The Latest News from Our Field

New Legacy President applauds New York, where the minimum age for buying cigarettes has just been increased from 18 to 21, making tobacco products a lot harder for young people to purchase.

The American College of Physicians, one of the nation’s largest medical groups, has released a set of recommendations about how doctors can help reduce prescription drug abuse.

Alaska and North Dakota are the only states that will meet 2014 recommendations by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for spending on programs to prevent youth from starting to smoke, and helping current smokers quit, according to a new report by advocacy groups.

Pregnant women who smoke marijuana may increase their risk of stillbirth three-fold, a new study concludes.

An analysis of almost 400 top-grossing movies from 1985 to 2010 shows about 90 percent included at least one moment of violence involving a main character. In 77 percent of those movies, the main character also smoked tobacco or drank alcohol or engaged in sexual behavior, HealthDay reports.

A new study dispels the myth that the most frequent users of hospital emergency rooms are people with mental illness and substance use disorders. This population accounts for only a small percentage of visits, the researchers found.

Four U.S. senators told the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration they disagree with the agency’s decision to approve a pure version of the painkiller hydrocodone, Newsday reports.

The operator of the new Silk Road website, which sells illegal drugs, says he has distributed encrypted portions of the site’s source code to 500 locations in 17 countries. He claims this will allow the site to be relaunched immediately if law enforcement shuts it down again.

Men who continue to smoke after they have received a diagnosis of cancer are more likely to die than those who find out they have cancer and quit smoking, according to a new study.

When kids come into treatment, their lives are just chaotic. Parents are desperate -- they don’t know what to do or where to turn. The most important thing is to bring stability into the situation, and the best way to do that is with medication, says Dr. John Knight.

States that have enacted more alcohol- and traffic-related laws have a lower proportion of traffic deaths, compared with states with fewer such laws, a new study indicates. Researchers say encouraging states to adopt more of these laws could significantly reduce preventable traffic-related deaths in the United States, especially among young people.

A study of more than one million Swedish men finds those who had an alcohol use disorder in their late teens had a higher risk of heart disease over the next two decades than those without a drinking problem. Later hospitalization for substance use disorders was also associated with a higher heart disease risk.

A new study finds the use of e-cigarettes among teens is associated with heavier use of regular cigarettes. The researchers say their findings suggest that the devices are creating a new pathway for youth to become addicted to nicotine.

About 100 families of children with seizures have come to Colorado to gain access to a marijuana-based oil to treat their children, The New York Times reports.

Large amounts of designer drugs are being imported into the United States legally, CBS News reports. While several synthetic drugs were outlawed by the federal government last year, chemists have been evading the law by continually coming up with new chemical compounds different from the ones that have been banned.

Cigarette graphic warning labels could reduce the number of smokers in the United States by as much as 8.6 million people, saving millions of lives, according to a new study.

Slightly less than 1 percent of anesthesiology residents in the United States have a substance use disorder, according to a new study. The incidence of substance use has been increasing, and relapse rates are not improving, the researchers said.

Drinking alcohol with an energy drink is more dangerous than drinking alcohol alone, according to a new study.

Emergency room visits related to Molly, or Ecstasy, rose 128 percent among people younger than 21 between 2005 and 2011, according to a new government report.

A new government report finds about 6 percent of U.S. teens say they use a psychiatric medicine as drug therapy, similar to the rate 10 years ago.

A study of opioid-dependent patients entering drug-treatment programs across the country finds oxycodone is the most popular prescription opioid to abuse because of the quality of the high the drug produces.

Employers in Colorado and Washington state, where recreational marijuana is now legal for adults, are wrestling with whether and how to adjust their drug policies to account for the new laws.

Last June, I testified before a Reference Committee at the annual meeting of the American Medical Association, explaining a resolution that American Society of Addiction Medicine had brought forward to encourage the Food and Drug Administration to reschedule hydrocodone combination products from Schedule III to Schedule II. I expected there to be few others testifying. I wasn’t at all ready for the long line of individuals standing at the “con” microphone, ready to speak against the resolution, says Dr. Stuart Gitlow, ASAM President.

The University of Miami is one of a growing number of colleges that have instituted “Good Samaritan” policies to encourage students to call 911 when they are with someone who may be in danger from consuming drugs or alcohol.

Consuming energy drinks high in caffeine and taurine can significantly increase a person’s heart contraction rate, according to a new study that raises concerns about the drinks’ effect on the heart.