White House announces National Drug Control Strategy

From US White House – 04.05.2026 The White House released its National Drug Control Strategy, which, among other efforts, recommends effective primary prevention programs. The initiative increases the implementation of evidence-based prevention strategies; establishes new partnerships with organizations supporting youth health and expanding primary prevention; supports a national media and education campaign against drug use; and supports and enhances the […]

What to Know About the Health Risks of Marijuana

Submitted by Maggie Petito on behalf of DrugWatch International – April 23, 2026 Article by Andrea Petersen – Wall Street Journal – April 23, 2026 Studies show the drug can exacerbate anxiety and teen use poses risks for developing brains In many states, it is already easy to get marijuana. With the Trump administration’s move […]

Serious warning regarding Vaping

by Professor Bernard Stewart, A/Prof. Sitas and Prof. Stewart – 28 April 2026 A comprehensive review led by cancer researchers at UNSW found vaping is likely to cause lung and oral cancer – even before long-term studies can confirm the exact risk. Nicotine-based vapes, or e-cigarettes, are likely to cause cancers of the lung and oral […]

Polysubstance use disorders among US adults

Molecular Psychiatry– Published: 29 April 2026 by Beth Han, and Nora D. Volkow,  Christopher M. Jones,  Deborah Dowell,  Grant Baldwin,  Emily B. Einstein,  Geetha A. Subramaniam,  Yngvild Olsen,  Carlos Blanco and Wilson M. Compton  Abstract Polysubstance use disorders ( ≥ 2 substance use disorders (SUDs)) are associated with high morbidity and mortality. We analyzed data from 92,233 adult participants […]

Think Cannabis Helps Your Mental Health? Research Says Otherwise!

A new review in Jama Internal Medicine takes a hard look at how cannabis affects mental health. The authors note that while many people believe that cannabis helps their mental health, current evidence of its suggested benefits is weak while evidence of harm, especially with high THC products, is substantial. This is particularly important considering […]

Sun sets on Middle East’s Costa del Crime

Submitted by Maggie Petito on behalf of DrugWatch International – 01 May 2026 Article published in London Telegraph- by  Max Stephens – International Crime Correspondent    Concerns over damage to its international reputation prompt United Arab Emirates to finally take action against gangsters      Dubai was the perfect command post for the Kinahan crime family. […]

How a Brazilian Prison Gang Became a Global Cocaine Power

From: drug-watch-international@googlegroups.com <drug-watch-international@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of mlp3@starpower.net – Maggie Petito, who comments: “The PCC and assorted cartels and rackets do now consolidate to enhance profits and control to better help fund their sponsors. This article, while informative, covers the eastern side and leaves mostly untouched the western side of South America.” >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> by  Samantha Pearson – […]

Kratom faces a legal reckoning in Missouri. A drug abuse specialist watches with concern

By Danny Wicentowski – Published April 21, 2026 at 11:18 a.m. CDT Although kratom products are legal and unregulated in Missouri, they are facing scrutiny on multiple fronts. That pressure reached a new height last month when state Attorney General Catherine Hanaway announced a sweeping lawsuit against Kansas City-based CBD American Shaman. The lawsuit says the company […]

Heavy drinking takes toll on college students’ cognition, UO study finds

— By Sherri Buri McDonald, University Communications UNIVERSITY OF OREGON-  22-APR-2026 Students reported problems remembering, paying attention and making decisions the next day When college students drink very heavily or to the point of blacking out, they’re more likely to report poorer cognitive functioning the next day, like forgetting someone’s name or having trouble making […]

UK Lawmakers Approve Lifetime Smoking Ban for Today’s Under-18s

by Sam ​Tabahriti, Editing by Paul Sandle and Alex Richardson – April 22, 2026   LONDON, April 22 (Reuters) – Children in Britain who are 17 or younger, and anyone born in the future, will never be able to ⁠legally buy cigarettes after lawmakers approved new stricter restrictions on smoking. The Tobacco and Vapes Bill […]

Trump reclassifies marijuana in bold move angering some of his closest Republican allies

by   JON MICHAEL RAASCH, US POLITICAL REPORTER  –  Daily Mail –  23 April 2026 “Cannabis stock prices jumped on Wednesday after Axios first reported that the administrative change could be coming within days.  Canopy Growth Corp stock spiked over 20 percent, while Tilray’s stock price jumped up 15 percent.  The change would reshape the […]

