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What Addicts Need
Addiction isn't a weakness; it's an illness. Now vaccines and other new drugs may change the way we treat it.
By Jeneen Interlandi | NEWSWEEK

Date 03/08/2008
Bill to Cut Penalties for Crack Cocaine Heads to Obama
Mandatory-minimum prison sentences for crack-cocaine would only kick in when defendants possess 28 grams or more of the drug under legislation passed last week by the U.S. House of Representatives.

Date: 07/30/2010

Gene May Influence Drinking in Social Settings
Do you find yourself drinking more heavily when you are out with friends? There may be a gene for that.

Date: 07/30/2010

Colo. Set to Regulate Medical Marijuana from 'Seed to Sale'
The head of Colorado's medical-marijuana enforcement effort promises a comprehensive plan that other states could adopt as a model.

Date: 07/30/2010

Washington Imposes New Rules on Prescribing Powerful Painkillers
The state of Washington plans to impose tough new rules on doctors who want to prescribe opiate painkillers to patients, including mandatory third-party evaluation of patients who request higher doses of the drug but don’t show signs of improvement.

Date: 07/29/2010

Clergy a Common Resource for People Battling Addiction
About 15 percent of people seeking recovery from alcoholism turn to clergy members for support, a University of Michigan study finds.

Date: 07/29/2010

Conn. Candidates Spar on Marijuana Use, Legalization
Republican candidates for Congress are slinging accusations of hypocrisy over marijuana use and policy, including the spectacle of a candidate who favors legalization defending a YouTube video focused on his opponent’s arrest a decade earlier for marijuana possession.

Date: 07/29/2010

Doctors Not Reporting Impaired Colleagues, Survey Finds
A study from the Harvard Medical School found that 17 percent of doctors knew of drunk, addicted or otherwise incompetent colleagues, but one-third said they did nothing to report the behavior.

Date: 07/28/2010

Police Challenged by Crashes Involving Prescription Drugs
Car crashes involving prescription drugs are often harder to detect and prosecute than those involving alcohol or illicit drugs.

Date: 07/28/2010

Proposed FDA Plan on Prescription Drugs Rejected
A lack of mandated training for physicians has helped sink a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposal intended to curb misuse of prescription drugs.

Date: 07/27/2010

Veterans Dept. Allows Use of Medical Marijuana
Veterans in states with medical-marijuana laws will be allowed to use the drug without losing their access to pain medication under a new policy announced by the federal Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

Date: 07/27/2010

More Americans Making Moonshine
Recession penny-pinching and the homemade food fad are driving more Americans -- from hobbyists to trendy hipster kids -- to make homemade liquor, or moonshine.

Date: 07/27/2010

Virginia Governor Leads Drive for Privatization of Liquor Distribution
Virginia Gov. Robert McDonnell has spent months quietly trying to build consensus around a plan to shutter state liquor stores established after Prohibition and return the distribution of alcohol to private wholesalers and retailers.

Date: 07/26/2010

Oakland OKs Plan for Four Big Marijuana Farms to Supply Medical Users
Seeking greater control over who supplies marijuana to legal medical users, the city of Oakland has approved a plan that would license four large marijuana farms and sets hefty regulatory fees on the operations.

Date: 07/26/2010

Few Colleges Follow NIAAA Advice to Prevent Student Drinking
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) gave colleges detailed advice on how to prevent student drinking in 2002, but the recommendations have not been widely adopted, according to a new study from the University of Minnesota.

Date: 07/26/2010

Parents Who Use Drugs to Quell Children Called Abusive
Sedating children with over-the-counter or prescription medications may be an under-recognized form of abuse.

Date: 07/23/2010

Heroin Addicts in Africa Engage in Dangerous Blood-Sharing
'Flashblooding,' the act of injecting one heroin addict's blood into another to share a high or ward off withdrawal, is becoming increasingly common in some African cities.

Date: 07/23/2010

Stroke Risk Jumps in Hour After Drinking Alcohol
Risk of stroke more than doubles in the hour immediately after consuming alcohol.

Date: 07/22/2010

N.M. Faces Medical Marijuana Shortage
Strict licensing and regulation of New Mexico’s medical-marijuana distribution has led to chronic shortages in supply of the drug.

Date: 07/22/2010

SAMHSA Document on Confidentiality Regulations Raises Further Questions
With national health reform moving the field toward coordination of all aspects of an individual’s medical care, longstanding federal requirements that govern information about clients in addiction treatment have come under scrutiny over their potential effect on integrated care.

Date: 07/22/2010

Binge Drinking May Be a Bone Breaker for Teens
Teenagers who engage in binge drinking could be upping their risk of developing osteoporosis later in life, a new animal study suggests.

Date: 07/22/2010

Kansas Volume Pricing Law on Alcohol Delayed
Kansas Gov. Mark Parkinson ordered the state’s alcohol regulation agency to delay enforcing a decades old -- but largely ignored -- law that requires bars to price drinks according to alcohol content.

Date: 07/22/2010

Alcohol Tax Repeal Will Be First Question on Mass. Ballot
November's ballot will give Massachusetts residents a chance to vote on a pair of initiatives altering or repealing the state’s alcohol tax.

Date: 07/21/2010

Treatment Programs Report Surge in Prescription Drug Admissions
About one in 10 people admitted to addiction treatment programs misuse prescription drugs, quadruple the rate reported in 1998.

Date: 07/21/2010

Group Drug Therapy Can Be Counterproductive for Teens
Group addiction treatment can actually lead to more drug use by teens if they are casual users placed in sessions with more experienced addicts.

