Pot, Teens and 40 Percent More Psychosis?

Maia Szalavitz
The “Drug Czar’s” office released a new study today and according to USA Today and the Washington Post’s reading of it, teen marijuana use raises the risk of mental illness by 40 percent.
But what the report and the media failed to examine is the complexity of this connection. While the report admits that many [...]

Prosecutors Try to Gag Medical Testimony

STATS’ fellow Maia Szalavitz reports on the Huffington Post on a case where prosecutors are trying to get a gag order on an activist group for pain sufferers. It seems the testimony provided by the Pain Relief Network as to the legitimacy of prescribing opioids for chronic pain is proving difficult to deal with in [...]

Will Smoking Pot Really Make Your Gums Rot?

Rebecca Goldin, Ph.D and Jenna Krall
A recent study of pot smokers revealed that they have significantly increased cases of periodontitis. But are marijuana users really known for their good brushing habits?
As reported by the Washington Post, heavy pot smokers are 60% more likely to develop early gum disease. The study claimed to “account for tobacco [...]

How To Save Someone Who Overdoses

STATS’ addiction and recovery expert Maia Szalavitz has some practical, no-nonsense advice on the Huffington Post about how to deal with drug overdoses.
If someone is just out of rehab, be aware that they can’t handle the same high doses they were once taking - and that they may not realize their bodies have a much [...]

Why We Shouldn’t Rush to Blame Heath Ledger’s Death on Doctors

Over on the Huffington Post, STATS’ Maia Szalavitz takes on some of the responses to the medical examiner’s report on actor Heath Ledger’s death, particularly the suggestion that one or more doctors may be “responsible” for his death rather than it being a consequence of drug abuse.
The problem, she argues, is that there is often [...]

Non Addictive Morphine a Virtual Ligand Away?

STATS Maia Szalavitz has a fascinating post on Scientific American’s 60 Second Science about scientists bridging the gap between our endogenous “heroin” - endorphins, which are non addictive, and the exogenous drug, morphine, which is. Before journalists get carried away, Szalavitz urges caution.

What Can We Learn From Heath Ledger’s Death?

Trevor Butterworth
STATS’ Maia Szalavitz offers some insight into the problems of mixing “downs,” which is don’t: “don’t take “depressant” drugs — drugs that make you calm or sleepy, not depressed!!! — in combination with each other.” More over on the Huffington Post…

New Research Shows OxyContin Epidemic to be a Myth

Trevor Butterworth
The media and the Drug Enforcement Agency created a myth of widespread accidental addiction to OxyContin a new study of almost 28,000 drug addicts attending treatment centers across the United States shows. The research, published in the November 2007 issue of the Journal of American Psychiatry also demonstrates that:
most of the OxyContin use [...]

Over-Hyped Addiction Cure Exposed (Finally)

Trevor Butterworth
An audit has been called on the “miracle” meth and cocaine addiction treatment Prometa, as STATS’ Maia Szalavitz notes on Scientific American’s blog, and the result is, as she predicted in 2006, baloney.
The appearance of an 80-98% success was created by omitting treatment drop outs. This time, the media is paying attention.

How Bad Is Cough Medicine Abuse?

Trevor Butterworth
Medpage today reports that “more than three million 12- to 25-year-olds have tried to get high on over-the-counter cough medicines containing dextromethorphan at some point in their lives,” according to data in the 2006 2006 National Survey on Drug Use and Health.
But STATS’ Maia Szalavitz counters that “dextromethorphan ‘is not a particularly dangerous drug.’
She [...]