Marijuana

Faces & Voices of Recovery is organizing recovery and treatment advocates to ask their U.S. Representatives in Congress to join an addiction caucus focused on substance use disorders treatment and recovery.

Thanks to comments from public health advocates -- including many of you -- the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans do not suggest a weekly average for alcohol consumption. Consistent with current scientific evidence, the guidelines suggest up to one drink per day for women and up to two drinks per day for men for moderate consumers.

Well, this is good news: the largest tobacco company in the United States, Altria Group Inc., reported that its fourth-quarter earnings went up 27 percent, even though shipments of cigarettes dropped seven percent in the same time period. 

Marin Institute is distributing a model statute that states can use to craft their own legislation to limit ’alcopops’ -- the sweetly-flavored malt beverages that contain up to 12 percent alcohol.

Educators and middle- and high-school students are invited to participate in an informal national survey to measure the impact of alcohol advertising from the Super Bowl.

Hazelden, the Minnesota-based addiction treatment center, has created what may be the first in-patient program in the nation specifically designed for attorneys.

In declaring December National Impaired Driving Prevention Month, President Obama described drugged driving as a ’growing problem’ and specifically pointed to the danger of driving under the influence of prescription drugs as well as illicit drugs.

The easiest way to stop meth use would be to make a key ingredient available only by prescription, according to Rob Bovett, a district attorney from Oregon.

Caffeine isn’t the only problem with sweetened high-alcohol drinks, writes David L. Rosenbloom, who directs Join Together, in a published editorial in The New York Times.

The key to successful substance abuse screening may be changing the way healthcare providers approach patients about it.

Phoenix House Foundation, a large, multi-state addiction treatment provider, has partnered with Vanguard Services Unlimited, a nearly 50-year-old substance abuse treatment provider based in the Washington D.C. area. The new organization will extend both groups’ reach and will be dubbed "Phoenix Houses of the Mid-Atlantic."

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) has issued a call for all pregnant women to be screened for smoking, from the first office visit to term.

Election night is over, and most of the results are in: it’s a mixed bag for the alcohol and other drug initiatives on state ballots. California’s efforts to legalize marijuana -- a.k.a. Proposition 19 -- fell short with 56 percent of voters rejecting the measure. Initiatives related to medical marijuana in South Dakota and Oregon also failed, while Arizona narrowly approved a medical-marijuana measure.

Massachusetts voted to repealed a 6.25 percent alcohol tax, and Washington chose to block at least one measure seeking to privatize liquor distribution. Meanwhile, California approved Prop. 26, possibly negating efforts to require the alcohol industry, among others, to pay for the harm caused by their products.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) seeks public feedback by Oct. 22 on its plan to focus on eight strategic initiatives.

Despite the fact that local, state, and federal lawmakers are desperate to plug holes in their budgets, advocates of alcohol taxes have struggled to gain traction. They should take heart from a Fresh Story blog post, the first in a series, published online on Aug. 31. It?s an excellent primer on the history of federal alcohol taxes and why it makes sense to raise them now.

Tobacco signs are more common in less affluent communities -- and Latino and African-American populations are particularly affected -- the Boston Globe reported August 30.

But all that could change, now that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) can regulate tobacco companies.