The Latest News from Our Field

Health insurance companies should do more to ensure parity for substance abuse and mental health treatment, members of a congressional subcommittee said at a recent hearing.

The Drug Enforcement Administration’s decision earlier this month to make kratom a Schedule I drug is facing resistance from advocates who say they use the drug to cope with a variety of medical issues including post-traumatic stress disorder, alcoholism and fibromyalgia.

A new government survey finds 18.9 million people ages 12 and older—7.1 percent—misused prescription drugs such as pain relievers, tranquilizers, stimulants and sedatives last year.

College students in the United States are using more marijuana than in previous years, according to a new study. Last year 38 percent of college students said they used marijuana in the past year, up from 30 percent in 2006.

The rate of smoking and drinking is declining among American teens, a survey from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration finds.

Spending by health insurance companies increased more than 1,300 percent over four years for patients with an opioid abuse or dependence diagnosis, NPR reports.

Three Republican senators on Wednesday introduced a bill that would restrict fentanyl and another powerful opioid, carfentanil, from entering the United States.

The Chinese government’s ban on certain chemicals has led to a decrease in the synthetic drug flakka in Florida, according to Drug Enforcement Administration officials. China banned 115 chemicals in October.

A new study finds a link between teens’ exposure to alcohol ads and how much of those brands they drink.

Manchester, New Hampshire has opened the doors of its fire stations to people addicted to opioids, in an effort to address its community’s opioid crisis.

Top headlines of the week from Friday, September 2- Thursday, September 8, 2016.

A new nationwide study will follow thousands of children for 10 years, starting in elementary school, in an attempt to answer questions about the risks and protective factors for adolescent substance use on the developing brain. The Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study will track exposure to substances, academic achievement, cognitive skills, mental health, brain structure and function, and many other variables.

Forty-four states will receive a total of $53 million in grants from the Obama Administration to fight the opioid epidemic, the Los Angeles Times reports. Administration officials are calling on legislators to approve $1.1 billion requested by President Obama to increase addiction treatment.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is reporting a 426 percent increase in seized drugs that tested positive for fentanyl between 2013 and 2014, according to NPR. The number of deaths involving fentanyl and other synthetic opioids increased 79 percent during that period.

The Drug Enforcement Administration announced kratom, a plant-based drug with opioid-like effects, will become a Schedule I drug.

TRICARE, which provides health coverage for active duty and retired service members, their families, and survivors, will expand treatment for substance abuse and mental health care. Almost 9.4 million people are covered under the program.

The American Academy of Pediatrics is recommending that pediatricians consider offering medication-assisted treatment, such as buprenorphine, for teen and young adult patients with severe opioid use disorders, USA Today reports.

The Food and Drug Administration has stepped up warnings about the dangers of combining opioid painkillers with benzodiazepine sedatives. The agency is requiring new warnings on labels for opioids such as oxycodone, hydrocodone and morphine, as well as for benzodiazepines such as alprazolam and diazepam.

Prescription drug monitoring databases are assisting states in battling the opioid epidemic, according to The Wall Street Journal.

U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy has sent a letter to every doctor in the country, asking for their help in solving the opioid epidemic, CNN reports.

Children and teens who are diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and take medication for the condition are less likely to have a substance use disorder than youth with ADHD who don’t take medication, a new study finds.

A new study suggests restrictions put into place by the U.S. government on a chemical needed to produce cocaine have led to a reduced use of the drug in the past decade. Mexican police action against a company importing pseudoephedrine, which is used to make meth, also contributed to the decline.

An experimental drug that relieves pain like morphine but is not addictive showed promise in a study of mice, the Los Angeles Times reports.

If a tobacco company changes a label for a product, the Food and Drug Administration cannot consider it a new product for regulatory purposes, a federal judge ruled this week.

A new study suggests that having health coaches deliver a drug and alcohol screening program to Medicaid patients can save money, while significantly reducing inpatient hospital days. The program, known as Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT), can help many people with risky or problem drinking and drug use, says study co-author Richard L. Brown, MD, MPH, Professor of Family Medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.