More and more people are turning to medical cannabis products to alleviate mental health problems such as anxiety, depression, and insomnia—although there is little science indicating that the drug is safe and effective to treat these problems. Advocates of medical marijuana legalization have convinced many consumers that their problems can be solved with cannabis, even as some evidence suggests that it can make their conditions worse. Therapists say they are seeing more patients using pot in...

The New York Times finally weighs in on the risks to kids from marijuana edibles, noting that many teens underestimate the dangers associated with the drug. With pot legalization making pot more widely available, young people have come to believe marijuana is less dangerous creating a perfect storm or risk, especially for edibles that are heavily marketed to young people. Edibles can indeed appear harmless, as they are packaged to look like candies, and appeal to impulsive, thrill-seeking...

Fatal drug overdoses are soaring in San Francisco, and the city’s mayor London Breed is coming under increasing pressure to declare a public health emergency as she did with COVID-19. Advocates say this would not only bring more attention to the crisis but also provide an incentive to flout federal and state laws to open safe syringe sites, where users can shoot up in a controlled setting. Last year twice as many people in the city died from drug overdose as from coronavirus, and this year...

E-cigarettes have been on the market for almost a decade, but controversy continues to surround the devices, which were first pitched as a smoking cessation tool but eventually led to an epidemic level of use among underage consumers. Now, the FDA has given the first market authorization to an e-cigarette—R.J. Reynold’s Vuse—as a way to help smokers quit. But the agency, which says this does not mean the product is “FDA-approved,” also denied a request to sell flavored pods for the device....

Evidence revealed at the landmark opioid trial in Ohio shows that pharmacy chain employees warned about the dispensing of highly addictive prescription painkillers—but to no avail, allowing a flood of opioids to continue. The trial, which accuses the nation’s biggest pharmacy chains—including CVS, Walgreens, and Walmart—of fueling the opioid epidemic, is being closely watched as the sprawling opioid litigation plays out across the country. The documents showed that employees told superiors...

San Francisco is in the grips of an unprecedented drug epidemic as fentanyl floods the street-drug marketplace, intensifying the risk of addiction and leading to a staggering number of overdose deaths. While overdose deaths have surged across the country to a record 93,000 last year, fatalities linked to fentanyl have skyrocketed in San Francisco—increasing by nearly 500 percent between 2018 and 2020. Illicit fentanyl, which can be as much as 50 times more powerful than heroin, was detected...

The Drug Enforcement Agency has issued its first public warning in six that a growing number of fake pills bought online through e-commerce websites—and promoted by social media sites—are laced with potentially lethal amounts of the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl. Noting that we are in the midst of an overdose crisis—with more than 93,000 fatalities last year—the DEA said that the counterfeit pills are driving the surge in deaths. Fentanyl, even in much smaller amounts, is deadlier than...

Selling marijuana on tribal lands in New York State has become a booming business for Native Americans, who are capitalizing on the slow pace of regulating the state’s newly legal marijuana industry. The New York Times reports from an upstate reservation, on the northern border with Canada, which is doing a brisk trade in pot products, drawing customers from across the region. However, the new enterprises exist in a sort of gray area, moving faster to set up dispensaries than the government...

  A new study finds that there is a growing racial disparity in opioid deaths among the Black population and other racial and ethnic groups. The National Institute on Drug Abuse research analyzed data from four states—Kentucky, Ohio, Massachusetts, and New York—and found that opioid deaths among Blacks increased by 38 percent between 2018 and 2019, while rates for other groups did not rise a all. In earlier waves of the epidemic, African Americans had lower rates of overdose deaths than...

The Justice Department is taking action to stop the Purdue Pharma opioid litigation settlement, arguing that it is wrong to grand broad legal immunity to the firm’s founding Sackler family. The controversial deal, approved earlier this month, forces the family to pay $4.5 billion in compensation, as part of an estimated $10 billion deal over the next decade, with the majority of funds going to drug abatement and treatment programs. But the settlement has been widely criticized by patients’...

As the sprawling opioid litigation draws to close promising large settlements for states, Maia Szalavitz writes in Scientific American that the windfall compensation should be used narrowly and smartly for addiction services—and not for cutting the supply of opioids. Comparing this settlement to the $246 billion tobacco agreement, in which most of the money went to state governments and not for smoking cessation programs, she says we now have an opportunity to help those struggling with...

As pro-pot supporters continue the push for marijuana legalization, a new international report finds that medical cannabis—which is often the prelude to recreational legalization, because of its purported health benefits—is unlikely to help most people suffering from chronic pain. The report, based on three dozen medical cannabis studies, says that although it might help some people, there’s not enough evidence for the drug to be widely recommended for those with chronic pain. In fact,...

