The Latest News from Our Field

The Office of National Drug Control Policy has launched a new online training program to help doctors prescribe opioids more safely and effectively. The program’s goal is to reduce prescription drug abuse, The Boston Globe reports.

Nurses can significantly reduce substance abuse in homeless youth, a new study finds.

More than 195,000 people have signed an online petition demanding the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, known as Freddie Mac, test the homes it sells for methamphetamine contamination.

A new study links heavy smoking and drinking with an earlier onset of pancreatic cancer. While the disease is generally diagnosed at an average age of 72, heavy smokers with pancreatic cancer were diagnosed at age 62, and heavy drinkers at age 61, the study found.

The number of U.S. teens who drink and drive has decreased 54 percent since 1991, according to a new government report. Last year, 90 percent of high school students 16 and older said they don’t drink and drive.

The federal government will decide within the next month whether nurse anesthetists can be reimbursed by Medicare for treating chronic pain, The Wall Street Journal reports. Some doctors say such a move could complicate the fight against prescription drug abuse.

Almost one in 12 injured workers prescribed opioids are still taking the drugs three to six months later, a new study finds. Drug testing and psychological evaluation aimed at reducing drug abuse are not conducted in these workers most of the time.

The Los Angeles City Council has voted to repeal a new ban on medical marijuana shops. The vote leaves the city without any regulation of its estimated 1,000 medical marijuana dispensaries, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Marijuana is one of the most hotly debated drugs of our time, according to Kevin Sabet, PhD, Policy Consultant and Assistant Professor, University of Florida. He says that while sifting through the rhetoric about the drug can be difficult, it is important to know what the research has established. There is now a plethora of scientific studies about the use of the drug and its public health implications.

Substance use disorders are common five years after juveniles are released from detention, a new study finds. Males are two to three times more likely to use alcohol and drugs compared with females, HealthDay reports.

Moderate drinking may increase the risk of the heart rhythm disorder called atrial fibrillation in older people with heart disease or diabetes, a new study suggests.

Many California inmates imprisoned under the state’s “three strikes” laws are much more likely than the general prison population to be addicted to drugs and alcohol, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

For more than one-third of Texas’ Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who died after leaving the military, the cause was a drug overdose, a deadly combination of drugs, or suicide, according to an investigation by the Austin American-Statesman.

The Food and Drug Administration is launching a new campaign to warn consumers to avoid buying medicine from fraudulent online pharmacies. The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy estimates that less than 3 percent of online pharmacies meet state and federal laws.

A growing number of Amtrak employees have been testing positive for drugs and alcohol, increasing the risk of a serious railroad accident, according to a new report.

Africans-American youth are exposed to higher levels of alcohol advertising than children and teens of other racial groups, according to a new study.

Patients in Kentucky with long-term medical conditions that require controlled substances must submit to urine drug tests under a new state law designed to combat prescription drug abuse. Those tests are not always covered by insurance companies, the Associated Press reports.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has described the country’s sharp rise in overdoses over the last decade from prescription painkillers, or opioids, as an epidemic. But it can be easy to lose sight of what “epidemic” truly means.

A national campaign launched this week aims to prevent half a million teenagers from abusing medicine within five years. CBS NewYork reports The Medicine Abuse Project is a multi-year effort to help educate parents, teens and the public about the dangers of medicine abuse.

Treating alcoholism saves families money, largely by cutting down on expenses related to alcohol and cigarettes, a new study finds.

The number of smoking scenes in movies rated G, PG and PG-13 increased by more than one-third from 2010 to 2011, according to a new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A Massachusetts chemist accused of mishandling drug test results has admitted wrongdoing, The Boston Globe reports. Annie Dookhan says she changed test results, did not perform proper testing, and forged colleagues’ initials for two to three years.

As a growing number of states enact restrictions designed to clamp down on prescription drug abuse, some pain sufferers say they are not able to get the opioids they need, The Wall Street Journal reports.

A new government report finds that Medicare routinely refills pain medications without new prescriptions that are required by federal law.

The Supreme Court announced it will hear a case that centers on the question of whether police must obtain a warrant before forcing suspected drunk drivers to submit to a blood alcohol test.