The emerging marijuana legalization effort in the U.S. has created growing concerns about the effect that chronic pot use will have on the developing brains of teens and young adults. A recent CNN article highlighted research findings published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) that point to diminished verbal memory, processing speed

A National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIH) article highlights findings recently published in The New England Journal of Medicine. The study determined that new opioid prescription policies which more carefully regulate the prescribing of opioids have not directly led to a rise in heroin use over the last few years. Researchers found that an individual’s

The word Recovery is a powerful symbol of hope for people who deal with addiction. Before alcohol and drug addiction were so readily addressed in society, the medical community used recovery as a reference to that period of time when a person was recuperating from a surgery or extended illness. So-and-so has had a full

A new article from CNN cites an announcement by the Centers For Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) confirming that heroin use is increasing rapidly across the United States. The staggering result of this is that: “Deaths from heroin-related overdoses nearly quadrupled between 2002 and 2013.” The CDC report indicated that heroin use doubled among women

A new Town Hall Meeting will occur in High Point at the High Point Arts Council on Tuesday evening July 14th. Fact: Two out of three families are somehow touched by addiction! The Town Hall Meeting will address addiction in our community and how family members can do something about this illness to hopefully prevent

A Reuter’s (Beijing) article, published in Business Insider, just covered the rise of heroin and methamphetamine abuse in China. 2014 saw nearly 49,000 drug-related deaths and an estimated financial loss of approximately 500 billion yuan ($80 billion is U.S. dollars). The story indicates that China has instituted a nationwide crackdown on drugs in response to a

A June 2015 article in Medscape points to continued public concerns with drug overdose in the United States. Megan Brooks of Medscape writes: “Drug overdose is now the leading cause of deaths from injury in the United States.” She addresses that 26 states have seen an increase in drug overdose deaths over the last 4 years. In 36

“Vaping” is a recently popularized method of drug delivery that originated with electronic cigarettes. Vaping involves inhaling the aerosol vapors of a heated liquid – which in the case of cigarettes is about ingesting nicotine. However, there are other intoxicants that can be “vaped’, and there is emerging national concern that youthful experimentation with e-cigarettes

There is an interesting blog post by Dr. Jana Burson in which she discusses a recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The study occurred in the state of Connecticut, and it centered on providing patients a 3-day supply of buprenorphine when they presented in the ER and were found to

The Associated Press has published an article on a recent outbreak of HIV infections seen in Indiana as a suspected result of the opioid addiction epidemic occurring there. As addicted individuals turn to heroin and other illicit opiates to find relief, a majority of them will eventually resort to injection drug use as a more