Students and Drugs: How West MI high schoolers are helping the DEA reach kids

by Michael Martin –  April 24, 2026 The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is stepping out from behind the scenes, teaming up with West Michigan students to rethink how drug prevention messages are delivered. Students from Reeths-Puffer High School visited the DEA’s Grand Rapids office Friday, leading hands-on simulations designed to show how drug impairment impacts reaction time […]

The surprising ways cannabis may affect the aging brain

Submitted by Maggie Petito on behalf of drugwatch international 14 April 2026  Of late, numerous marijuana advocates state in the media that legalization for all marijuana is needed so that research can be done to determine marijuana’s effects. Recognition of who is advancing the argument indicates much about the quality of the argument -Maggie Petito […]

UConn Researcher Targets Tobacco Use in Substance Use Care

UConn Today – Research & Discovery by Olivia Drake – April 13, 2026  School of Social Work Ph.D Candidate Elizabeth “Liz” Goldsborough stresses that social work education should include competency-based tobacco treatment training Declining smoking rates in the United States tell a story of public health progress—but not for everyone. “So many times, tobacco treatment doesn’t […]

“Significant protective association” related to both prevention and recovery, between spirituality and usage of alcohol and other drugs.

by Naomi Schaefer Riley – 11.04.2026 In his book “What Is It Like to Be an Addict?” philosophy professor Owen Flanagan says he dislikes the tendency of some clinicians to “generalize about (addicts) in ways we know to be inaccurate, such as that we are all self-medicating, or that all use is preceded by powerful […]

The madness of using cannabis to treat mental health

      by Max Pemberton – 4 April 2026, 9:09am (Max Pemberton is a consultant psychiatrist and columnist for the Daily Mail) Some days I wonder if I’m going mad – and you don’t need to be a psychiatrist to know that’s not a good sign. I work in a specialist NHS service for people […]

Strong Families Programme (a family-based drug use prevention intervention) helping mothers to have a strong bonding with their children

United Nations – Office on Drugs and Crime Country Office in Afghanistan Combining love and boundaries in my parenting, and guiding my child with care, not with punishment, are the most valuable lessons I learned in just three days of the Strong Families Programme. My name is Roya*, and two months ago, I joined the […]

Diverse problems in the family increase risk of drug-induced deaths among young people – placement in out-of-home care may protect some young people

by Senior Researcher Karoliina Karjalainen – Publication date9.4.2026 Young people’s drug-related deaths and overdoses (non-fatal poisonings) are significantly more common among young people who have experienced diverse problems, such as a parent’s substance use or mental disorders or long-term financial difficulties in their childhood home. For some young people, placement in out-of-home care may reduce these […]

STIGMA AND DRUG MISUSE … AND THE POWER OF WORDS

(A position statement by NDPA, as at April 2026) By Peter Stoker, C. Eng., M.I.C.E. (Retd) – Director – National Drug Prevention Alliance At various times new suggestions are made for policy and practice in responding to drug misuse, addictions, treatment, education and prevention. Whilst these suggestions may derive from genuinely constructive attempts to improve […]

CDC warns about ‘rhino tranq,’ a mix of fentanyl and animal sedative that resists overdose reversal

by Denise Dador – ABC7 Newsteam – Los Angeles –  April 4, 2026  The CDC is issuing a warning about ‘rhino tranq,’ an extremely dangerous street drug with a high rate of overdose.  You may have heard about the street drug “tranq.” It’s an animal tranquilizer mixed with fentanyl. Now there is a new CDC […]

INCB Annual Report 2025

by International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) – 31 March 2026 1. Article I of the Charter of the United Nations provides the Organization’s aims, one of which is “to achieve international cooperation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character”. One way to achieve that aim has been to reinforce international cooperation […]

Young Adult Substance Use Affects Memory at 65

by  Megan Patrick, research professor at the Institute for Social Research and principal investigator of the Monitoring the Future Longitudinal Panel Study, and Yuk Pang, Yvonne Terry-McElrath and Joy Bohyun Jang of U-M’s Institute for Social Research – March 29, 2026 Summary: The choices made between the ages of 18 and 30 may determine brain […]

Having kids hear from people with lived experience can help move the needle

Introductory Note by NDPA: This research concludes that teens are more receptive to presentations by other teens, in comparison to presentations by adults. This is the core of NDPA’s award-winning programme ‘Teenex’ – this is described elsewhere in this website.   – March 28, 2026  We Have a Substance Use Prevention Problem … by Stephen […]

Cannabis and Tobacco Use Tied to Reduced Brain Volumes

Edited by Mamta Pawara – March 27, 2026 TOPLINE: Cannabis use was associated with smaller volumes in the amygdala, and tobacco smoking was linked to smaller volumes in the amygdala, insula, and pallidum and reduced total grey matter volume (TGMV). A systematic review and meta-analysis of 103 studies found consistent evidence across cross-sectional, longitudinal, and […]

