A mob-connected drug trafficker was living right under our noses in Beverly Hills, helping to stash kilos of cocaine, make deals with the Sinaloa drug cartel and move millions of dollars worth of drugs for the Rizzuto organized crime family of La Cosa Nostra.

Those are the facts of the case for 39-year-old Alessandro Taloni, who today pleaded guilty in New York to federal drug-trafficking charges:

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Thirteen Of Clubs / Flickr

A West Hollywood doctor served as a one-stop shop for both hydrocodone (a.k.a. OxyContin) prescriptions and medical marijuana recommendations.

So say federal prosecutors who today announced that James Eisenberg was indicted on suspicion of distributing hydrocodone and writing prescriptions in defiance of a DEA order:

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Scarface

Good news for Lindsay Lohan, Charlie Sheen, and celebrity clubbers everywhere. Maybe.

Researchers are getting closer to inventing an anti-cocaine vaccine that works on humans. The academics announced over the weekend that the concoction works on primates:

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Authorities with seized nitrous / LASD

Huffing nitrous oxide is technically illegal, and so is selling it at parties.

So why are authorities having a hard time cracking down on the gas that has remained popular at raves and other underground events? It's also legal for other uses:

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Fox

If you thought the Southern California economy was still wobbly following the Great Recession, rejoice. People are actually exporting goods from L.A. to the rest of the world, including Europe.

The U.S. Attorney's Office today announced that nine enterprising suspects, including a pair of brothers and their uncle, have been indicted for allegedly sending cocaine to Italy. They were busted as part of a case prosecutors are calling "Operation Family Guy":

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You know you have an overdose problem when more of us in California die from drugs than car accidents.

Nationwide a majority of those deaths involved prescription drugs. Marijuana looks downright beneficial in comparison.

State Assemblyman Richard Bloom of Santa Monica announced today that he has introduced a bill that would help fund overdose prevention programs:

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Wood Library Museum

Updated at the bottom with three arrests and details about how, authorities allege, the nitrous was distributed. First posted at 4:29 p.m.

Nitrous oxide is in your dentists office, and sometimes it makes you feel good. But authorities say the gas is being abused in the rave and party scene.

Today L.A. County Sheriff's officials announced a big anti-nitrous bust they're calling Operation No Laughing Matter. Yep:

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Cops think nitrous oxide, a.k.a. NOS or laughing gas, might have played a role in a DUI crash that injured five people in Lynwood this week.

Investigators say they found a nitrous oxide tank following the Monday collision at Atlantic Avenue and Imperial Highway, according to an L.A. County Sheriff's Department statement.

The suspected DUI driver ...

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File photo from Juvenile Justice Information Exchange

A 14-year-old student at Northridge's Nobel Charter Middle School died this week after huffing a chemical to get high, officials said.

The girl was ID'd as Aria Doherty.

The L.A. Unified School District said she died at her home Monday night. A letter was sent home with students yesterday, according to an LAUSD statement sent to the Weekly:

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Nightlife of Revelry / Flickr

See clarification at the bottom.

State Sen. Mark Leno wants to do for cocaine, ecstasy and meth what he did for marijuana.

That is, make possession of small amounts basically a ticket-worthy offense -- a misdemeanor.

Some of you are no doubt cheering. Leno this week announced that he introduced a bill, SB 649, that would allow prosecutors ...

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DEA

You've been having a good time, America.

Too much of a good time. The Centers for Disease Control's National Center for Heath Statistics looked at the latest data and said this week that drug overdoses were on the rise for the 11th straight year.

The good news for L.A., the medical marijuana capital of America:

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Nightlife of Revelry / Facebook

Your pal just flat-lined after a night of prodigious partying. And you're afraid to call 911 because you've done some of that illicit partying, too.

A new law that takes effect Jan. 1 will allow you to do the right thing -- call for help -- without fear of being prosecuted for minor drug violations.

The Drug Policy Alliance this week says that California ...

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clintonfoundation.org

Marijuana decriminalization proponents are psyched by the words of a former president.

Bill Clinton is featured in the Morgan Freeman-narrated anti-drug-war film Breaking The Taboo, which has been circulating in the last year or so but which has seen some official New York release dates recently.

Activists say some of his words have gone unnoticed but could have major significance, given that it's rare if not unheard of to have current or former presidents going pro-marijuana (Jimmy Carter excepted):

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CBP

Meth.

Kids these days, you say. They're so advanced with their iPads and texting and ... meth smuggling.

Yeah, so says U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which alleges that a 15-year-old girl was caught near the Mexican border in Southern California with $35,000 worth of methamphetamine strapped to her.

Maybe it's a trend:

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Nightlife of Revelry / Flickr

Bad news for pretty much everyone who's ever "partied" in L.A.

A study presented at the American Heart Association's "Scientific Sessions 2012" confab in Los Angeles concludes that la coca is "the perfect heart attack drug," in the words of lead researcher Gemma Figtree.

Holy crap, said Charlie Sheen. Yeah. In fact some of the folks the docs looked at appeared to be fairly healthy on the outside:

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IMDB

Johnny Lewis.

Every so often a drug invented by California psychedelic explorer Sasha Shulgin, the Godfather of Ecstasy, escapes the lab and becomes a headache for law enforcement.

This is one of those times. Amid reports that actor Johnny Lewis might have been on 2C-I, or "smiles," when he allegedly flipped out, murdered his landlord and jumped or fell to his death, there is some concern that the psychedelic substance is gaining in popularity.

It was only July that ...

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Diana / Flickr

If you ever wanted to try Viagra without the embarrassing visit to the doctor or the street-dealer prices, now's your chance.

Apparently an L.A.-based company named Body Basics Inc. inadvertently let that cat out of the bag via an over-the-counter product it calls ACTRA-Sx 500 Dietary Supplement Capsules.

The FDA has, unfortunately, recently announced a recall of the pills ...

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L.A. County Sheriff

Benton's new mug shot.

The troubled son of esteemed Pepperdine University President Andrew K. Benton will serve two years in prison, says the L.A. County District Attorney's Office, for threatening his father at the family's on-campus home and "possession of a firearm by a narcotic addict."

Chris Benton, 27, allegedly brought the stolen gun onto Pepperdine's otherwise pristine and tranquil Malibu campus, discarding it on a hillside the day the sheriff came for him. That whole August 23 spectacle prompted some student outrage over Andrew Benton's continued presidency on the website for campus newspaper The Graphic:

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Cocaine Cowboys 2 / YouTube

Blanco.

Griselda Blanco, the cocaine queen who plied her trade in Southern California in the early 1980s, was fatally gunned down in her native Colombia yesterday.

You're probably asking, What took so long?

Blanco was one of the most murderous drug kingpin's in recorded history, having turned Miami into a city of blood in the late '70s and early '80s before coming to Orange County:

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LASD

The San Gabriel Valley's own Heisenbergs. (Click to enlarge.)

Bad news, meth heads: The feds just took the good stuff off the streets of the San Gabriel Valley.

After 16 months on the trail, with a little help from the DEA and the ATF, a gigantic task force of investigators from the FBI, the Pasadena PD, the L.A. County Sheriff's Department and the California state prison system just took down a massive Mexico-to-L.A. County drug ring, which they say was being masterminded by the Mexican Mafia and a drug cartel called "La Familial Michoacan."

Their stash, nicknamed "Crystal Light" by cops because dealers would allegedly skimp their customers by giving them a lighter load than was paid for, was incredibly pure, says the FBI:

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