The Latest News from Our Field

Macklemore, a 30-year-old male artist with a history of drug and alcohol use, doesn’t brag about getting drunk or high; rather warns young people about the realities behind addiction, and urges his listeners to learn from his mistakes.

President Obama on Thursday commuted the sentences of eight federal inmates who had been convicted of crack cocaine offenses, The New York Times reports. Six of the inmates were sentenced to life in prison.

Fatal car crashes are more likely to be caused by alcohol on New Year’s Eve, compared with Christmas, according to the National Safety Council.

Kentucky lawmakers will soon consider a bill that would make the opioid overdose antidote drug naloxone more available, while stiffening penalties for high-level drug dealers. The bill also would expand anti-drug education, the Courier-Journal reports.

The New York City Council on Thursday voted to include e-cigarettes in the city’s public smoking ban, NPR reports.

New York, Los Angeles and Chicago are considering adding e-cigarettes to their public smoking bans. Public health officials in those cities say the devices are harmful and can be a gateway to smoking regular cigarettes, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Totally banning smoking in the home can help smokers quit, a new study finds. Banning smoking in parts of the house is not as effective.

A bill proposed by an Ohio legislator would require hospitals to report the number of opioid-dependent babies born each year, according to The Columbus Dispatch.

The Chinese government announced a major crackdown on makers of fake drugs, Businessweek reports. More than nine tons of raw materials used in counterfeit pharmaceuticals were seized, including some psychedelic or poisonous ingredients.

The percentage of teens who think there is a great risk from being a regular marijuana user has dropped, according to a new survey. The Monitoring the Future survey found 39.5 percent of 12th graders think regular marijuana use is harmful, down from 44.1 percent last year.

A survey by the American Automobile Association finds one-fifth of licensed drivers who drink at least occasionally say they have driven when they thought their alcohol level may have been close to, or over, the legal limit in the past year.

The Endocrine Society is warning about the health consequences of taking performance-enhancing drugs. The vast majority of people who use these drugs are non-athlete weightlifters, according to the group.

The U.S. Defense Department will start randomly testing service members for synthetic marijuana, the Air Force News Service reports.

Alcohol companies’ “social responsibility” campaigns increase brand loyalty and positive perceptions of the products, without reducing alcohol-related harms, according to a critic of the industry.

Attorneys General from 42 U.S. states and territories are urging the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to require drug companies to ensure generic prescription opioids have abuse-deterrent features.

A study that shows nicotine contributes to smokers’ higher risk of developing heart disease suggests the nicotine in e-cigarettes is not necessarily safe for the heart, CNN reports.

A study that evaluated a wide variety of parenting programs found five that help parents and children avoid teen behavior problems.

For the past year, adults in Denmark with a serious drug addiction have been allowed to take illegal drugs in “fix rooms,” supervised by a nurse. Research suggests these drug consumption rooms can save lives, NPR reports.

The dramatic rise in the diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder coincided with a two-decade campaign by drug companies, aimed at doctors, educators and parents, to promote pills to treat the disorder, according to The New York Times.

Some Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers are beginning to treat substance use disorders and mental illness together, The Columbus Dispatch reports. Until recently, VA hospitals tended to treat the two problems separately.

People who use e-cigarettes indoors may be exposing the people around them to nicotine, a new study suggests. The amount of secondhand nicotine exposure from e-cigarettes is much smaller than from traditional cigarettes, the researchers conclude.

Heavy marijuana use in the teenage years could damage brain structures vital to memory and reasoning, a new study suggests.

Should doctors recommend alcohol as a way to reduce their risk of heart disease? At the recent Association for Medical Education and Research in Substance Abuse annual meeting, an expert in heart health and an expert in addiction and primary care medicine came up with sharply different answers.

The Ohio Attorney General’s office is investigating complaints that some people are abusing drugs prescribed for pets, or intentionally abusing animals to obtain painkillers.

A study of female drug offenders in the St. Louis area finds one-quarter report experiencing police sexual misconduct, MedicalXpress reports.