The Latest News from Our Field

Top headlines of the week from Friday, February 20, 2015- Thursday, February 26, 2015.

Although alcohol in powdered form has been around for decades – long before a 1976 patent for it was issued to the General Foods Corporation – the announcement of a new product tabbed for the market has pushed the topic back to the forefront.

The percentage of Americans who take painkillers stronger than morphine is on the rise, according to a new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These drugs include oxycodone, hydromorphone, fentanyl and methadone.

The drug Vyvanse, which is being aggressively marketed as a treatment for binge eating, is classified by the federal government as having a high potential for abuse, The New York Times reports.

Schools in Colorado are grappling with how to educate students about the health consequences of marijuana, now that recreational use of the drug is legal for adults.

The number of deaths from heroin is rising in Vermont, even though about 40 percent more people in the state are seeking treatment for addiction compared with a year ago.

Veterans who take narcotic painkillers are struggling to get monthly appointments at Veterans Affairs health facilities to renew their prescriptions, as required by new federal rules.

People who use higher doses of narcotic painkillers to manage pain are at increased risk of depression, a new study suggests.

Many YouTube videos that show drunkenness portray excessive alcohol consumption in a positive light, a new study finds. The videos with the most “likes” were funny, Time reports.

Recreational marijuana becomes legal in Alaska on Tuesday. The state is the third to legalize recreational marijuana, following the lead of Washington and Colorado.

Colorado middle schools reported a 24 percent increase in drug-related incidents last year, according to USA Today. School-based experts tell the newspaper they believe the jump is directly related to marijuana legalization.

Long-term use of methamphetamine is more damaging to teen brains than to adult brains, according to a new study. The drug does its greatest damage in the area of the brain involved in a person’s ability to organize, reason and remember.

The Food and Drug Administration will consider this spring whether the smokeless tobacco known as snus is less harmful than cigarettes.

Five people involved in a medical marijuana case in Washington state, where recreational use of the drug is legal, must stand trial, a judge has ruled.

Top headlines of the week from Friday, February 13, 2015- Thursday, February 19, 2015.

A new and emerging area of research falls at the intersection of drug, alcohol and tobacco use. Join Together spoke with Amy Cohn, Research Investigator for Legacy to find out how her work could change the way we think about how to frame anti-tobacco interventions and educational campaigns.

A new study finds smokers who start taking smoking-cessation medication before they are ready to quit have greater success once they do want to stop.

Almost 60 percent of pregnant teens say they have used one or more substances in the past year, nearly double the rate of non-pregnant teens, researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have found.

Scientists have discovered a new brain circuit that causes marijuana users to get insatiably hungry, commonly known as “the munchies.” In a study of mice, researchers found the hunger is triggered in part by brain cells that usually turn down appetite.

A new bill introduced in the Vermont Senate could make the state the first to legalize recreational marijuana through the state legislature. In the four states in which recreational marijuana is currently legal, voters passed ballot initiatives.

A growing number of television shows are depicting marijuana use, The Wall Street Journal reports. Marijuana is being written into story lines of dramas and comedies, and new reality shows are being created about the fledgling legal marijuana industry.

Schools in some states have started to categorize e-cigarettes as drug paraphernalia, instead of tobacco products, according to the Associated Press. Students caught with e-cigarettes in these schools are punished more harshly than those found with regular cigarettes.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University say workplaces designed to help employees who are addicted to drugs can help them tackle their addiction. These “therapeutic workplaces” have been shown in studies to increase abstinence from drugs and maintain abstinence over long periods.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is scheduled to announce Tuesday that during the past year there was a 6 percent decrease in the number of federal drug trafficking prosecutions. The Associated Press reports prosecutors sought mandatory minimum sentences in 51 percent of cases, down from 64 percent the previous year.

The number of Americans who die from smoking-related diseases is significantly higher than previously estimated, according to a new study. The researchers say 60,000 additional deaths annually should be added to the almost half a million already attributed to smoking.