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(Restore Center LA, March 28) In the last few years, fentanyl and other synthetic opioids have ravaged communities throughout the United States, and the U.S. government is trying to look for new solutions to the ever-growing crisis

(Associated Press, March 30) — U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen is introducing federal legislation that would authorize $10 million for programs to prevent opioid misuse among students and student athletes.

Heroin use in the U.S. more than quadrupled during the last decade according to a study from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. 

The good news: fewer kids are accidentally overdosing on prescription painkillers each year. But unfortunately, more suicidal teens are turning to the opioids, according to the newly published study, Prescription Opioid Exposures Among Children and Adolescents in the United States 2000-2015.

(Primary Care, March 20) About a quarter of high school seniors have taken prescription opioids, medically or nonmedically, but exposures have declined over the past 2 years, according to a study.

(Healthy Ways, March 23) According to surveys, kids aged 12-17 increasingly think cannabis use is not harmful. Pediatricians report that cannabis “is the drug of choice” for many teens. 

(Consumer Reports, March 22) Your medicine cabinet can become a dumping ground for old drugs. But Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs says the risks for accidental poisoning for kids increase –– with every bottle of pills you keep.

(MarketWatch, March 22) Workers with substance use disorders miss nearly 50% more days than their peers, and up to six weeks of work annually, according to an analysis released Wednesday from the National Safety Council, a nonprofit and nongovernmental agency.

(Live Science, March 20) Researchers looked at trends in the use of prescription opioids among U.S. adolescents from 1976 to 2015.

\"What Heroes Do\" is the newest comic book published by the Elks Drug Awareness Program.