of … this term."

Fox News Digital's Landon Mion contributed to this report. 

The antibody drug benralizumab is on the fast track to becoming the first new treatment for certain kinds of asthma and COPD flare-ups seen in 50 years, following new promising clinical trial data.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced a lawsuit Thursday targeting the blue city of Dallas over a ballot measure that decriminalizes marijuana.

Paxton alleges that Proposition R, which "prohibits the Dallas Police Department from making arrests or issuing citations for marijuana possession or considering the odor of marijuana as probable cause for search or seizure," violates state law.

The attorney general argues in the lawsuit that the ballot measure is preempted by Texas law, which criminalizes the possession and distribution of marijuana. Paxton also claims the Texas Constitution prohibits municipalities from adopting an ordinance that conflicts with laws enacted by the state legislature.

MORE AMERICANS SMOKE MARIJUANA DAILY THAN DRINK ALCOHOL, STUDY CLAIMS

"Cities cannot pick and choose which State laws they follow," Paxton said in a statement. "The City of Dallas has no authority to override Texas drug laws or prohibit the police from enforcing them."

Paxton called the ballot measure "a backdoor attempt to violate the Texas Constitution" and threatened to sue any other city that "tries to constrain police in this fashion." 

WHAT ARE THE TOP RISKS OF MARIJUANA USE?

The lawsuit comes after interim Dallas Police Department Chief Michael Igo directed Dallas police officers not to enforce marijuana laws against those found to be in possession of less than 4 ounces. 

Ground Game Texas, a progressive nonprofit group that campaigned in favor of the ballot measure, argued it would help "keep people out of jail for marijuana possession," "reduce racially biased policing" and "save millions in public funding." 

TEXAS AG PAXTON FILES CRIMINAL REFERRAL AGAINST DOJ FROM ‘SUSPICIOUS DONATIONS’ THROUGH DEMOCRATIC GROUP

"It's unfortunate but not surprising that Attorney General Ken Paxton has apparently chosen to waste everyone's time and money by filing yet another baseless lawsuit against marijuana decriminalization," said Catina Voellinger, executive director for Ground Game Texas.

"Judges in Travis and Hays counties have already dismissed identical lawsuits filed there. The Dallas Freedom Act was overwhelmingly approved by 67% of voters — this is democracy in action."

Since January 2024, Paxton has filed lawsuits against five Texas cities that decriminalized marijuana possession, arguing these policies promote crime, drug abuse and violence. 

Chet Sandhu is a former smuggler. He estimates that he trafficked over $50 million worth of illegal steroids. In the mid-1990s, Sandhu operated a steroid-trafficking network that sourced its supply from Karachi, Pakistan, and transported it via routes including the Netherlands, France, and Spain to the United Kingdom by bribing airport security. He was arrested during a smuggling run and sentenced to 4 ½ years in the Fontcalent correctional facility in Alicante, Spain, one of Europe's most infamous prisons.

Sandhu speaks with Business Insider about the underground anabolic-steroid market, explaining how testosterone and other performance-enhancing drugs make their way to street dealers, local gyms, and online platforms. He highlights the harsh prison sentences imposed in some countries and advocates for steroid use to be handled as a medical issue.

Since his release from prison, Sandhu has written two books, "From King of Karachi to Lockdown in the Costa Del Crime" and "Self-Made, Dues Paid." He now runs a CBD company.

Find more: https://chetsandhu.com/