Harm, hardship, and the price of inaction: Examining the costs of Scotland’s drug crisis

  AUTHOR(S): Jake Shepherd, Jamie Gollings, Barney Dowling  – 25 March 2026 Scotland’s drug crisis carries a profound toll, with hundreds of lives lost each year. As well as these human impacts, the crisis imposes considerable financial costs that are likely to shape future decision-making. This report presents new economic analysis of those costs, examining their consequences across […]

The brain remembers: The hidden cost of young adult substance use

Contact: Fernanda Pires  –  March 23, 2026 Study: Young Adult Substance Use as a Predictor of Poor Self-Rated Memory Decades Later in Midlife  Young adults who heavily use substances may report significantly poorer memory decades later, a new University of Michigan study suggests. Researchers tracked how frequently participants reported binge drinking and daily—or near-daily—use of alcohol, […]

Editor’s Notes: Harm reduction effort working

by Christina Myer exec editor of The Parkersburg News and Sentinel – Mar 14, 2026 U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data included some good news for the Mountain State, as numbers from October 2024 through September 2025 showed a dramatic reduction in opioid overdose deaths. Vital Statistics Rapid Release data shows there were […]

Understanding the Health Impacts of the Rapid Shift to Drug Smoking in the US

JAMA – Internal Medicine by George Karandinos, MD, PhD1,2; Travis P. Baggett, MD, MPH1,2,3; Daniel Ciccarone, MD, MPH4 – March 16, 2026 The US is experiencing a historically unprecedented large-scale shift from opioid injecting to smoking. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that more fatal drug overdoses now involve smoking than any other route of administration. Previously thought to be rare in the US, opioid […]

69th Commission on Narcotic Drugs: Three new substances under control, five resolutions adopted, expert panel constituted

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Vienna (Austria), 13 March 2026 — The 69th session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) wrapped up today in Vienna after five days of deliberations on emerging drug trends, treaty implementation, governance issues and international cooperation. The session brought together 2078 participants, including representatives from 134 Member States, 20 […]

Spirituality linked to lower risk of substance misuse

 by Dawn Attride – Medscape Medical News – March 13, 2026   Engaging in meditation, prayer, or other spiritual practices was linked to a decreased risk for alcohol and drug misuse, a new meta-analysis showed. Harmful use of alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, or illicit drugs was 13% lower in individuals who engaged in spiritual practices, and 18% […]

from WRD News Team – November 5, 2025 A Response to Media Coverage of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT)’s  Drug Decriminalisation Anniversary On 27 October 2025, the ABC published an article marking two years since ACT drug decriminalisation made the Australian Capital Territory the first Australian jurisdiction to remove criminal penalties for small amounts of illicit […]

Youth and cannabis: What’s the risk?

by Elaine Williams, Business editor – March 8, 2026 Cannabis sales have surged in Washington since legalization in 2012, but educators, police and health experts say questions remain about effects on young users Paige Valpey’s cannabis use began with what she perceived as a low-risk way to escape the angst of being a 13-year-old girl […]

Recreational drugs can more than double risk of stroke, study suggests

Medical data from 100m people shows risk 122% higher for amphetamine users, 96% higher for cocaine and 37% higher for cannabis by Ian Sample, Science editor – Sun 8 Mar 2026 Recreational drugs can more than double the risk of stroke, with some of the most concerning impacts seen among younger people, a major review […]

Cannabis hyperemesis syndrome: Pharmacological and toxicological perspectives

  Current Opinion in Toxicology Elsevier article – Volume 45 –March 2026, by Payten M. Romero, Kennon J. Heard,  Nicholas R. Oblizajek, Abdul Qadeer,Robert W. Kirchoff, Cannabis hyperemesis syndrome (CHS) is a disorder of gut-brain interaction with symptoms of nausea, severe episodic vomiting, and abdominal pain. The primary pathways implicated in CHS are the endocannabinoid […]

High Schoolers Flood State Capitol to Advocate for Drug Abuse Prevention Bills

by Georgia Epiphaniou, Jacques Abou-Rizk, Medill Illinois News Bureau | Capitol News Illinois | February 27, 2026, 5:02 pm     Students with the Illinois Prevention Network at the Capitol on Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026, pushing for bills aimed at drug regulation and reduction. (Courtesy of Kate Bell / Illinois Prevention Network) by Georgia Epiphaniou, Jacques Abou-Rizk and Medill […]

