The Latest News from Our Field

Almost one-third of prescriptions paid for by Ohio’s insurance fund for injured workers last year were for painkillers. The state has seen a 37 percent increase in the use of such drugs among injured employees over the past 10 years.

New, harsher drunk driving laws go into effect Wednesday in Washington, D.C. Mandatory minimum jail terms for people with blood-alcohol concentrations of .20 percent or higher have doubled. Commercial drivers, including taxi drivers, now have a blood-alcohol limit of .04 percent.

People seeking welfare benefits in Utah must now take an online drug-screening survey, which is designed to determine if they are likely to have a substance use disorder, according to The Salt Lake Tribune.

In King County, Washington, a portion of all sales tax collected is dedicated to substance abuse, mental health and therapeutic court services. The Mental Illness and Drug Dependency Plan, passed by the King County Council in 2007, has helped prevent and reduce the involvement of people with substance use disorders and mental illness in the criminal justice system, says the plan’s project manager.

Colombia’s cocaine production dropped 25 percent from the previous year, the White House Office on National Drug Control Policy announced Monday. Peru and Bolivia are now the world’s top producers of the drug.

The Affordable Care Act makes changes to the health insurance system and to health insurance benefits, which may affect the cost of insurance and healthcare for people with substance use disorders, according to The Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati.

Party buses, promoted as a safe way to transport teens and adults to nightclubs and other hot spots, turn a blind eye to teen drinking, according to critics. The vehicles also dump hard-drinking partygoers in neighborhoods that don’t want them, the San Jose Mercury News reports.

A new study by Harvard researchers finds former smokers have an increased risk of developing two common types of inflammatory bowel disease, compared with people who have never smoked.

A federal appeals court has upheld a federal judge’s order that requires tobacco manufacturers to run corrective ads about the dangers of smoking, the Associated Press reports.

A pilot program in Ohio is using fingerprint scans in an effort to fight prescription drug abuse. Patients submit to a scan before seeing doctors in one hospital system, while several pharmacies are using the scans for patients filling prescriptions.

Some trucking companies are using hair tests to test drivers for drug use, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Medical marijuana may worsen driving skills, but typical sobriety tests do not detect the impairment, a small study suggests.

Tobacco manufacturers have promoted menthol cigarettes as a safer alternative to regular cigarettes. The FDA needs to do the right thing and ban menthol, for adults who currently smoke and young people who may be susceptible to initiating smoking, explains Amber E. Bullock of Legacy®.

Some doctors are concerned that making it more difficult to prescribe opioids could hinder treatment of patients in pain, ABC News reports. Earlier this week, 37 health care workers signed and submitted a petition to the Food and Drug Administration, urging officials to change labels on prescription opioids, in an effort to curb prescription drug abuse.

After the Los Angeles City Council voted this week to shut down the city’s 762 marijuana dispensaries, medical marijuana advocates said they will work to overturn the ban.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has announced it is awarding more than $22 million in new funding to expand implementing screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment. This is an innovative approach to delivering early intervention and treatment services for people with substance use disorders and those at risk for developing them.

A new study by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health finds that fewer people die when states expand their Medicaid programs.

Local and federal law enforcement officials raided businesses in almost 100 cities on Wednesday, in the first nationwide crackdown on synthetic drugs, USA Today reports.

A group of doctors and public health experts has asked the Food and Drug Administration to change prescription guidelines for opioids, to prevent prescription drug abuse, according to Reuters.

A researcher at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research has been awarded a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to develop a vaccine that would treat heroin addiction and protect against HIV.

A growing number of U.S. colleges are adopting smoking bans. The Christian Science Monitor reports that many schools have adopted total bans, both indoors and out.

A study funded by the National Institutes of Health is seeking people in recovery from an alcohol or drug problem to participate in a web-based survey. The researchers hope the study will help dispel the stigma that those in recovery face.

A report by the Congressional Budget Office concludes the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Affordable Care Act is likely to result in an increase in the number of uninsured Americans.

A new rodent study suggests that a key ingredient in “bath salts” called mephedrone has effects on the brain’s reward circuits that are comparable to similar doses of cocaine. The study offers evidence that mephedrone has the potential for abuse and addiction, the researchers say.

Drug companies must pay to dispose of unused prescription medications, under a plan approved Tuesday in Northern California. The Alameda County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to approve the ordinance, the Associated Press reports.