Category: Drug Abuse

Across the United States, prescription misuse, abuse and addiction are at record high levels. Over the last decade, pharmaceutical sales for painkillers have doubled. In 2010, pharmacies around the country sold 69 tons of oxycodone (the main ingredient in the opioid painkiller OxyContin and Percocet) [...]

Kentucky legislators will continue debating House Bill 4, which addresses ways to reel in the prescription drug problem faced by the state. The House Speaker Greg Stumbo threw his whole support behind the bill and urged his fellow lawmakers to vote in favor of the [...]

The organization Operation UNITE, located in eastern Kentucky, arranged the very first National Rx Drug Summit to bring together politicians, organizations and professionals who deal with this issue everyday. The event drew many high-ranking political officials, many of whom gave speeches on the prescription drug [...]

In the northwestern United States, in areas such as Washington State, the death toll due to heroin overdose has been rising steadily each year. The drug is being used by more and more people and in more potent forms. In fact, some individuals are dying [...]

R. Gil Kerlikowske is the Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy and he’s recently come under fire for what many view as a misguided drug policy for our country. Kerlikowske is not shying away from the controversy; rather, he is [...]

Prescription opioid painkillers, which are close relatives of both heroin and morphine, have caused a huge spike in drug overdoses in Oklahoma over the past decade. Law enforcement is now reporting that more people die due to prescription drug overdose than from car accidents each [...]

Finding medications to relieve a stuffed up nose may soon require more than a trip to the local pharmacy in Indiana. In fact, if certain legislators and police officers succeed, it may take a trip to the doctor to get a prescription before citizens in [...]

Cocaine, which is derived from the coca plant, has a long history of use for gaining an athletic edge. The Incan culture of South America regularly used coca leaves to give them extra energy as they made their way through the high altitudes of the [...]

In the 1960s, Jean-Claude Proulx was a priest who took the drug addiction of his parishioners and the drug trade in his neighborhood very seriously. Not one to brush off this community-shattering problem, Proulx was famous – infamous, even – for his efforts in fighting [...]

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has introduced a new set of guiding principles for healthcare practitioners to follow in respect to drug-exposed newborns. The organization felt the topic needed a fresh look as the number of infants experiencing drug withdrawal symptoms has risen nearly [...]