As I sit here and write this column, I am sure some of the information below will have changed or updated. That is the nature of the topic I am about to cover. So if something happened over the past week, sorry about that but I am glad you are keeping updated. Anyway, allow me to start with a little bit of a backgrounder. Vaping has been around for...

Anti-Addiction Meds Can Help Teen Opioid Abusers, TooThe epidemic of opioid addiction and abuse ravaging the United States is also affecting teenagers. Click for more From removing doors to checking sleeves, U.S. schools seek to snuff out vapingStudents caught vaping in school can expect a lot more than a warning or detention in one North Texas dis...

Although e-cigarettes have been around for more than a decade, vaping rates have skyrocketed in recent years, especially among teens. Monitoring the Future, an annual survey that measures drug and alcohol use of 8th, 10th, and 12th graders has found that teen vaping is on the rise. In 2018, past-year vaping for each grade was: 8th grade: 17.6% 10th...

More U.S. Teens, Kids Seeking Mental Health Care in ERs 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 U.S. emergency departments are seeing a surge in the number of kids and teens seeking help for mental health problems, new research warns.Learn More   The Fentanyl Failure In May 2016, a group of national health experts issued an urgent plea in a private letter to high-level officials in the Obama administration. Thousands of people were dying from overdoses of fentanyl — the deadliest drug to ever hit U.S..Learn More   Opioids and unemployment: stopping the cycle 60 Minutes producer Katy Textor talks about an investment fund resurrecting jobs in hard-hit areas. One company's solution? Hire recovering addictsLearn More   To help fight vaping, schools look to their...

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...

Association of Pharmaceutical Industry Marketing of Opioid Products With Mortality From Opioid-Related Overdoses To what extent is pharmaceutical industry marketing of opioids to physicians associated with subsequent mortality from prescription opioid overdoses?Learn More   The FDA is considering drugs to help kids quit vaping The US Food and Drug Administration is considering the role of drug therapies to get kids to quit vapes and other nicotine products, with medical organizations and vaping groups weighing in during a public hearing Friday on how to address rising levels of e-cigarette use among youth.Learn More   FDA clears the way to increase access and lower cost of life-saving opioid overdose treatment drug The Food and Drug Administration is clearing the way for drug companies to increase access and lower the cost of a life-saving drug used to treat opioid overdoses.Learn More   Fatal opioid overdoses by state All states in the nation are grappling...

Parents with Mental Health Conditions Are 8 Times as Likely as Parents without Mental Health Conditions to Have Contact with Child Protective Services, National Survey Shows Involvement with child protective services (CPS) can have detrimental effects on children and parents alike. This study provided updated information about the prevalence of parenting among individuals with a serious mental illness and established the first contemporaneous and comparative national prevalence estimates of CPS involvement for parents with and without a serious mental illness.Learn More   Drug overdose deaths skyrocket among middle-aged women America's drug crisis is taking a deadly toll on a group you might not expect: middle-aged women. A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveals that drug overdose deaths among females aged 30 to 64 have skyrocketed in recent years.Learn More   Covering Debt to Curb Addiction A National Health Service Corps loan repayment program aims to boost...

Opioid Overdoses Are Now The Nation’s Most Common Preventable Cause Of Death Americans are more likely to accidentally overdose than die in a motor vehicle accident or a fall, according to a new report.Learn More   Meth’s resurgence highlights lack of meds to combat addiction Overdose rates involving meth more than tripled between 2011 and 2016.Learn More   Partnership for Drug-Free Kids and Center on Addiction Announce Merger Together, as Center on Addiction, They Will Transform How U.S. Addresses AddictionLearn More   Maryland regulators: Is medical marijuana effective for treating opioid addiction? Answer: It's complicated As opioid overdose deaths continued to mount in Maryland last year, state lawmakers asked medical marijuana regulators to determine whether cannabis could be effective at treating addiction to heroin, fentanyl and oxycodone. Learn More   F.D.A. Accuses Juul and Altria of Backing Off Plan to Stop Youth Vaping The Food and Drug Administration is accusing Juul...

Potential new treatment for drug addiction relapse revealed Research published in Addiction Biology by scientists at the University of Bath reveals a new potential mechanism for combatting drug addiction relapse.Learn More   NIH spells out $500 million plan to improve addiction treatment and pain management The National Institutes of Health, thanks to Congress, will soon have an extra $500 million to spend each year on research into opioids and pain treatment. And on Tuesday, the research agency published a scieLearn More   How Teenage Vaping Puts Structure in Place for Heroin and Cocaine Addiction The rapid adoption of e-cigarettes has been driven, at least in part, by a huge jump in the potency of e-liquids. Learn More   How can patients be protected from post-surgery opioid addiction? Greater coordination is needed between surgeons and physicians about the prescription of pain-relieving opioid drugs following surgery to help identify patients who are at...

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...