New study says it’s the lifestyle, not the alcohol. Ever since the first studies showed modest statistical health benefits for people who drank a light to moderate amount of alcohol, the...

Obama's September proclamation. Recovery Month, an annual September observance highlighting the benefits of substance abuse treatment, kicked off on August 31 when President Obama issued a...

Punish the crime, treat the disorder. The alcoholic in A.A. and the cocaine addict on the street share a common appetite. This shared appetite, and the behaviors that come with it, are played...

FDA remains conflicted over safety concerns. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a controversial Safety Alert over electronic cigarettes, known as “e-cigarettes,” then held a press...

How a pill for alcoholism became a blockbuster antidepressant. Back in the 1970s, while doing research on antidepressants at Eli Lilly and Co., several organic chemists had been working on...

AIDS/harm reduction activists press Obama. First, the good news: After 20 years, the U.S. Congress has voted to remove the funding ban on syringe exchange programs designed to combat AIDS and to bring hard drug users within the orbit of the medical...

Speed freaks, coke heads, and antipsychotics. Last week, writing on the Daily Beast web site, reporter Jeff Deeney profiled a startling underground market for the antipsychotic medication Seroquel (quetiapine). Deeney described street transactions in...

t FDA lists meds for trash or toilet. A recent post here on the subject of illegal bong water in Minnesota—coupled with a perceptive comment by a reader about drugs in the water supply—got me thinking again about what gets thrown in the sink or...

Do drinking women face tougher odds? Everybody knows by now that it’s not safe to drink while pregnant. However, a new study of more than 2,500 couples enrolled in a course of in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment at a fertility clinic found that...

State Supreme Court calls it a “drug mixture.” The lesson is clear: If you live in Minnesota, and you happen to own a bong, be sure to pour out the water after each use. Bong water is now officially a controlled substance in Minnesota, according...