The Latest News from Our Field

The world’s biggest brewing companies are expanding their line of nonalcoholic products. The Wall Street Journal reports the companies are responding to stricter alcohol regulations and a desire by consumers for healthier beverages.

U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy issued a report Thursday that calls for increasing access to addiction treatment. According to Reuters, the report calls drug and alcohol addiction a public health crisis.

The Drug Enforcement Administration has temporarily banned the synthetic drug Pink under federal law, according to NBC News. The agency has received reports of at least 46 confirmed deaths associated with the drug.

Many schools around the country are trying to prevent opioid use through education campaigns. The Wall Street Journal reports that last year, CVS pharmacists made almost 3,000 presentations to school children about the dangers of misusing prescription painkillers.

A new injectable treatment for opioid addiction showed promise in a late-stage study, according to The Wall Street Journal. The study involved weekly and monthly injections of buprenorphine for the treatment of moderate to severe opioid use disorder.

Some people addicted to heroin are asking judges to lock them up so they can get access to treatment for opioid addiction, NPR reports.

Recreational marijuana initiatives passed in California, Massachusetts and Nevada on Tuesday night, The Washington Post reports. Voters in Florida, Arkansas and North Dakota approved medical marijuana initiatives.

A new study finds teens who often use e-cigarettes are more likely to become regular smokers and to smoke many cigarettes a day.

Young men with alcohol dependence are more likely to have health problems later in life, compared with their peers who do not drink, a new study suggests.

Requiring cigarette labels that graphically depict the health consequences of smoking could save more than 650,000 lives in the United States in the next 50 years, according to a new study. The labels also could prevent tens of thousands of preterm births and low birth-weight babies, the researchers said.

Almost two dozen people were treated for synthetic drug overdoses in downtown St. Louis on Monday and Tuesday, KTVI reports. Most of the overdoses were linked to K2.

A new study finds the number of young children and teens hospitalized for opioid painkiller overdoses has almost tripled in recent years.

A presidential task force has made recommendations to ensure people with addiction and mental illness do not face discrimination in treatment, according to NPR.

A synthetic opioid known as “pink” is legal in most states, even though it is almost eight times stronger than morphine, CNN reports.

Some state Medicaid programs are beginning to pay addiction treatment centers for as much counseling and related medical services as are needed for patients. The move is intended to encourage centers to offer more counseling, according to Stateline.

Sales of e-cigarettes have slowed, in part due to warnings by public health experts that the devices may be dangerous. The New York Times reports a growing number of scientists and policy makers say 40 million American smokers could benefit from the devices.

A new program in Pennsylvania called “warm handoff” directly transfers overdose survivors from the hospital emergency department to a drug treatment provider. The program, developed by the state’s Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs (DDAP), is designed to avoid merely giving survivors a phone number to call or setting up a subsequent appointment a day or two later.

A growing number of states are investing in peer recovery coaches to help fight drug addiction, CNN reports. These coaches, who have struggled with addiction themselves, meet with patients regularly to help them navigate recovery, and to tackle issues including housing and employment.

The health insurance company Cigna will no longer require doctors to get preauthorization before prescribing opioid addiction medications, USA Today reports. Until now, Cigna has required doctors to submit a preauthorization form when requesting medication-assisted treatment with buprenorphine.

Thirteen drug distribution companies knew or should have known that hundreds of millions of prescription narcotic pills were ending up on the black market, according to an investigation by The Washington Post.

A new survey finds 73 percent of U.S. teens think e-cigarettes are less harmful than regular cigarettes. The researchers say teens who use e-cigarettes are more likely, than those who do not, to go on to use traditional cigarettes.

Five states will vote next month whether to legalize recreational marijuana. If the states vote to legalize the drug, the federal government’s ban on marijuana will face a stronger challenge, The New York Times reports.

We lose nearly 130 people a day to drug overdoses. It is the leading cause of accidental death in the United States, and the loss is felt most acutely by the families left behind. By doing a better job of helping families and their addicted children, we can most effectively reduce these deaths and the accompanying pain and suffering, explains Tom Hedrick, founding member of the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids.

The United States has asked the United Nations to classify two chemicals used to make fentanyl as controlled substances, The Wall Street Journal reports.

An increasingly popular synthetic opioid known as Pink is being sold online, according to NBC News. Only four states—Florida, Ohio, Wyoming and Georgia—have banned the drug, also known as U-47700.