The Latest News from Our Field

U.S. Senator Charles Schumer of New York is asking the Food and Drug Administration to prevent federal approval of the powdered alcohol product called Palcohol. He said it could become “the Kool-Aid of teen binge drinking.”

Dentists can be an important tool in the fight against methamphetamine addiction, according to an official at Tufts School of Dental Medicine in Massachusetts. Jennifer Towers, the school’s director of research affairs, has designed a campaign to alert dentists to the signs of “meth mouth.”

A new study suggests a type of e-cigarette called a "tank system" can produce some carcinogens also found in regular cigarettes, and at similar levels.

Nominations are now being accepted for the 2014 Ramstad-Kennedy Annual Award for Outstanding Leadership by a Single State Authority. The deadline is this Friday, May 9.

Legislators in Minnesota and Vermont have introduced measures that would ban powdered alcohol, The Washington Post reports.

There has been a spike in illegal shipments of marijuana from Colorado to surrounding areas since the state legalized the drug, according to the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Six months after the FBI shut down the website Silk Road, which sold illegal drugs, the site has reopened and sales have bounced back, CNET reports.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford announced Wednesday he will temporarily be leaving office, citing his problem with alcohol, The New York Times reports. Last November, Ford admitted to using crack cocaine.

Top headlines of the week from Friday, April 25- Thursday, May 1, 2014.

The Food and Drug Administration’s decision to approve Zohydro ER (extended release), a pure form of the painkiller hydrocodone, has stirred opposition from many addiction medicine experts, public health officials and legislators. Join Together spoke with Dr. Richard Blondell, Vice Chair for Addiction Medicine in the State University of New York at Buffalo Department of Family Medicine, about the issue.

While most colleges focus their substance use prevention and treatment programs on alcohol, marijuana and prescription drugs, heroin use is a serious but little-discussed problem, Inside Higher Ed reports.

Dr. Nora Volkow, Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), urged lawmakers this week to resist legalizing marijuana. At a House subpanel hearing, she said marijuana can act as a gateway drug.

E-cigarettes are as dangerous as regular cigarettes, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Tom Frieden told The Los Angeles Times. He is concerned the devices will hook a new generation of young people on smoking.

The U.S. Navy has announced a new campaign aimed at reducing prescription drug abuse among sailors, according to the Navy Times.

Health care providers must expand their use of medications to treat opioid addiction, in order to reduce overdose deaths, according to government health officials. Misperceptions have resulted in limited access to the medications, they argue in The New England Journal of Medicine.

When patients under age 24 are prescribed higher-than-recommended doses of antidepressants, they are more than twice as likely to attempt to hurt themselves, compared with their peers who are treated with the recommended dose, a new study concludes.

A new study finds teenagers who use marijuana and alcohol together are more likely to engage in unsafe driving, compared with those who use one of those substances alone.

Manufacturers of e-cigarettes say they are pleased with the Food and Drug Administration’s proposed regulations of e-cigarettes, The Wall Street Journal reports. Consumer groups said the rules don’t go far enough, according to USA Today.

The Food and Drug Administration announced new rules on Thursday that would allow the agency to regulate e-cigarettes, The New York Times reports. The proposed rules would ban the sale of e-cigarettes, cigars and pipe tobacco to anyone under age 18.

Three teenage girls were hospitalized in Virginia last weekend after taking an LSD-like synthetic drug. The compound is known by names including 25i, N-Bomb or Smiles.

Health officials report legal marijuana edible products have been linked to two recent deaths and an increase in emergency room visits in Colorado, Fox News reports.

Some workers in the marijuana industry in Colorado are wondering whether having a marijuana-related job will hamper future employment prospects, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Top headlines of the week from Friday, April 18- Thursday, April 24, 2014.

As the Drug Enforcement Administration gears up for another National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day on April 26, the National Community Pharmacists Association, the group representing independent pharmacists, says its members are eager to help their communities get rid of unwanted or expired drugs year-round.

An advisory panel of the Food and Drug Administration voted Tuesday against approving a combination morphine-oxycodone painkiller, NPR reports. The drug, Moxduo, would be the first medication to combine both opioids in one capsule.