The Latest News from Our Field

Florida Governor Rick Scott suspended an order that requires all state workers to undergo drug testing until a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union is resolved.

Law enforcement officials in Tennessee say that a recent law aimed at shutting down methamphetamine labs isn’t strict enough because it doesn’t make meth’s key ingredient, pseudoephedrine, available only through a doctor’s prescription.

Now that OxyContin has been reformulated to make the opioid harder to snort, inject or chew, The New York Times reports that demand for other narcotics has increased.

An experimental drug to treat alcohol dependence has shown promising results in three clinical trials in Denmark. The company is now submitting the drug for approval in Europe, The Wall Street Journal reports.

People who own guns are twice as likely to binge drink and to drink and drive, compared with those who don’t own firearms, a new study finds.

The abuse of prescription drugs among teens is growing in New Jersey and is leading to heroin addiction, experts testified at a state hearing this week.

This week’s 40th anniversary of President Richard Nixon’s 1971 declaration of the “war on drugs” finds two new contrasting reports addressing the nation’s drug policy.

A bill introduced this week in the New York Assembly would create a real-time database for prescriptions of controlled substances such as oxycodone. The goal is to cut down on illegal trafficking of opioids.

College students who start their classes later in the day are more likely to drink more alcohol and binge drink, compared with students who get an earlier start, a new study has found.

Children and Family Futures will present “Putting the Pieces Together for Children and Families: The National Conference on Substance Abuse, Child Welfare and the Courts,” September 14-16, 2011, at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center on the Potomac in National Harbor, MD.

America Honors Recovery, an annual awards event, will recognize the extraordinary and unheralded contributions of one recovery community organization and three of the country’s most influential recovery leaders on June 22.

A profile of National Institute on Drug Abuse Director, Dr. Nora Volkow, in The New York Times, says her mission is to ensure that the nation’s drug policy, which is increasingly focused on prescription drugs, is grounded in science.

A report in the Archives of Internal Medicine urges doctors to be more cautious and conservative when it comes to prescribing drugs. An accompanying editorial notes that the problems associated with opioid medications for the treatment of chronic pain are rapidly growing.

A new study suggests that girls with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are more likely than boys with ADHD to abuse drugs and alcohol.

A new study suggests that preteens who are exposed to secondhand smoke may develop nicotine dependence themselves.

Employees in Washington state can be fired if they fail a drug test, even if they have a medical-marijuana authorization from a physician, the state’s Supreme Court has ruled.

Florida’s pill mill problem grew out of years of weak regulations, a lack of laws and the absence of a database to monitor prescription drugs, according to an article in the Orlando Sentinel.

Health authorities in Maryland are investigating synthetic drugs known as bath salts, a move that could lead to a ban on the sale or possession of the drugs.

Researchers at the University of Washington found that fatal overdoses in the Seattle area, involving prescription-type opiates, declined for the first time in a decade, from 161 in 2009 to 130 in 2010, though they remain the most common drug type involved in overdose deaths.

A residence hall for college students in recovery that is slated to open in New York City this fall is a new twist on a model that has long been used successfully in a small but growing number of colleges across the country.

Preschool may be an effective tool in the fight against addiction, a new study suggests. The study of more than 1,500 children found those who had attended preschool were 28 percent less likely to develop substance abuse problems.

Treatment for abuse of benzodiazepines—which are used to treat anxiety, insomnia and seizure disorders—almost tripled from 1998 to 2008, according to a new national study.

A new animal study helps explain why many smokers gain weight when they quit smoking. The answer lies in nicotine’s effect on brain cells that usually tells a person to stop eating once they feel full.

Synthetic drugs known as bath salts would be banned under a bill passed by the New Jersey Senate. The bill would make it a crime to possess or sell chemicals used to make bath salts.

A sluggish economy has not stopped alcohol sales, according to industry analysts who say alcoholic beverage sales grew by nearly 10 percent from May 2010 to May 2011.