The Latest News from Our Field

A number of trends could combine to lower U.S. smoking rates from the current 18 percent, to 10 percent or less, health officials predict. Cigarette taxes, bans on smoking in public places and regulations on cigarette advertising could influence people’s perceptions of smoking, according to the Associated Press.

California has approved the merger of the Hazelden Foundation and the Betty Ford Center, the Star Tribune reports. The new organization will be called the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation. It will be the nation’s largest nonprofit treatment organization.

The heroin overdose antidote naloxone is becoming more widely available nationwide, the Los Angeles Times reports. California greatly expanded availability of the treatment as of January 1.

Heroin laced with the synthetic opiate fentanyl is suspected in at least 50 recent fatal overdoses in three states, according to law enforcement officials. In Pennsylvania, the drug combination is suspected in at least 17 deaths. Officials in Maryland and Michigan are also investigating deaths linked to the drug mix.

Maine Governor Paul R. LePage this week said the births of 927 babies born to mothers addicted to drugs last year in the state is a “troubling epidemic.” The babies represented more than 7 percent of all births in the state, The New York Times reports.

A Florida congressman this week called the Obama Administration’s policy on marijuana “schizophrenic,” according to CBS News.

Top headlines of the week from Friday, January 31- Thursday, February 6, 2014.

Technology is the driving force behind the Treatment Research Institute’s latest project: implementing and evaluating Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) in New York high schools later this year.

CVS Caremark announced Wednesday it will stop selling tobacco products by October 1, the Los Angeles Times reports. CVS, the nation’s second-largest drugstore chain, will be the first national pharmacy company to stop selling tobacco.

The addiction treatment medication buprenorphine was found in actor Philip Seymour Hoffman’s apartment, along with 50 bags of heroin and a variety of prescription drugs, according to New York City detectives.

Fatal car crashes that involved marijuana tripled in the past decade, a new study concludes. One in nine drivers involved in a fatal crash tests positive for marijuana, according to the Columbia University researchers.

Low-level drug criminals with long mandatory sentences should ask President Obama for early release from prison, the Justice Department advises.

Cheap heroin is easy to find in New York City, according to law enforcement officials who spoke after actor Philip Seymour Hoffman was found dead with dozens of packages of heroin in his apartment.

A new government report finds fewer teens are abusing prescription painkillers or smoking.

Parents, schools and some doctors are voicing concern about children’s access to marijuana-laced snacks, which are becoming increasingly popular in states where recreational or medical marijuana is legal.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week unveiled its latest anti-smoking campaign, which features real people talking about smoking in tough and often frightening terms.

Attorney General Eric Holder told a Senate committee Wednesday that all drugs, including alcohol, are “potentially harmful.” He was responding to a question about whether he agreed with President Obama’s recent comment that smoking marijuana was less dangerous than alcohol “in terms of its impact on the individual consumer.”

A group that opposes marijuana legalization has placed billboards around the New York-New Jersey area in advance of Sunday’s Super Bowl, the Seattle Post Intelligencer reports. Earlier this week, a group advocating for legalization placed billboards on the highway leading to MetLife Stadium, where the game will be played.

A new study links alcohol consumption with an increased risk of skin cancer, BBC News reports. The ethanol in alcohol is converted to a compound called acetaldehyde in the body, which may make the skin more sensitive to harmful ultraviolet rays.

Next week, more than 2,500 community leaders will gather in the Washington, D.C. area for Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America's (CADCA) 24th annual National Leadership Forum.

Top headlines of the week from Friday, January 24- Thursday, January 30, 2014.

This month as the 50th anniversary report on smoking and health was released by the U.S. Surgeon General, Legacy President and CEO Robin Koval calls attention to the man who helped strike the match that led to this landmark report.

The Drug Enforcement Administration has joined an investigation into the source of a batch of heroin that killed 22 people in western Pennsylvania, The Wall Street Journal reports. The heroin involved in some of the deaths contained the synthetic opiate fentanyl, often used during surgery.

Five billboards with pro-marijuana messages have appeared along New Jersey highways leading to MetLife Stadium, the venue hosting Sunday’s Super Bowl. One of the billboards reads: “MARIJUANA: Safer than alcohol…and football.”

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday unanimously ruled a heroin dealer cannot be held liable for a client’s death and given a longer sentence if heroin only contributed to the death, and was not necessarily the only cause.