addiction

Safer Drinking During Desperate Times

We are all doing our best to adjust to the new “normal” in the COVID-19 era, while still trying to…

April 6, 2020

SUD Patients’ Confidentiality a Quiet Victim of the CARES Act

It took COVID-19 to do what the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the American Society of Addiction…

April 2, 2020

It Took a Pandemic to Improve Some People’s Access to Opioid Addiction Meds

“I’m great! I’m having so much fun!” Bill Kinkle tells me on the phone. His happiness is jarring. After hours…

March 25, 2020

When Methadone Clinics Support Patients Who Use Marijuana

Methadone patients face many harsh restrictions. Among them, clinics frequently test for and punish cannabis use, including by withdrawing services—even when…

March 23, 2020

So Alcoholics Anonymous Is “Proven” to Work After All? Not So Fast

Alcoholics Anonymous and its 12 Steps, with their prescription of abstinence, have dominated America’s response to addiction for a half-century…

March 18, 2020

San Diego County Lawmaker Pushes to End Syringe Exchange Ban

A lawmaker in San Diego County, California is urging his colleagues to rethink a 20-year-old ban on syringe exchanges. By…

March 11, 2020

The Real Harms of Abusive, Stigmatizing Language in Addiction Treatment

Ironically, the conversation that spurred a peer-support specialist at a buprenorphine program to yell me out of the room was…

March 11, 2020

Why Are Nurses Denied Effective Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder?

One of the greatest hypocrisies in medicine is the restriction of standard-of-care medications for health professionals with opioid use disorder.…

March 3, 2020

First Psychedelic Research Company Going Public in Canada

Move over space travel, smartphones and New York real estate—soon, many investors will be adding psychedelic drugs to their portfolios.…

March 2, 2020

The Problems With Post-Overdose Response Teams

Drug overdoses (better described as toxic drug mixtures and poisonings) claimed nearly half a million lives in the US between…

February 24, 2020