The Latest News from Our Field

Congress is focusing on expanding treatment for opioid addiction instead of restricting access to painkillers in its efforts to address the opioid epidemic, The New York Times reports.

A New Jersey program immediately connects people to treatment after they have been revived from an opioid overdose with naloxone. Recovery specialists are contacted by hospitals participating in the program once an opioid overdose call has been dispatched.

Some Republicans in the U.S. House and Senate are basing part of their re-election strategies on bills aimed at helping people addicted to opioids, according to The New York Times.

Sales of alcohol decreased worldwide in 2015 for the first time since the market research firm Euromonitor International began tracking sales in 2001, CNN reports.

Top headlines of the week from Friday, May 13- Thursday, May 19, 2016.

Employers across the country face the emerging issue of how they are allowed to manage the medicinal use of marijuana by their employees.

Opioid addiction treatment experts say although the evidence is clear that medication-assisted treatment is the best way to tackle the nation’s opioid epidemic, there is still a stigma attached to using these medications.

The U.S. House, after overwhelmingly approving 18 bills last week aimed at addressing the nation’s opioid crisis, will work with the Senate to craft compromise legislation, according to the Associated Press.

U.S. Senator John McCain of Arizona is calling for a Senate hearing on the link between professional sports and prescription drug abuse, ABC News reports.

Medical experts are concerned about marijuana “dabbing,” a potentially dangerous way of using the drug. Dabbing appears to be increasingly popular among young people in New York City, according to The New York Times.

Almost half of parents whose child had unused prescription opioid painkillers left over from a surgery or illness keep the medication at home, a new poll finds.

Employers report they are having difficulty finding workers who can pass a pre-employment drug test, The New York Times reports.

As the United States tackles the challenge of opioid painkiller addiction, people in many parts of the world are suffering from pain because doctors are reluctant to prescribe opioids.

The opioid crisis is fueling the problem of elder abuse, as adult children who are addicted to drugs exploit parents and other relatives, experts tell The Boston Globe.

A group of primary care clinics in West Virginia has an anesthesiologist on staff to treat patients with chronic pain, in an attempt to reduce prescription opioid addiction.

The U.S. House on Wednesday passed 10 bills designed to fight opioid addiction. They are part of a package of 18 bills expected to be approved this week, USA Today reports.

Most jails and prisons do not provide medication-assisted treatment for opioid addiction. Experts tell NPR that for inmates who are forced to detox from methadone, tolerance for opioids decreases, while cravings increase. This raises their risk of overdose after they are released.

Problematic drinking is more likely among Asian Americans born in the United States compared with those born abroad, a review of studies finds. Overall, the prevalence of alcohol abuse among Asian Americans ages 18 to 25 increased fivefold between 1991 and 2002.

Top headlines of the week from Friday, May 6- Thursday, May 12, 2016.

The unfortunate reflex for most doctors when they hear complaints of pain is to simply write a prescription for narcotic pain medications. There are more than enough alternatives to opioids when treating pain and pain management specialists are trained to work with patients to offer these solutions, explains Dr. Corey Hunter of The Ainsworth Institute of Pain Management.

The news that Prince was rescued from an overdose of the painkiller Percocet with the drug naloxone six days before he died underscores the challenge of using the life-saving tool, public health experts tell The Wall Street Journal.

The U.S. House is scheduled this week to vote on 18 bills designed to combat opioid addiction. The measures are expected to be approved, The New York Times reports.

A new study estimates that a 10 percent reduction in the U.S. smoking rate would result in $63 billion in savings in healthcare costs one year later.

A case of “chemsex” in the news in Britain highlights the dangers of intentional sex under the influence of psychoactive drugs, mostly among men who have sex with men. The case involves a London lawyer who supplied his boyfriend with a cocktail of drugs, which he overdosed on, according to CNN.

Poison control centers around the country have seen a sharp increase in calls about young children’s exposure to e-cigarettes. The biggest threat appears to be ingestion of liquid nicotine, HealthDay reports.