The Latest News from Our Field

People who use higher doses of narcotic painkillers to manage pain are at increased risk of depression, a new study suggests.

Many YouTube videos that show drunkenness portray excessive alcohol consumption in a positive light, a new study finds. The videos with the most “likes” were funny, Time reports.

Recreational marijuana becomes legal in Alaska on Tuesday. The state is the third to legalize recreational marijuana, following the lead of Washington and Colorado.

Colorado middle schools reported a 24 percent increase in drug-related incidents last year, according to USA Today. School-based experts tell the newspaper they believe the jump is directly related to marijuana legalization.

Long-term use of methamphetamine is more damaging to teen brains than to adult brains, according to a new study. The drug does its greatest damage in the area of the brain involved in a person’s ability to organize, reason and remember.

The Food and Drug Administration will consider this spring whether the smokeless tobacco known as snus is less harmful than cigarettes.

Five people involved in a medical marijuana case in Washington state, where recreational use of the drug is legal, must stand trial, a judge has ruled.

Top headlines of the week from Friday, February 13, 2015- Thursday, February 19, 2015.

A new and emerging area of research falls at the intersection of drug, alcohol and tobacco use. Join Together spoke with Amy Cohn, Research Investigator for Legacy to find out how her work could change the way we think about how to frame anti-tobacco interventions and educational campaigns.

A new study finds smokers who start taking smoking-cessation medication before they are ready to quit have greater success once they do want to stop.

Almost 60 percent of pregnant teens say they have used one or more substances in the past year, nearly double the rate of non-pregnant teens, researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have found.

Scientists have discovered a new brain circuit that causes marijuana users to get insatiably hungry, commonly known as “the munchies.” In a study of mice, researchers found the hunger is triggered in part by brain cells that usually turn down appetite.

A new bill introduced in the Vermont Senate could make the state the first to legalize recreational marijuana through the state legislature. In the four states in which recreational marijuana is currently legal, voters passed ballot initiatives.

A growing number of television shows are depicting marijuana use, The Wall Street Journal reports. Marijuana is being written into story lines of dramas and comedies, and new reality shows are being created about the fledgling legal marijuana industry.

Schools in some states have started to categorize e-cigarettes as drug paraphernalia, instead of tobacco products, according to the Associated Press. Students caught with e-cigarettes in these schools are punished more harshly than those found with regular cigarettes.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University say workplaces designed to help employees who are addicted to drugs can help them tackle their addiction. These “therapeutic workplaces” have been shown in studies to increase abstinence from drugs and maintain abstinence over long periods.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is scheduled to announce Tuesday that during the past year there was a 6 percent decrease in the number of federal drug trafficking prosecutions. The Associated Press reports prosecutors sought mandatory minimum sentences in 51 percent of cases, down from 64 percent the previous year.

The number of Americans who die from smoking-related diseases is significantly higher than previously estimated, according to a new study. The researchers say 60,000 additional deaths annually should be added to the almost half a million already attributed to smoking.

There is no coordination among the 112 federal programs, run by eight government agencies, which support people with serious mental illnesses, according to a new government report.

Drugs to treat alcoholism would not have to lead to sobriety in order to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration, under a proposal by the agency. Instead, drug companies could gain approval for treatments if they prove patients using them no longer drink heavily.

A group of marijuana entrepreneurs in Colorado hopes to open the first-ever financial institution designed to serve their industry. They are faced with a stumbling block—they have not been given approval to make deposits in a Federal Reserve account, according to The New York Times.

Top headlines of the week from Friday, February 6, 2015- Thursday, February 12, 2015.

Many families and loved ones of children struggling with substance-related problems often feel completely alone. Parent groups, if available, often function more like an underground railroad than a true community resource.

Moderate consumption of alcohol confers little to no health benefit for most people, a new analysis of almost 53,000 adults finds. The researchers said previous studies that found light alcohol consumption could benefit health were flawed.

A survey of college freshmen finds many fewer of them report drinking and smoking in high school, compared with first-year college students in previous years.