President Biden has spoken out forcefully for establishing mandatory drug treatment for addicts—and keeping those struggling with substance abuse out of prisons and jails altogether. Addressing a town hall meeting in Ohio, one of the epicenters of the opioid epidemic, the president also advocated for post-incarceration services including housing and job training, in addition to drug treatment. The statement suggests that Biden will pursue this controversial approach as he gears up his drug...

Senator Chuck Schumer has finally unveiled long-awaited legislation to end the federal-level prohibition of marijuana, reflecting a milestone in shifting public opinion about pot and efforts to end the decades-long war on drugs. The draft bill would remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act and begin regulating and taxing it under federal authority rather than the current situation in which states that have legalized the drug control sales, taxes, and usage. The bill also calls for...

After years of legal wrangling, a tentative agreement has been reached to settle thousands of opioid lawsuits for an estimated $26 billion—with the money destined for addiction treatment and prevention services. The deal must still be approved by the 40 states and dozens of municipalities that brought the lawsuits against drug distributors Cardinal Health, AmeriSourceBergen and McKesson, and opioid maker Johnson & Johnson.  In a separate agreement, drug distributors would give $1.1...

Drug overdose deaths rose nearly 30 percent in 2020 to a record 93,000, according to preliminary estimates by the CDC—the largest single-year increase ever as fatalities surged for opioid, meth, and fentanyl-related deaths across the country. Deaths rose in every state but two, with pronounced increases in the South and West and among Black and Hispanic populations. The data showed that fatalities had accelerated pre-pandemic and grew even more pronounced during lockdowns, social distancing,...

Juul Labs was once the high-flying, market dominating company that fueled a global e-cigarette boom—and with it a teenage nicotine epidemic. Today, the company is under siege amid thousands of lawsuits accusing it of marketing to underage users, potential government regulations, and widespread health concerns about its vaping products. The biggest threat to staying in business is an upcoming FDA ruling on whether Juul’s devices and nicotine pods have enough public health benefit to continue...

With the support of the Biden administration, Congress has for the first time allocated funding for harm-reduction services, prompting renewed debate about this controversial approach to help substance users. Harm reduction programs can include overdose prevention, distribution of clean syringes, and so-called safe consumption sites with healthcare professionals on hand to provide assistance if needed. Such facilities can save lives and prevent the spread of disease, and they also offer...

Now that Connecticut has legalized recreational marijuana, how long will it be before the last two holdouts in New England—Rhode Island and New Hampshire—fall in line and allow legal weed? Marijuana supporters say the victory in Connecticut will grease the wheels for the final two states, believing that the lure of tax revenues and new jobs will spur legislators to take action. If Rhode Island and New Hampshire do move in that direction, they should take a page from the Connecticut law that...

Connecticut became the 19th sate to legalize recreational marijuana, completing a Northeastern block of new legal weed states including New Jersey and New York. But unlike those states, Gov. Ned Lamont signed a bill that includes unusually strong public health protections, including a 30 percent limit on levels of intoxicating THC—only the second state to do so after Vermont. In addition, advertising and products designed to appeal to children are forbidden, and municipalities can invoke an...

As New Yorkers go to the polls today to elect a new mayor, one of the leading candidates, Eric Adams, has expressed concern about the state’s new marijuana legalization law, saying it may “send the wrong message” to young people. Although Adams supports the law and legalization, he’s worried that it implies it’s okay to smoke a joint and go to school, or operate heavy equipment. He said it’s important to let people know about the medical benefits as well as the concerns related to marijuana....

On the 50th anniversary of the War on Drugs, which began under President Richard Nixon, experts are looking back on the effort and assessing the impact—concluding that locking up individuals struggling with drug addiction was largely ineffective. As the nation continues to reel from multiple drug crises—including a record 90,000 drug overdoses last year—they say the war on drugs simply didn’t work, noting that the response to drugs should be handled by doctors and therapists, not cops and...

There has been a steep rise last year in the number of opioid overdose deaths in Massachusetts among Black men, as the despair of the pandemic and poor health services took their toll. Latest data shows that while overall fatalities across the state increased by 5 percent in 2020, wiping out small gains over the previous years, the rate for Black men was 69 percent. Experts say that job losses, poverty, lack of housing and healthcare including for addiction were to blame for the staggering...

The marijuana legalization movement gained a powerful ally as Amazon, the nation’s second-largest private employer, endorsed ending federal-level prohibition of the drug—and also announced it will stop testing jobseekers for pot. The company says it supports a House legalization bill, boosting efforts by politicians and cannabis industry lobbyists to gain federal recognition at a time when more and more states are moving in that direction on their own. As for its drug testing policy, Amazon...