Date: 07/21/2010

The Anti-Bars: Token Clubs
People in recovery often face a social dilemma: where to hang out when bars and clubs must remain off-limits. For many, so-called Token Clubs provide an answer -- and a safe haven.

Date: 07/21/2010

Patented Pot? Not So Fast, Say Feds
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has removed a trademark category for medical marijuana after receiving a flood of applications from producers seeking to claim various products and brand names for the drug.

Date: 07/20/2010

Dangers on Homefront Exceed Battlefield for Some Soldiers
Soldiers of the First Armored Division’s Fourth Brigade are statistically at higher risk of death upon returning to their home base of Fort Bliss, Texas, than they were while deployed in Iraq.

Date: 07/20/2010

At-Home Alcohol Consumption Rises
Sales of alcohol for consumption at home has grown 21 percent since 2004, according to market research firm Mintel.

Date: 07/20/2010

New Recipe Feeds Growth of Okla. Meth Labs
Restrictions on precursor chemicals helped drive methamphetamine labs out of Oklahoma in the mid-2000s, but a new “one-pot� recipe for the drug has labs proliferating in the state again.

Date: 07/20/2010

Kombucha Disappears Amid Regulation Worries
Retailers and distributors have pulled back on the production and sale of kombucha, a popular tea, as the government tests the drink to see if it meets alcohol regulation standards.

Date: 07/19/2010

Violent Drinkers May Benefit from Mix of Counseling and Antidepressants
A small research study suggests that violent men with drinking problems can be successfully be treated with a combination of addiction counseling, behavioral therapy, and antidepressants.

Date: 07/19/2010

'MicroRNA' Could Someday Be Used to Battle Cocaine Addiction
A new animal study from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) finds that small molecules called microRNA seem to play a role in regulating cocaine use, a discovery that eventually could lead to the development of novel new addiction treatments.

Date: 07/19/2010

Tech and Drugs and Rock and Roll
Websites are marketing music that developers claim can produce a drug-like high.

Date: 07/15/2010

Mixed Results for H.S. Drug Testing
High-school students who face mandatory drug testing may be less likely to use drugs in the short term, but the protective effect doesn’t last, according to a new U.S. Department of Education study.

Date: 07/15/2010

Hospitals Vie to Become Medical-Marijuana Dispensaries in N.J.
Teaching hospitals in New Jersey say they should hold a monopoly over marijuana distribution as the state plans to implement its medical-marijuana law.

Date: 07/15/2010

Legalization Could Cut Marijuana Prices 80 Percent, RAND Estimates
A study on the expected impact of marijuana legalization in California predicts that the price of the drug would drop steeply.

Date: 07/13/2010

Addiction, Mental Illness Lead to Millions of ER Visits
Patients with addiction or mental-health related problems accounted for 12.5 percent of all hospital emergency-room visits by adults in 2007, according to a report from the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

Date: 07/13/2010

San Francisco Regulates Marijuana Foods
The San Francisco Department of Public Health has issued the nation’s first regulations on the labeling and sale of marijuana-infused edibles.

Date: 07/13/2010

Schumer Calls for FTC to Investigate Alcoholic Energy Drink Marketing
Certain brands of alcoholic energy drinks are marketed with the intent of appealing to underage drinkers, charged Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) in calling for an investigation by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Date: 07/12/2010

Coalition Seeks Calif. NAACP Leader's Ouster for Supporting Legalization
The California State Conference of the NAACP's president, Alice Huffman, has aroused the ire of some African-American religious and community leaders for endorsing a statewide marijuana-legalization ballot item.

Date: 07/12/2010

More Californians Oppose Marijuana Legalization
A slight majority of California residents now opposes a ballot initiative that would legalize marijuana in the state.

Date: 07/12/2010

Border Patrol Sees Surge in Teen Drug Smugglers
The number of minors caught smuggling drugs from Mexico to Arizona surged 83 percent in 2009.

Date: 07/09/2010

Tailored Meth Treatment Lacking, Experts Say
Methamphetamine users have unique treatment needs but typically receive the same type of therapy as those addicted to other drugs.

Date: 07/08/2010

Wine Being Sold from Vending Machines in Pa.
The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board is testing out a pair of wine vending machines located inside supermarkets.

Date: 07/08/2010

Calif. NAACP Backs Marijuana Legalization
The California chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) has endorsed Proposition 19, a ballot initiative that would legalize marijuana use.

Date: 07/08/2010

Study Hints at Link Between Youth Marijuana Use and Depression
A Dutch study has found that marijuana use before age 17 was associated with a 50-percent increase in the risk of later suffering an episode of depression, although researchers said that the association weakened when a history of conduct disorders was figured in.

Date: 07/08/2010

Synthetic Marijuana Products Outlawed in Missouri
A blend of herbs sold under the brand name K2 and thought to produce psychoactive effects similar to marijuana has been banned in Missouri.

Date: 07/07/2010

Price Controls Cut Binge Drinking, Canadian Province Reports
The Canadian province of Saskatchewan’s minimum-pricing policy on high-alcohol beverages has resulted in a decline in public intoxication as well as lower sales of potent products.

Date: 07/07/2010

ACLU Sues Wal-Mart Over Medical-Marijuana Firing
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is suing Wal-Mart in Michigan after the company terminated an employee for medical marijuana use.

Date: 07/06/2010

S.F. Seeks Supplemental Alcohol Tax
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors has fast-tracked a proposal to add a $.076 per ounce tax on alcohol that would be charged at the wholesale level.

Date: 07/06/2010

Alcohol and drug news from JoinTogether.org:
From the Boston University School of Public Health
© Join Together | Boston University

This page was last modified on : 08/21/2009

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