The Latest News from Our Field

Florida continues to be a popular state for people to base their lawsuits against the tobacco industry, according to CBS MoneyWatch. The tobacco industry faces thousands of legal challenges in the state.

The Department of Health and Human Services will remove some obstacles that limit the ability of doctors to prescribe buprenorphine for patients who are addicted to heroin or prescription painkillers, The Huffington Post reports.

A bipartisan group of U.S. representatives has introduced a bill designed to combat the increasing use of synthetic drugs, according to Roll Call. The bill would add more than 200 compounds to the list of Schedule I drugs, which are likely to be abused and have no medical uses.

Senator Chuck Schumer of New York is calling on the Drug Enforcement Administration to create an investigative unit to go after sales of synthetic drugs. The unit should focus on websites that sell the drugs, and notify credit card companies and payment processors such as PayPal of the illegal activity, he said.

Oregon will fund many alternative pain treatments for patients covered by the state’s version of Medicaid starting in January, NPR reports. The state hopes to reduce the number of people who become addicted to opioids or abuse them.

New York this year has joined at least four other states in allowing public school nurses to add the opioid overdose antidote naloxone to their inventory, NPR reports. Other states with similar policies include Vermont, Massachusetts and Delaware.

A group of organizations and doctors is calling on the U.S. Senate to release records on the financial ties between opioid makers and nonprofit groups that advocated for the drugs’ use in treating pain. The records were obtained as part of an investigation, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.

Law enforcement officials have disrupted a massive drug distribution ring involving synthetic marijuana, Time reports. The scheme allegedly involved the unlawful importation of 100 kilograms of illegal synthetic compounds, sufficient to produce about 260,000 retail drug packets worth about $30 million.

A national survey suggests use of synthetic drugs increased from 2009 to 2013. Many people who use these drugs also use other illicit drugs such as LSD, cocaine and Ecstasy, according to the researchers from NYU Langone Medical Center.

Top headlines of the week from Friday, September 11- Thursday, September 17, 2015.

Given all the legislative focus on marijuana laws, are we now at a point where we can determine the impact of marijuana legalization on children?

The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday ordered tobacco company R.J. Reynolds to stop selling four cigarette products. It is the first time the agency has ordered a major tobacco company to stop selling products, according to NPR.

The Food and Drug Administration issued a rule this week that allows the agency to destroy poor-quality or fake drugs valued at $2,500 or less that are refused admission into the United States. Until now, only counterfeit or poor quality food or medical devices could be destroyed.

An advisory panel to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has voted in favor of approving a new opioid painkiller made by Collegium Pharmaceuticals. The panel’s unanimous vote was contrary to a recommendation by FDA staff, according to Reuters.

Dealers of synthetic drugs have no trouble ordering their products online, the Miami Herald reports. All it takes is a few mouse clicks and simple money transfers to receive the drugs from China.

More Americans are using marijuana, according to a new government report. About 8.4 percent of Americans ages 12 and older were current users of marijuana last year, up from 7.5 percent in 2013. The percentage of teens ages 12 to 17 who smoke, drink or use prescription narcotics nonmedically has fallen, HealthDay reports.

Poison control centers have seen a nearly 400 percent jump in calls related to children under 12 ingesting hand sanitizer since 2010, CNN reports.

The cost of naloxone, the opioid overdose antidote, is rising as demand increases. In Baltimore, the City Health Department was paying about $20 a dose in February. NPR reports the price had risen to almost $40 by July.

Indiana is leading the nation in pharmacy robberies, USA Today reports. The Drug Enforcement Administration says there have been more than 130 such incidents since the beginning of 2015.

The U.S. House of Representatives has unanimously passed two bills aimed at fighting opioid abuse and its harmful effects. One bill would reauthorize federal funding to states for prescription drug monitoring programs, while the other would create uniform standards for diagnosing and treating newborns exposed to opioids.

Fentanyl-laced heroin is worsening the nation’s overdose crisis, officials tell NPR. Some drug dealers are using an illicit version of fentanyl, a potent anesthesia drug, to increase the potency of heroin that has been diluted.

A study that tracks when college students first try drugs and alcohol finds June is the most popular month for initiating marijuana and alcohol use. Winter is the peak season for full-time college students to start using prescription drugs, such as stimulants and pain relievers, in non-medical ways.

Almost 6 percent of college students say they use marijuana daily or almost daily, the highest rate since 1980, a new study finds.

Top headlines of the week from Friday, August 14- Thursday, September 10, 2015.

Until recently, parents looking for strategies on how to support a young person in early recovery had very few credible alternatives. Now a practical translation of a well-established behavioral research finding promises some new options for what a parent could do to support sustained recovery in their child.