The years long legal effort to hold OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma responsible for its role in the opioid epidemic is moving ahead, after a bankruptcy court judge approved a controversial plan to collectively settle the lawsuit and send it to claimants to have their say. While the judge has the right to make a final decision, more than 600,000 claimants will weigh in on a deal that many say lets Purdue—and its founding Sackler family—largely escape responsibility for causing the deaths of...

President Biden has been slow to embrace cannabis policy reform as advocated by a growing number of Democratic lawmakers, due in part to his age and a family history of substance abuse. Yet a Brookings paper argues that if the Biden White House did jump into the debate, it would ultimately be in a better position to shape such reform to its liking. Instead of sitting on the sidelines, Biden would be able to dampen an overly permissive system of regulation that many progressives in the party...

Big candy companies are taking legal action against upstart marijuana firms that are marketing products in look-alike packaging as the famous brands, endangering children who may inadvertently ingest them. As more and more states legalize recreational cannabis without strict rules and regulations, pot products are being sold in packages that could be mistaken for well-known brands such as Skittles and Life Savers, but are actually filled with high-potency marijuana. The candy companies want...

In an unusual rebuke to Colorado’s powerful cannabis industry, lawmakers in the state have introduced legislation to limit marijuana concentrates and medical marijuana in a move to curb teen use and overconsumption of high-potency cannabis. The bill, vehemently opposed by marijuana businesses, would not cap THC levels but rather impose strict new rules on packaging in individual doses no larger than 0.1 grams. It would also limit access to medical cannabis for patients between the ages of 18...

More damaging testimony is emerging at the federal opioid trial in West Virginia, including emails from executives at one of the drug distributors in the lawsuit mocking local people for consuming their firm’s additive prescription painkillers. The emails included parody songs denigrating Appalachians as “pillbillies” living in “OxyContinville” at a time when the opioid epidemic was ensnaring thousands of people in addiction and overdose deaths. The Big Three distributors shipped nearly 109...

After years of slow and steady decline, drug overdose deaths last year in Massachusetts increased 5 percent, as the stress and isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic took its tool and treatment providers curtailed services. Even more troubling, overdose fatalities surged 69 percent among Black men, while the rate among Hispanic men remained the highest. The setback reflects broader trends across the country, and a spike in nationwide drug-related deaths to a record 90,000—a nearly 30 percent...

The nationwide opioid epidemic is the subject of a new HBO documentary, Crime of the Century, which explores the roots of the crisis, the role of the opioid maker Purdue Pharma, and the heartbreaking human toll it has taken over the past two decades. The film is a timely reminder of how Purdue bribed its way into billions of dollars of profit while leaving death and destruction behind. With overdose fatalities surging last year to a record 90,000, the majority opioid-related, we see the...

Psychedelics drugs such as psilocybin and MDMA are on the cusp of becoming mainstream treatment options in psychiatry, according to the New York Times. After years of demonization and criminalization, such drugs are attracting attention from researchers, universities, therapists and lawmakers—and of course Wall Street—which sees a potential booming market. This will have profound implications for psychiatry, as classic psychedelics including LSD have shown early potential to treat conditions...

With drug overdose deaths soaring in Colorado, a new program has been launched to supply at-risk patients with the overdose reversal medication naloxone when they are discharged from hospitals. Hospitals in the Colorado Naloxone Project will distribute the drug to patients who were admitted for overdose, rather than prescribing the drug when they leave, because only 5 percent of those individuals eventually fill those prescriptions. The initiative comes as a “third wave” of the opioid...

As more and more states legalize marijuana, cannabis companies are coming under pressure to limit the strength of their products amid growing concerns about the public health consequences. The steadily rising levels of THC—the intoxicating component of pot—in such products has led to an alarming spike in cases of psychotic episodes among young people, and can impair brain development, studies show. Lawmakers in legal marijuana states including Colorado and Washington are now calling for...

For decades, West Virginia has been ground zero for the opioid epidemic, as the opioid industry flooded the state with tens of millions of prescription painkillers that fueled overdose deaths and devastated families and communities. Now, the first federal trial among thousands of lawsuits in nationwide opioid litigation gets underway in Huntington County, West Virginia, which will test various legal theories that underpin the cases—and possibly lay the groundwork for settlements in other...

Canada legalized marijuana in 2018 amid much fanfare and projections of a booming market for weed—but the reality has been quite different. In fact, most of those sunny forecasts have failed to materialize, with many companies reporting staggering losses and going under. Analysts blame the poor performance on the country’s tightly regulated distribution system—sales are mostly through government-runs stores—along with a ban on weed advertising and marketing, unlike in legalized states in the...