Confronting the Illicit Finance Hydra in Crypto Markets: Protecting Retail Investors and Disrupting Hostile Government Exploitation

Submitted by Maggie Petito on behalf of drug-watch-international – 3-3-26 ​​ Opening Statement by Maggie Petito:  Alexander Browder of the UK’s Henry Jackson Society shares a new fully researched report on crypto, “a powerful tool for criminals and hostile governments. They move illicit finances without being caught. This report looks at how these groups use […]

As Cartels Collapse, Prevention Rises: Foundation for a Drug-Free World Distributes One Million “Truth About Drugs” Booklets During Pro Football’s Championship Game Week

As Cartels Collapse, Prevention Rises: From PR Newswire- SAN FRANCISCO – 3 March 2026 While the death of drug kingpin and cartel leader “El Mencho” makes headlines, the Foundation for a Drug-Free World scored a touchdown through the distribution of 1,000,000 The Truth About Drugs booklets during Super Bowl LX in the San Francisco Bay […]

What’s this “Kratom” I’m hearing about? Is it a problem at my workplace?

by h.horning of dfaf.org – 06 March 2026 Kratom leaves, which contain psychoactive substances, come from a tree native to Southeast Asia. Traditionally used in countries like Thailand and Indonesia, kratom leaves are generally crushed and then can be consumed in various forms: smoked, vaped, powdered in beverages, liquid extract “shots,” or taken as capsules. […]

The truth about Mexico’s cartel wars

Forwarded by Maggie Petito   – From  UK Spectator – February 23, 2026  The truth about Mexico’s cartel wars Spectator  UK – February 23, 2026 by Joshua Treviño. (Treviño is the chief transformation officer at the Texas Public Policy Foundation and a senior fellow of the Western Hemisphere Initiative at the America First Policy Institute). To understand […]

Study Examined the Link between Family Dinners and Teen Substance Use Prevention

 by Kerry Charron – Feb 22, 2026 A study published in the Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma indicated that regular family dinners may be an effective substance use prevention strategy for many American teens.   Researchers affiliated with Tufts University School of Medicine analyzed online survey data from 2,090 adolescents (ages 12-17) and their parents. They answered […]

Congress Has Preserved The Substance Abuse And Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). What’s Next For Substance Use Care?

  Yngvild Olsen and Sunny Patel – February 25, 2026 Ms. B (identified by first initial of last name for privacy) had never told anyone about the sexual abuse she had suffered at the hands of her uncle as a young child. For years during her adolescence, the secret festered, driving her to run away […]

Study: Adolescent Cannabis Use Linked to Doubling Risk of Psychotic and Bipolar Disorders

Press Release by media@phi.org – Oakland, CA – February 20, 2026 Adolescents who use cannabis could face a significantly higher risk of developing serious psychiatric disorders by young adulthood, according to a large new study published today in JAMA Health Forum. The longitudinal study followed 463,396 adolescents ages 13 to 17 through age 26 and found that […]

AA and NA Were Right: Spirituality Decreases Addictions

PSYCHOLOGY TODAY by Mark Gold MD – Addiction Outlook – February 21, 2026  Connecting with a ‘higher power’ works in prevention, treatment, and recovery. Main points: 48.5 million people in the U.S. have diagnosable alcohol and other drug disorders. Researchers found that spiritual practices positively affect alcohol, marijuana, and drug addiction recovery. For individuals who value […]

BTMPS in Fentanyl: What Parents Need to Know About This Emerging Chemical

by Maurizio Guerrero, Educational Content Editor; Pat Aussem, L.P.C., M.A.C., Vice President, Consumer Clinical Content Development Published November 2025 This article was developed in partnership with the Opioid Response Network (ORN). ORN provides education and training, known as technical assistance, via local, experienced consultants in prevention, treatment, recovery and harm reduction. Anyone can submit a request […]

How ‘Harm Reduction’ Fails Families

Opinion  By Emily Putnam-Hornstein and Sarah Font – imprintnews.org A 9-year-old boy in Washington lives in a tent with his fentanyl-addicted parents. He waits outside in the bushes while his mother exchanges sex for money and drugs. He doesn’t attend school or see a doctor. He appears underweight and ill.  Repeated offers of assistance — including housing — from […]

Australia’s Silent Crisis: When Hope Feels Lost

by Shane Varcoe –  Feb 17, 2026 Every day in Australia, we lose nine people to suicide. The connection between substance use, mental health, and suicide is undeniable – trauma drives people to self-medicate, substance use deepens isolation and depression, and what starts as numbing pain can end in taking one’s life. Yet research shows […]