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Helpline
Helpline
Call 1.855.378.4373 to schedule a call time with a specialist

The Latest News from Our Field

We curate a digest of the latest news in our field for advocates, policymakers, community coalitions and all who work toward shaping policies and practices to effectively prevent substance use and treat addiction.

Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) programs are hot right now -- there’s an impressive research base showing they work to cut costs and can nip addiction in the bud. SBIRT also stars in the Obama administration’s new National Drug Control Strategy.

But what about the human side of this somewhat nebulous protocol?

Higher prices and restrictions on advertising will help prevent excessive drinking, World Health Organization says in new policy resolution (too bad it’s non-binding) ? How do you reconcile ’drug-free schools’ with medical-marijuana laws? That’s what school districts in Colorado are trying to figure out ?

Addiction and mental-health parity may be the law of the land, but it doesn't seem to be preventing insurers from limiting access to such services in states like Massachusetts.

The Obama administration’s 2011 budget calls for flat funding of the $1.79-billion Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment (SAPT) block grant, but advocates are appealing to Congress to boost funding for the formula grant to states by $210 million.

’Hey, Friend -- have you tried the new vodka in the skull bottle?’: New report says the alcohol industry is engaged in ’stealth’ marketing to youth on social-networking sites online ... Oh, about that vodka: Yes, there really is a brand of vodka being sold in a bottle shaped like a crystal skull. It just got banned in Ontario ...

Daniel Okrent’s new book on the history of Prohibition, "Last Call," is chockablock with fascinating anectodes and factoids about American’s dalliance as a dry nation, but also points to some useful parallels to contemporary debates on drug policy.

One of Congress’ big backers of tough drug penalties is out of a job thanks to a classic Capitol Hill sex scandal ... Doctors should be screening all kids for signs of alcohol use, according to the American Academy of Pediatricians ...
Fueled in part by national healthcare reform, a quiet revolution is taking place in how the federal government conceives of prevention and funds preventive services, and the upshot could mean more money for programs that take a public-health approach to addiction and mental health problems and less for standalone programs that focus solely on alcohol and other drugs.