News

(TIME, November 7) Non-opioid painkillers work just as well as opioid painkillers for certain types of pain, according to a new study. This news confirms the fact that – in the midst of the nationwide opioid epidemic – they are likely being overprescribed.

(Newsweek, November 7) We know how damaging marijuana use is to the growing teenage brain. 

(HealthDay, November 6)  Less and less U.S. teens are smoking cigarettes. Could this be why, despite relaxing attitudes towards the drug, teen marijuana use has not increased? 

(NBC News, October 27) The highly addictive and potent synthetic opioid fentanyl was behind at least half of 2016’s deadly drug overdoses, according to new figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

(NBC News, October 25) Almost a year ago, a disturbing photo of a young woman passed out in her car after an apparent heroin overdose went viral. 

(The Washington Post, November 1) The president’s opioid commission, led by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, recently recommended more than 50 changes to the nation’s drug policies.

(CBS News, October 26)  Thanks to Walgreens, Narcan, a nasal spray form of a drug that reverses opioid overdoses, will now be a little easier to get.

National Drug & Alcohol Facts Week (NDAFW) is a national health observance for teens to promote local events that uses the scientific facts from the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) to shatter the myths about drugs and alcohol.

(October 27, 2017)  Drug overdose deaths from 2016 may exceed 64,000, according to preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

(Fox News, October 10) University of Pittsburgh researchers are working with officials in their state to produce a new, standardized way to collect and track drug overdose data.