The Latest News from Our Field

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration announced it is awarding 46 grants totaling $22.5 million for substance abuse prevention efforts.

A Michigan company is developing a device that uses an infrared sensor to determine a driver’s blood alcohol level. The company hopes to make the device small enough to fit on a car’s start button.

A new drug shows promise in treating chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or smoker’s cough, researchers reported this week at the European Respiratory Society meeting. The company that makes the drug, Novartis, announced it has applied to start selling the drug in Europe.

Barry McCaffrey, the former head of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, called Florida’s new law that requires drug testing for welfare applicants counterproductive.

Experts in the Chicago area say they are seeing more people facing drug addiction who are white, suburban and upper-middle class.

AMC Theaters, one of the nation’s largest movie chains, is considering adding restaurants that serve alcohol in its New York movie houses.

Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig says he will propose a ban on chewing tobacco on the field in the new players’ contract. His pledge is part of a push by Major League Baseball to rid the sport of a habit that has long been part of the game’s culture.

More than a decade of research by CASA Columbia has found that the more often kids eat dinner with their families, the less likely they are to smoke, drink or use drugs, explains Kathleen Ferrigno, Director of Marketing.

Baylor Health Care System in Dallas announced this week it will no longer hire people who use nicotine, starting in 2012. Current employees who smoke will not be fired, but they will have to pay an extra surcharge for health insurance.

Living alone substantially increases a person’s risk of dying from alcohol-related causes, a new study from Finland has found.

Tobacco manufacturer R.J. Reynolds refused a request this week from the Colorado Board of Health to stop using the state as a test market for new dissolvable tobacco products.

Massachusetts legislators are considering abolishing mandatory minimum sentences for some non-violent drug offenders, the Associated Press reports. The move would be part of a plan to reduce overcrowding in prisons and relieve budget pressures.

A coalition of health-care related organizations and companies issued a challenge this week for employers worldwide to ban smoking. The Global Smoke-Free Worksite Challenge was announced at the 2011 Annual Meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative in New York.

Tobacco manufacturers this week asked a federal judge to impose a temporary injunction to block the Food and Drug Administration’s requirement that cigarette packs carry graphic images of the consequences of smoking, including diseased lungs and rotting teeth.

Teenagers are more likely to start drinking alcohol when they have large networks of friends, a new study suggests.

Smokers have a more difficult time remembering everyday tasks than people who have quit smoking or those who have never smoked, a new study suggests.

Government researchers report a dramatic jump in the number of hospitalizations for overdoses caused by drugs and alcohol among 18- to 24-year-olds.

New guidelines set to go into effect next week restrict access to alcohol companies’ official brand pages on Facebook and other networking sites, to adults of legal drinking age.

Representatives from countries around the world pledged to tackle preventable causes of disease including smoking and excessive drinking, at the United Nations Meeting on Non-communicable Diseases this week in New York.

A new “911 Good Samaritan Law” took effect in New York State on September 18. The law encourages people to call 911 if they experience or see a drug or alcohol overdose, without fear of being charged with possessing small amounts of drugs.

Dr. LaKeesha N. Woods, Senior Associate, Community Science, shares how a new prevention program educates parents and other caregivers to be better able to communicate with their teens on drug and alcohol issues.

Doctors in Arizona say they are concerned there will be a spike in sales of “bath salts” this month, as stores try to unload the synthetic drugs at cut-rate prices before a Drug Enforcement Administration ban takes effect next month.

A needle exchange program in Fresno, California, is continuing to run after county supervisors decided not to legalize the operation.

A Florida state senator has filed legislation that would repeal a new state law requiring welfare applicants to pass a drug test.

Researchers in California, using a mouse model, have found three new formulations that could be used in a vaccine to treat addiction to methamphetamine.