A Wall Street Journal iinvestigation reveals that social media site TikTok serves up a continual stream of content about sex and promoting drug use—to minors. The article used a series of fake accounts linked to underage users to to examine the site’s powerful algorithms and how they quickly drive minors—among the biggest users of TikTok—to endless spools of content that often glorifies drugs and drug use. They also found that even with the site’s filters in place, videos about drugs tend to...

The $4.5 billion opioid settlement with Purdue Pharma announced last week ended lengthy litigation with the OxyContin maker and secures funding over the next decade for drug abatement and treatment programs. But for many families who lost children and other loved ones in the opioid epidemic, the deal has left many families conflicted, deflated, and angry. Under the terms of the agreement, the firm’s founding Sackler family did not apologize for their role in fueling the epidemic by...

The bankruptcy judge overseeing the Purdue Pharma opioid litigation has approved the OxyContin maker’s proposed $4.5 billion settlement, ending a years-long legal battle and opening the way for funding to flow to states for addiction treatment and compensation to victims’ families. The controversial agreement largely absolves the firm’s founding Sackler family and shields members from any liability, and as such, it will remain among the richest families in the country. In a personal note, the...

As overdose deaths due to fentanyl-laced street drugs are soaring across the country, the New York Times reports on a series of six deaths over three days along Long Island’s North Fork, a rural area about 100 miles from New York City. Police said the deaths were caused by cocaine mixed with highly lethal fentanyl, a drug more commonly mixed with heroin. The tragedy is part of a national trend, due in part to pandemic-linked drug shortages that have forced addicts to turn to substitutes like...

New York Governor Kathy Hochul, in her first days in office after succeeding Andrew Cuomo, has spoken of the need to address the opioid epidemic and soaring overdose deaths. But on marijuana she has taken another approach, vowing to quickly implement the state’s stalled legal weed market without apparently addressing safety issues for the evolving cannabis industry. Legal marijuana was approved earlier this year, but Cuomo was locked in a dispute with the legislature on nominations to the...

New Jersey voters overwhelmingly supported marijuana legalization in a referendum last year, with nearly 68 percent saying they wanted legal weed. But as the deadline passed this week for municipalities to opt-out of allowing cannabis businesses, more than 70 percent said “no,” passing ordinances that prohibit cultivation facilities, manufacturing, wholesale distribution, and dispensaries. Only 98 localities passed ordinances allowing pot sales, but also imposed strict zoning regulations,...

The Marshall Project reports on an ambitious project to expand access to drug treatment in prisons and jails that has failed despite tens of millions of dollars in funding. Initiated by Congress in 2018, the program was aimed at reducing soaring overdose deaths among inmates. But so far only a small fraction—less than 2 percent of the 15,000 eligible for treatment—has received it. The article blames bureaucratic inertia and resistance to medication-assisted treatment (MAT) among correctional...

Overdose deaths from fentanyl are increasing across the country, leaving health officials scrambling to inform the public about the dangers of the powerful synthetic opioid. But a public service video released by the San Diego County Sherriff’s Department has come under criticism for providing misinformation concerning the danger of simple exposure to fentanyl powder. The video shows a deputy trainee collapsing while investigating a substance believed to be fentanyl, and then receiving the...

As more states legalize marijuana, pot entrepreneurs are becoming ever more innovative. Take the global beverage giants—especially beer brewers—who are eying a potentially lucrative multibillion-dollar market for weed-based drinks. There are already many pot-infused products, including seltzers, teas, colas, and cocktails, but the beverage sector is only a small part of the $20 billion legal weed marketplace. Now the industry sees potential in a wider range of marijuana drinks, mainly because...

Overdose deaths are surging in Canada, as they are in the U.S., and the province of British Columbia is responding with a controversial strategy to give out highly addictive opioids to those struggling with substance abuse. The program includes distributing tablets of powerful fentanyl, with the hope that such drugs obtained from pharmacies and clinics are safer alternatives to street drugs, which increasingly are laced with lethal amounts of opioids and tranquilizers. Many say that the plan...

A majority of creditors seeking compensation from Purdue Pharma for its role in the opioid epidemic have agreed to a $4.5 billion settlement with the OxyContin maker, clearing the way for the deal to be approved. More than 120,000 creditors—including cities, states, tribes, and families and caregivers of children born addicted to opioids—are seeking payment from Purdue, which is ready to settle but will not admit responsibility for contributing to the opioid epidemic. The company will pay out...

The recent successes of the marijuana legalization movement can be attributed to many factors—including, as it turns out the financial support of a boatload of billionaires, from conservative political activist Charles Koch to Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, who are on the front lines of the cannabis revolution. For his part, Koch told Forbes he supports legal pot because prohibition is a basic infringement on personal freedom, as well as a destructive policy that adds to America’s...