The Latest News from Our Field

For four years of high school, most adults were against teen drinking. They would ground us, punish us, deactivate our cell phones and take away our car keys if they suspected kids were drinking. But after graduation, the adults I know now tell me that drinking is important for the “college experience,” observes one incoming college freshman.

Emergency rooms reported a 300 percent jump in visits related to stimulant abuse among young adults from 2005 to 2011. According to The New York Times, 23,000 people ages 18 to 34 visited the ER in 2011 after taking drugs such as Adderall or Ritalin.

Children today are exposed to significantly less secondhand smoke than they were a decade ago—unless they have asthma, according to a new government report.

Many teens who use smokeless tobacco also smoke cigarettes, according to a national survey of almost 19,000 middle school and high school students.

Wal-Mart is taking steps to significantly boost alcohol sales, Bloomberg News reports. The company is devoting more shelf space to alcohol, offering discounts on beer and doubling the number of company alcohol buyers.

Rural areas are seeing a surge in heroin use, The Wall Street Journal reports. The rise comes as Mexican heroin production has increased in recent years, and as people addicted to prescription painkillers switch to heroin, which is cheaper.

Many outdoor venues, including parks, beaches and college campuses, are banning smoking, according to ABC News. The number of outdoor smoking bans has almost doubled in the last five years.

A device used for medical marijuana, called the “G-Pen,” is becoming popular with teens, MyFoxNY reports.

Students at a high school in Illinois will be randomly tested for alcohol this year, according to ABC News. The test uses hair samples.

Alcoholism and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can be safely treated together, a new study concludes. The study addresses concerns that treating PTSD could worsen alcoholism by bringing up painful memories, Reuters reports.

Performance-enhancing drugs, which led to the suspension of 13 Major League Baseball players this week, can have severe long-term health effects, an expert tells Fox News.

Teens whose parents have ever smoked are more likely to become smokers, even if their parents quit before they were born, according to a new study. Teens with an older sibling who smokes are also more likely to start using cigarettes.

Since local and statewide bans of synthetic drug sales in Florida have taken effect, the products are no longer easy to find in gas stations and convenience stores, according to an expert who tracks emerging psychoactive drugs. Calls to poison control centers have dropped, and fewer people are being rushed to the emergency room with side effects from the drugs.

Methadone maintenance has been used in the United States for approximately 50 years as an effective treatment for opioid addiction. Yet many myths about its use persist, discouraging patients from using methadone, and leading family members to pressure patients using the treatment to stop, explains addiction expert Dr. Edwin A. Salsitz.

A new government report shows 37 percent of U.S. pedestrians killed in 2011 were drunk, USA Today reports. Thirty-five percent of those killed had blood alcohol levels that were at or above the legal limit for driving.

Many people addicted to opioids are undergoing short-term detoxification, instead of receiving long-term maintenance treatment, according to a new report. In the journal Health Affairs, eight experts write this means many people are not receiving adequate opioid addiction treatment.

Major League Baseball suspended the New York Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez and 12 other players on Monday for violating the league’s antidoping rules, according to The New York Times.

Gil Kerlikowske will leave his post as Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. He was nominated by President Obama on Friday to become the new U.S. Commissioner of Customs.

The chairman of the California Assembly Health Committee announced he will examine the issue of fraud in taxpayer-funded drug rehab clinics, during a hearing on the state’s Medicaid program. The problems in the clinics were uncovered through an investigation by CNN and The Center for Investigative Reporting.

Mothers who consume a high-fat, high-sugar diet during pregnancy may be more likely to have children with an increased vulnerability to drug or alcohol abuse, a study of rats suggests.

Tobacco companies are using marketing tactics for their e-cigarettes that are similar to the ones they have used for regular cigarettes, including sponsoring race cars, using cab-top and bus stop displays, and buying TV ad time to tell smokers to take back their freedom, the Associated Press reports.

Alcohol plays a major role in almost 20 percent of deadly crashes that involve recreational boats, according to The Journal News.

The number of women receiving treatment for substance use disorders could rise under changes that will be implemented as part of health care reform, according to an expert at UCLA.

Legislators in the lower house of Uruguay voted to approve a bill to legalize marijuana, The New York Times reports. The country’s Senate is expected to approve the bill as well. President José Mujica supports the measure.

As a growing number of doctors use urine drug tests in an effort to detect prescription drug abuse in their patients, they face ethical questions about the tests, according to The New York Times.