Addiction News & Policy Update for Week Ending May 13

Our Weekly Addiction News & Policy Update is a compilation of news items provided to NCADD by a variety of sources. NCADD staff assembles this information and is pleased to provide it to you. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, feel free to contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The content of this email does not represent the official views or policies of Wellspring Center for Prevention. The content has been collected from a variety of sources and is provided for informational purposes only. The appearance of external hyperlinks does not constitute endorsement by Wellspring of the linked web sites, or the information, products or services contained therein. If you do not wish to receive this email in the future, simply email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and ask to be unsubscribed.

It's Not Always About Getting High: People Often Abuse Prescription Drugs, Alcohol To Deal With Chronic Pain Far from chasing hedonistic highs.

Far from chasing hedonistic highs, people who turn to drugs are often trying to stave away chronic bouts of pain, a study published this month in the Journal of General Internal Medicine suggests.
Learn More

Alcoholics Anonymous Members Really Do Reduce Their Cravings

Through Prayer While there is no cure for drug and alcohol addiction, at least none that work for everyone, members of 12-step programs, such as Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), seem to have found the key to living life without the use of alcohol as a crutch.
Learn More

In Prince's Age Group, Risk Of Opioid Overdose Climbs

Evidence is mounting that Prince may have died of a drug overdose. While the medical examiner hasn't yet released the results of the autopsy and toxicology scans in this case, opioid overdose in middle age is all too common.
Learn More

UVic researchers find success with managed alcohol study

The program uses small doses of alcohol at regular intervals to treat severe alcoholism among homeless.
Learn More

Model Minority Myth, Data Aggregation Masks Alcohol Issues: Report

Heavy episodic drinking and alcohol abuse are increasing among U.S.-born Asian-American adults, but research in the area is limited due in part to the persisting "model minority myth" and aggregated data, according to a research review published in the latest edition of Alcohol Research Current Reviews under the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA),
Learn More

Drug Addiction Cannot Be Decoupled from Mental Illness

For many, mental illness goes hand-in-hand with drug use, either because substance use exacerbates their symptoms or because they self-medicate with drugs. In jail, almost three quarters of people with serious mental illness also have a drug addiction.
Learn More

The Failed Promise of Legal Pot

New laws on marijuana were supposed to boost tax revenues and free up cops to go after “real” criminals. But underground sales—and arrests—are still thriving.
Learn More

The Rehabilitation Paradox

Aman is a twenty-three-year-old man with schizophrenia. As a child, he moved to Boston from the Caribbean, settling with his mother in the predominantly African-American section of Dorchester. During his teen-age years, he got into gang fights and was stabbed three different times. In his junior year, he dropped out of high school and lived in homeless shelters. He was arrested twice for drug possession, and, at seventeen, he was caught with a sawed-off shotgun and sentenced to eighteen months, the mandatory minimum.
Learn More