Drug policy head confronted about administration's drug crisis strategy In a hearing peppered with statistics and stories of the nation's opioid crisis, a government official told a congressional panel Thursday that the Trump administration’s plan for addressing the country’s drug crisis lacks goals and objectives and a way to measure success.Learn More   Juul is pitching its e-cigarette as an anti-smoking tool to employers and insurers Juul has a new program to pitch its e-cigarette to companies and insurers who want to help their employees stop smoking cigarettes as the company continues to stave off criticism that its product has caused an epidemic in teen smoking.Learn More   Teens Need the Truth About Drugs Decades of scare tactics haven’t worked. What’s effective is clear information about risks and alternative ways to relieve stress..Learn More   Mobile addiction clinic brings help to those at heart of opioid epidemic Just as snow begins...

Steep Climb in Benzodiazepine Prescribing By Primary Care Doctors The percentage of outpatient medical visits that led to a benzodiazepine prescription doubled from 2003 to 2015, according to a study published Friday. And about half those prescriptions came from primary care physicians.Learn More   One percent of US teenagers are using flakka -- but it could be more Just under 1% of American teenagers are knowingly using the synthetic drug flakka, according to new research.Learn More   FDA is failing to protect kids from e-cigarettes, American Lung Association says The American Lung Association gives a federal agency and individual state governments poor marks in a new report card evaluating tobacco prevention programs.Learn More   Parents worried about risks, but still think opioids are best for kids’ pain relief Headlines filled with frightening news of opioid abuse, overdoses and reports that 90 percent of addictions start in the teen years could make...

NIC Fraternities Ban Hard Alcohol in Decisive Action In an important, decisive action to enhance health and safety in fraternity communities, the North American Interfraternity Conference (NIC) recently adopted a Standard prohibiting hard alcohol from fraternity chapter facilities and events.Learn More   Almost one in 20 U.S. adults now use e-cigarettes Roughly 10.8 million American adults are currently using e-cigarettes, and more than half of them are under 35 years old, a U.S. study suggests.Learn More   We Must Stop Opioid Overprescribing – Now The president of the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids on solutions to help combat the opioid crisis.Learn More   Oxycontin Maker Selling Opioid Addiction Drug, Too Purdue Pharma, the maker of Oxycontin who some have blamed for the epidemic of opioid painkiller addictions, has patented a medicine aimed at curbing those disorders. Learn More   Most Doctors Are Ill-Equipped to Deal With the Opioid Epidemic. Few Medical Schools...

Tech takes on cigarette smoking Researchers develop system that senses smoking movements, sends motivational text messages, videos to help users quit smoking.Learn More   How opioids reshape your brain, and what scientists are learning about addiction None of us has the brain we were born with. Brains grow and adapt. This process, called neuroplasticity, doesn't end when you step out of the classroomLearn More   E-Cigarettes Promote Smoking Progression in Youth and Depress Quitting Among Adults E-cigarettes are not an effective tool to reduce combustible-cigarette smoking, two NIDA-supported studies indicate. Learn More   Adolescent Marijuana Use Is Linked to Altered Neural Circuitry and Mood Symptoms In a recent NIDA-supported study, males from low-income backgrounds who used marijuana in escalating frequency throughout their teen years exhibited disrupted connectivity at age 20 in a brain circuit that links rewarding experiences with motivation and mood..Learn More   Everyone Dealing With Addiction Deserves The Support...

Study shows 'booster' emails can reduce drinking/alcohol-related problems among college students College students entering adulthood often drink too much. Negative consequences can include missed classes, poor grades, a wide array of injuries, and even assault.Learn More   Teens Sneaking Juul E-Cig Into Classrooms Parents, if you want to find out whether your teenagers are "juuling" in school, you might consider checking their Twitter accounts.Learn More   People are using Fitbits and Apple Watches to monitor their heart rate when binging on drugs At a bachelor party two years ago in South Lake Tahoe, California, a tech worker who we'll call Owen glanced down at his Fitbit in between snorting lines of cocaine. Learn More   Bystanders To Fatal Overdoses Increasingly Becoming Criminal Defendants Alexandria Santa Barbara is a 39-year-old mother of three from a working-class suburb of Philadelphia.Learn More   Worse than AIDS: Opioid epidemic is public health crisis CDC director...

