The Latest News from Our Field

Officials at the University of Colorado-Boulder are trying to prevent thousands of people from gathering on campus today for the annual 4/20 marijuana celebration. They have spread smelly fish-based fertilizer on campus as a deterrent.

A new study that links opium use with serious health problems, including cancer, circulatory diseases and respiratory problems, has implications for opium-derived painkillers such as morphine and codeine, CNN reports.

A survey of young adults recruited through social media finds more than half of those who smoke cigarettes say they also use marijuana. This is a higher percentage than has been reported in other surveys, suggesting young adults may be more comfortable reporting their substance use anonymously online.

A report by the General Accountability Office finds sales of pipe tobacco surged after the federal government imposed a 2,000 percent increase in taxes on roll-your-own tobacco and small cigars.

A new study links teenagers’ use of Ecstasy and speed (methamphetamine and/or amphetamine) with a higher risk of developing depression.

In a four-month period last year when Florida required welfare applicants to undergo drug testing, the program yielded no savings, caught few drug users, and did not affect the number of people who applied, The New York Times reports.

The Supreme Court heard arguments this week in two cases involving different sentencing rules for sellers of crack and powder cocaine.

Depression and anxiety are the top reasons older adults abuse drugs or alcohol, according to a study by a Florida drug and alcohol treatment and recovery center.

Teenagers in treatment for substance abuse can benefit from 12-step programs, a new study suggests.

Many were stunned by a recent report that students in one community had been depicted on YouTube drinking and taking other drugs. It’s not entirely clear what people were most shocked by – the realization that kids abuse drugs and alcohol, or that videos glorifying the use of drugs and alcohol appear on the Internet, says David Festinger, PhD at the Treatment Research Institute.

The Obama Administration’s 2012 Drug Control Strategy, released Tuesday, advocates diverting non-violent drug offenders into treatment.

Nominations are now being accepted for the 2012 Ramstad-Kennedy Annual Award for Outstanding Leadership by a Single State Authority. The deadline is June 1.

Poisoning deaths among teenagers rose 91 percent between 2000 and 2009, primarily due to prescription drug abuse, according to a new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Teenagers who play a risky activity called the “choking game” to get high are more likely to engage in other kinds of high-risk behavior, such as drug abuse and sex, than their peers who do not play the game, a new study suggests.

A new survey finds U.S. teens think drinking and driving is riskier than texting and driving, despite research that indicates they can be equally dangerous.

President Obama this weekend said “legalization is not the answer” to stemming the tide of illegal drugs. He spoke Saturday at a summit meeting of Western Hemisphere nations in Cartagena, Colombia.

Medical experts are expressing concern over athletes’ use of the injectable painkiller Toradol. They say little is known about the drug’s potential long-term side effects, according to The New York Times.

People who abuse substances are more likely to be stigmatized than those who smoke or are obese, a new study suggests.

Prescription drug monitoring programs and laws to ban synthetic drugs are hot topics in state legislatures around the country, according to the CEO of the National Alliance for Model State Drug Laws (NAMSDL).

Scientists are working to make prescription painkillers and other commonly misused drugs “unabusable” by reformulating them, according to Nora Volkow, Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Manipulating memories of people formerly addicted to drugs may help them avoid relapse, a new study suggests.

Drug Enforcement Administration officials say criminal scam artists are selling prescription drugs online, then using customers’ personal information to blackmail them.

The alcohol industry has contributed thousands of dollars to the campaigns of Nebraska legislators on a committee in which a bill that would curb alcohol purchases to residents on a dry Indian reservation has stalled, The New York Times reports.

Researchers are using smart phones and hand-held computers to figure out why some people quit smoking the first time they try, while others are unsuccessful even after many attempts.

Exercise may make it more difficult to break an addiction in some cases, a study of cocaine-addicted mice suggests.