News

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.

(WHYY/Kaiser Health News, March 11) Dentists have long been frequent prescribers of immediate-release opioids like Vicodin and Percocet for the pain from tooth extractions.

(Live Science, March 15) The chemical tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in marijuana is known to trigger responses in brain regions related to thinking, perception, coordination and memory, and to have a lasting impact on users when taken frequently over time. 

(The Washington Post, March 15) Even when the list is restricted to the top 25 heaviest consuming countries, the United States outpaces them all in opioid use, according to UN report.