The Latest News from Our Field

The Florida House Judiciary Committee this week passed a bill that would add 27 substances to the list of controlled substances that are banned in the state. The bill aims to make it more difficult for makers of synthetic drugs to manufacture their products.

A bipartisan group of legislators introduced a bill that would tighten restrictions on hydrocodone, the Los Angeles Times reports. The Safe Prescribing Act of 2013 follows recommendations made in January by a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel.

Adults with a substance use disorder or mental illness smoke almost 40 percent of cigarettes in the United States, a new government study finds.

Toddlers of women who used methamphetamine in pregnancy, who live in an unstable home environment, appear to have an abnormal response to stress, a new study suggests.

Officials in Washington state have chosen a think tank to help them set up and regulate its new marijuana market, Reuters reports.

A new report finds small children who end up in the emergency room after being accidentally poisoned from medication are more likely to find the pills in a mother’s purse or the floor than the family medicine cabinet.

The U.S. government will not fight for graphic warning labels on cigarette packages, and will instead create new anti-smoking ads, Reuters reports.

A group of health experts is asking the Food and Drug Administration to restrict the amount of caffeine permitted in energy drinks, according to The New York Times.

The evidence of the harmful effects of alcohol outweighs data on the benefits of drinking, a physician writes in the current issue of the journal Addiction.

The first national study to identify alcohol brands consumed by underage youth finds the top 25 brands accounted for almost half of youth alcohol consumption.

Abuse of the anesthesia drug propofol is on the rise among health care professionals who have easy access to it, a new study suggests.

A growing number of smokers are relighting cigarettes, a trend that is related to economic factors, according to researchers at the Cancer Institute of New Jersey.

An increasing number of teens and adults in southern California are using heroin, according to Drug Enforcement Administration officials.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has proposed keeping cigarettes out of sight in city stores, the Associated Press reports. The proposal is designed to discourage smoking among young people, he said.

A new bill introduced Friday in the U.S. House of Representatives would require new drugs, and certain generic drugs, to have tamper-resistant formulas, ABC News reports. The proposed legislation is designed to reduce prescription drug abuse.

Critics of the soon-to-be-released updated manual used to identify mental illness, say it will expand the list of what constitutes mental illness and will lead to a needless increase in diagnoses, according to CNN.

Even moderate amounts of alcohol can be dangerous for people with hepatitis C, according to a new study.

Middle school students who date report using twice as much alcohol, tobacco and marijuana, compared with their classmates without romantic relationships, a new study finds.

In January, new government regulations took effect that allow greater take-home privileges for buprenorphine patients who are treated in clinic-based Opioid Treatment Programs (OTPs). While this change will allow more patients to have increased flexibility as they progress in their recovery, providers must be careful in deciding who to give the medication to, in order to avoid diversion, says a New York addiction specialist.

The Food and Drug Administration told lawmakers this month that the process of reclassifying hydrocodone combination products, in order to make them more difficult to prescribe, will be long, The Hill reports.

The recreational use of marijuana is a violation of international law, the United Nations International Narcotics Control Board warned the United States this week.

The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday reaffirmed its decision allowing sick smokers or their survivors to sue tobacco companies for cigarette-related illness or death.

A new study calculates binge drinking cost Wisconsin $6.8 billion last year. Easy availability of alcohol, combined with low alcohol taxes, has contributed to high rates of alcohol use in the state, NPR reports.

Healthy children and teenagers should not be given drugs designed to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, the American Academy of Neurology said this week.

Smokers can easily identify “light” and “mild” cigarettes, despite a federal law banning those words, because tobacco companies have substituted color names for those terms, a new study concludes.