The Latest News from Our Field

Top headlines of the week from Friday, October 2- Thursday, October 8, 2015.

Many teens who use abuse prescription drugs are not trying to get high, but are using them to help them deal with an underlying problem such as anxiety, a newly published survey suggests.

The Justice Department has announced it will release about 6,000 nonviolent drug offenders from federal prisons starting at the end of October. The government hopes to ease prison overcrowding and roll back stiff penalties given to nonviolent drug offenders in the 1980s and 1990s, The New York Times reports.

Hundreds of people in Massachusetts who are addicted to opioids are being treated with medical marijuana, according to the Boston Herald.

Babies born with neonatal abstinence syndrome are more than twice as likely to be readmitted to the hospital within a month after birth, compared with full-term infants born with no complications, a new study concludes.

Naloxone saved dozens of lives in Chicago last week, after more than 80 people overdosed on heroin suspected of being laced with the painkiller fentanyl, according to the Chicago Tribune.

A rally on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. to draw attention to the problem of addiction drew thousands of people Sunday, The Washington Post reports. The event, called UNITE to Face Addiction, included government officials and celebrities.

Buying illegal drugs online remains easy two years after the illegal online marketplace Silk Road was shut down by the federal government, experts say.

Ten U.S. senators are proposing to raise the nationwide smoking age to 21. The bill is unlikely to pass, according to U.S. News & World Report.

Doctors and pharmacists are critical partners with law enforcement in the fight against addiction, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said Friday.

The percentage of drivers testing positive for marijuana or other illegal drugs is increasing, according to a new report. In 2013 and 2014, 15.1 percent of drivers tested positive for drugs, up from 12.4 percent in 2007.

Among middle and high school students who have used tobacco products in the last month, 70 percent have used at least one flavored product during that time, a new government study finds.

Some states have implemented alcohol monitoring programs aimed at reducing drunk driving and domestic violence, according to the Associated Press. Offenders must prove twice daily that they have not been drinking.

Oregon began sales of recreational marijuana Thursday. Some dispensaries that already sell medical marijuana started selling recreational marijuana shortly after midnight.

Top headlines of the week from Friday, September 25- Thursday, October 1, 2015.

New guidelines from the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) on the use of medications in the treatment of opioid addiction should increase the number of patients who receive medication-assisted treatment, says the chair of the guidelines committee.

Attorneys general from 33 states are calling on the Food and Drug Administration to require health warning labels on liquid nicotine, Reuters reports.

A growing number of states are allowing people convicted of drug crimes to qualify for welfare and food stamps, according to The Wall Street Journal. Alabama and Texas lifted restrictions on food stamps for ex-offenders this year. California and Missouri eliminated their bans last year.

Presidential candidates from both parties are discussing drug abuse on the campaign trail, the Burlington Free Press reports.

Two proposed health insurance mergers could negatively impact patients’ access to mental health care services, the American Psychiatric Association has warned antitrust regulators.

Lowering the minimum drinking age from 21 to 18 could increase the high school dropout rate, a new study suggests. The presence of legal-aged peers in a high school setting increases access to alcohol for younger students, researchers report in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.

Doctors are less likely to warn college students about the health risks of drinking, smoking or drug use than young adults not enrolled in college, according to a new survey.

A new international study finds 84 percent of people being treated for addiction smoke, compared with 31 percent of people in the general population.

Counties that prohibit alcohol sales may end up with more meth lab seizures, researchers in Kentucky conclude. They estimate that if all counties in the state were to allow alcohol sales, the number of meth lab seizures would decline by about 25 percent.

CVS announced it will add 12 states to its program to sell the opioid overdose antidote naloxone without a prescription, bringing the total to 14. The company already sells naloxone without a prescription in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.