Origins of an Epidemic: Purdue Pharma Knew Its Opioids Were Widely Abused A confidential Justice Department report found the company was aware early on that OxyContin was being crushed and snorted for its powerful narcotic, but continued to promote it as less addictive.Learn More   Fentanyl: Time to Open Our Eyes to Today’s Biggest Driver of the Opioid Crisis (Part I) If the recently released “final words” about the investigation of funk, rock, and pop star legend Prince’s death don’t open our eyes to the now leading cause of the opioid crisis, nothing will. Although I’m not sure the words about Prince’s death are final when we don’t know the source of the Vicodin look-alike, fentanyl-containing pills that killed him, it’s time to stop acting like all opioids are equal players in the so-called opioid epidemic.Learn More   Don't Call K2 'Synthetic Marijuana' While the NYPD is considering a softer approach...

Recent study in Oregon reveals public considers alcohol more harmful than marijuana As the national conversation about marijuana legalization continues, an important question is how changing marijuana policy may influence use of other substances, such as alcohol.Learn More   Drugs, alcohol and suicides contribute to alarming drop in U.S. life expectancy Life expectancy in the U.S. has fallen for the second year in a row, thanks to a combination of drug and alcohol use and suicides, according to a new report.Learn More Stronger cannabis linked to rise in demand for drug treatment programs Study drawing on data from the Netherlands is the first to show how admissions to treatment centers rise and fall in line with cannabis strength. Learn More   Could ketamine help treat alcohol dependence? Current treatments for alcohol dependence often fail. So researchers are investigating more unusual interventions.Learn More   Why treating addiction with medication should be carefully...

Are you a parent? Here’s a question for you -- If I used the term vaping, would you know what I was talking about? Vaping is the act of inhaling and exhaling the aerosol, often referred to as vapor, which is produced by an e-cigarette or similar device. The term is used because e-cigarettes do not produce tobacco smoke, but rather an aerosol, often mistaken for water vapor, that actually consists of fine particles. Many of these particles contain varying amounts of toxic chemicals, which have been linked to cancer, as well as respiratory and heart disease. Vaping has grown in popularity with the rise of e-cigarettes, which were introduced to the mass market in the U.S. in 2007. Vaping devices include not just e-cigarettes, but also vape pens and advanced personal vaporizers (also known as ‘MODS’). E-cigarettes, which resemble smoked cigarettes, and vape pens, which resemble large fountain pens, are...

Marijuana use triples risk of death from hypertension The risk of death from hypertension is three times greater in adults who use marijuana, compared with nonusers, based on data from a retrospective study of 1,213 adults.Learn More   Treating substance use disorder as a family physician Patients with substance use disorders may experience stigma that can interfere with treatment options. But when substance use disorders are recognized and treated as a chronic disease, that stigma can be reduced.Learn More Pediatric primary care could be key to solving teen opioid crisis A new primary care pediatric practice model designed to treat teens with substance-use disorder is showing promise, even as a disturbing new federal report finds that drug-overdose deaths increased in 2015 among U.S. adolescents aged 15–19. Learn More   Study examines whether marijuana affects kidney function A new study found little evidence that marijuana use affects kidney function in healthy young...

Please note: The Weekly Addiction News & Policy Updated will not publish on Friday, September 1, 2017. Enjoy the Labor Day week!   Gender equality? Not when it comes to alcohol and the brain Gender differences in the brain's reward system could mean that women who need help kicking alcohol may need different types of treatment.Learn More   America's Top 10 Alcohol-Drinking Cities—and 10 Most Sober Cities, Too In parts of the country, nearly 1 in 10 adults drinks heavily. Elsewhere, fewer than 1 percent do.Learn More Report From the Field: Working with Youth During the Opioid Epidemic Heroin needles were strewn about the apartment when Pam Jeffers visited a client, Amy*. Learn More   Substance misuse in older people Developed countries have seen substantial increases in longevity over the past 20 years, contributing to a global demographic shift. The number of older people (aged over 50) experiencing problems from substance...