The Latest News from Our Field

A public high school in Long Island, New York is opening an in-house drug and alcohol abuse clinic. According to Daytop Treatment Services, which will run the clinic, it is the first such facility in New York State and possibly in the United States.

Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam has signed the “I Hate Meth Act,” which classifies preparing methamphetamine in front of a child as aggravated child endangerment.

Imaging scans of the brains of people who smoke marijuana daily show a decrease in the number of receptors involved in pleasure, appetite, pain tolerance and many other key mental and bodily functions, a new study shows.

A medical marijuana collective is operating in the middle of one of the largest U.S. retirement communities, in Southern California, reflecting a growing nationwide trend as more elderly citizens use marijuana to deal with aches and pains.

Alcohol use, depression, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder together account for 45 percent of disabilities among young people ages 10 to 24 worldwide, about four times as much as that caused by unintentional injuries, according to a study of data from the World Health Organization.

An Illinois man who has battled addiction himself has set up a program to help addicted veterans in a recovery-home setting.

A bill under consideration by the California Senate would ban retailers from selling alcohol through self-service checkouts. The bill has already been approved by the state Assembly.

Recovery schools provide students recovering from substance abuse with a safe learning environment conducive to their situation and needs, and where the likelihood of relapse is minimized. While many recovery schools show clear success rates, each is not without its own unique challenges.

High school students who are gay, lesbian or bisexual are more likely than heterosexual students to smoke, drink, use drugs and engage in other unhealthy behaviors, according to a survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A type of problem-solving therapy called cognitive behavioral therapy may help treat depression in people within residential treatment programs for drug and alcohol abuse, a new study suggests.

Women who smoke are at high risk for developing a condition known as peripheral artery disease, which causes reduced blood flow to the legs, a new study shows.

A new marijuana garden superstore has opened in Arizona in response to the state’s newly enacted medical marijuana law.

Two U.S. senators are calling on the federal government to shut down a website that sells illegal drugs using layers of secrecy to avoid detection. The website sells drugs including cocaine, heroin and methamphetamines.

Florida Governor Rick Scott has signed into law a bill designed to cut down on prescription drug abuse by controlling ‘pill mills’ in the state. The law authorizes the creation of a prescription-drug monitoring database to reduce doctor-shopping by people looking to collect multiple painkiller prescriptions.

Two popular synthetic drugs, K2 and bath salts, have been outlawed in North Carolina. The new law states that bath salts, which mimic the effects of cocaine, have a high risk of being abused, and have no currently accepted medical use in the U.S.

Support from a partner improves the chance that Latinos will successfully quit smoking, a new study suggests. This support can also help counteract the negative effect that depression can have on quitting smoking.

Utah Attorney General, Mark Shurtleff, explains that prescription drug abuse is unlike any other type of drug addiction. People who wouldn’t dream of smoking marijuana or snorting cocaine can find themselves addicted to painkillers that have been prescribed by their doctor.

Alcohol dependence is four times more likely among adults with mental illness, compared with those without mental illness, according to a new government survey. The survey by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found the rate of alcohol dependence among adults with mental illness was 9.6 percent, compared with 2.2 percent for those without mental illness.

Primary care doctors screen only a small percentage of their patients prescribed long-term opioids, despite the risk of abuse, addiction and overdose, according to researchers in New York. Their study found lax screening even in patients who are at high risk for misuse of opioids, including those with a history of drug abuse or dependence.

The smoking habits of fathers may influence the timing of their daughters’ menopause, a new study suggests. Japanese researchers found that a woman whose father smoked, while her mother was pregnant with her, may go through menopause about a year earlier than a woman whose father did not smoke.

Hospitals and state licensing boards in Minnesota are teaming up to try to cut down on drug thefts in hospitals and nursing homes. A coalition organized by the Minnesota Hospital Association and state Health Department is trying to close loopholes in drug-handling procedures in order to make it more difficult to steal drugs.

A new report by a group of current and former world leaders recommends that the United States and other governments end the criminalization of drug use. The group urges governments to experiment with new ways to legalize and regulate marijuana to cut drug cartel profits. The report comes from the Global Commission on Drug Policy, which includes past presidents of Mexico, Brazil and Colombia, the current prime minister of Greece and former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Florida Governor Rick Scott this week signed into law requiring that adults in the state who are applying for welfare assistance undergo drug screening. The law, which takes effect July 1, requires applicants to be responsible for the cost of the screening. They can recover the costs if they qualify for assistance.

Female prisoners who are not enrolled in a drug treatment program after they are released are 10 times more likely to return to custody within a year compared with prisoners not in a drug program, a new study finds. More than a third of female prisoners who are not participating in a drug program return to prison within the first six months.

A federal judge this week refused to end a case between the U.S. Justice Department and a group of tobacco companies, calling the arguments of cigarette makers “simply unconvincing.” The companies argued that the judge lost jurisdiction of the case due to a 2009 law that gave the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate tobacco.