New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham declared a state of emergency to address rising crime and the opioid crisis straining local law enforcement. Starting mid-May, 60 to 70 National Guard troops will assist Albuquerque police with non-law enforcement duties.

The governor says the deployment aims to support officers while they focus on community safety.

The ACLU of New Mexico warns the move could lead to increased profiling and the criminalization of vulnerable populations.

The Supreme Court rejected a settlement with OxyContin manufacturer Purdue Pharma that would have shielded the Sackler family from legal liability for the company’s role in exacerbating the disastrous opioid crisis.

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected on Thursday the Securities and Exchange Commission's in-house enforcement of laws protecting investors against securities fraud, dealing a blow to the agency's powers in a ruling that could reverberate through other federal regulators.

The decision - a setback for President Joe Biden's administration - upheld a lower court's decision siding with George Jarkesy, a Texas-based hedge fund manager who contested the legality of the SEC's actions against him after the agency determined he had committed securities fraud.

The Supreme Court temporarily put on hold on Thursday an Environmental Protection Agency plan to curtail air pollution that drifts across state lines, dealing another blow to the Biden administration’s efforts to protect the environment.

The ruling followed recent decisions chipping away at the agency’s authority to address climate change and water pollution.

Oregon lawmakers have moved to reintroduce criminal penalties for the possession of hard drugs, in effect ending the state’s groundbreaking three-year decriminalization experiment.

In 2020, nearly 60% of voters moved to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of illicit drugs with the passage of Measure 110, but the new law had grown increasingly controversial as the state grappled with the fentanyl crisis and growing public drug use.

Oregon legislatures have passed a bipartisan bill undoing a key part of the state’s decriminalization law, penalizing people for possession and selling small amounts of drugs. 

The bipartisan bill passed both state chambers on Friday and is headed to the desk of Gov. Tina Kotek (D), who showed willingness last month to curb the decriminalization in Oregon. 

The state Senate passed the legislation with a 21-8 vote on Friday following the lower chamber’s 51-7 vote on Thursday, according to the Associated Press (AP). 

Oregon is ready to end its "experiment" with drug decriminalization, according to one state senator. This comes as skyrocketing overdose deaths and public drug usage compelled the state legislature to re-introduce criminal penalties for possession in the Beaver State.

"About four Oregonians a day are dying because of overdoses," state Sen. Tim Knopp, a Republican and minority leader in the upper chamber, told "Fox & Friends Weekend" on Sunday.

It's a common sight on the streets of downtown Portland, Oregon: people in front of stores, trendy restaurants and hotels, on sidewalks, corners, and benches, crouched over torch lighters held up to sheets of tinfoil or meth pipes.

Some drape blankets over their heads, or duck behind concrete barriers. Others don’t try to hide.

"All summer long, we were right out in the open. You didn't have to be paranoid anymore, you didn't have to be worried about the cops," said John Hood, a 61-year-old drug addict living on the streets of Oregon’s most populous city.

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Monday in Harrington v. Purdue Pharma to determine whether a bankruptcy court can discharge claims against a party that did not itself file for bankruptcy. 

Kroger on Friday said it has agreed to pay $1.2 billion to U.S. states, local governments and Native American tribes to settle the majority of claims that it fueled the opioid epidemic through lax oversight of its pill sales. 

The settlement would allow for “full resolution” of all claims on behalf of those parties, the company said in a release ahead of its fiscal second-quarter earnings. Kroger is now the latest retail pharmacy chain to announce a nationwide settlement agreement after Walgreens, CVS and Walmart did last fall.