drug use – News Stories About drug use - Page 2

May 15, 2015 5:50 PM CDT

Your Fingerprint Can Reveal Drug Use

Scientists able to tell whether person has taken cocaine

(Newser) - Might the days of taking saliva or blood samples for drug tests be numbered? Scientists have figured out a way to use fingerprints instead, they report at Phys.org . Specifically, the researchers used a chemical analysis of the prints to determine whether a person had ingested cocaine. Currently, scientists are...

Baby's Cry
May Reveal
Cocaine Use
by Mom

study says

Oct 25, 2014 6:37 AM CDT

Baby's Cry May Reveal Cocaine Use by Mom

Researchers find similar characteristics in humans, rats

(Newser) - A simple technique may help determine whether a baby was exposed to cocaine during pregnancy: Listen to her cry. It can be tough to diagnose babies with cocaine-linked health issues that may not appear until they're older, Medical Daily reports. But a baby who seems healthy may reveal through...

FDA Studies Caffeine Powder
After Teen's Death

Jul 19, 2014 1:05 PM CDT

FDA Studies Caffeine Powder After Teen's Death

Agency says it might take regulatory action

(Newser) - A few weeks before their prom king's death , students at an Ohio high school had attended an assembly on narcotics that warned about the dangers of heroin and prescription painkillers. But it was one of the world's most widely accepted drugs that killed Logan Stiner—a powdered form...

New Face of Heroin:
White Suburbanite

study says

May 29, 2014 12:13 PM CDT

New Face of Heroin: White Suburbanite

Researchers attribute rise to prescription drugs

(Newser) - Not too long ago, the profile of the typical heroin user was pretty straightforward: an inner-city male about age 16. No more, says a new study in JAMA Psychiatry . Thanks in part to the surging use of prescription painkillers such as OxyContin and Vicodin, today's typical first-time heroin user...

World's Most
Popular Drug: Pot

study says

Aug 29, 2013 12:03 AM CDT

World's Most Popular Drug: Pot

But painkillers behind most deaths

(Newser) - Researchers have, for the first time, conducted a worldwide survey on illegal drug use, and they learned that the most popular one on the planet is marijuana. But the drugs that are killing the most people are strong painkillers, Vicodin, OxyContin, and codeine among them, the AP reports, as per...

86% of Teens Say Peers Smoke, Do Drugs ... at School

survey says

Aug 22, 2012 11:51 AM CDT

86% of Teens Say Peers Smoke, Do Drugs ... at School

New survey finds drugs are widely available at schools

(Newser) - Not only are teens drinking and doing drugs, they're drinking and doing drugs at school. Some 86% of US high-schoolers say their peers use alcohol, tobacco, or other drugs "during the school day on or near school grounds," according to the head of a group that ran...

World's Biggest
Pot-Head Countries

Jul 1, 2012 10:34 AM CDT

World's Biggest Pot-Head Countries

Polite little Palau is surprisingly blunt

(Newser) - What sort of ranking gives its top spots to Palau, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Guam, and puts the US at No. 7? The list of the world's top countries for marijuana use, reports Business Insider , based on the UN's latest World Drug Report . Palau dominated the rankings,...

Poorer Nations Seeing
a Rise in Drug Use

Jun 27, 2012 4:35 PM CDT

Poorer Nations Seeing a Rise in Drug Use

Globalization erases a historic trend: UN report

(Newser) - It used to be that poor nations in South America and elsewhere shipped drugs to richer nations while their own residents largely avoided using them. That has changed in the last decade as the economies of developing nations have improved, according to a new UN report. Now these rising nations...

Middle-Aged Drug Users
Have Sharper Minds

Middle-Aged Drug Users Have Sharper Minds

50-year-olds with history of toking scored higher on memory tests

(Newser) - Past or present drug use doesn't seem to damage middle-aged brains, a new study finds. British researchers studied the mental sharpness of thousands of 50-year-old subjects, and found that those who had used illicit drugs—mainly marijuana—actually performed better than others on tests of memory and other brain...

Legalizing Medical Marijuana Doesn't Up Kids' Pot Use

study says

Nov 4, 2011 8:49 AM CDT

Legalizing Medical Marijuana Doesn't Up Kids' Pot Use

Young people use drug at same rate before, after legalization

(Newser) - Sobering news for those who argue that legalizing medical marijuana will lead to more stoner kids: Researchers reviewed the habits of some 25,000 youths in Massachusetts, where medical pot isn’t legal, and 13,000 in Rhode Island, where it became so in 2006. Studying data from 1997 to...

San Francisco
Druggies
Unionize

Mar 18, 2010 11:34 AM CDT

San Francisco Druggies Unionize

Drug-Users Union aims to give marginalized a political voice

(Newser) - San Francisco is a union town, so why not a union for…drug users? The San Francisco Drug-Users Union has been formed with $35,000 from the Drug Policy Alliance to give the addled a say in local government, a move that has also been taken in other big cities...

Pentagon Shooter a 'Brilliant' Engineering Student

Mar 5, 2010 1:55 PM CST

Pentagon Shooter a 'Brilliant' Engineering Student

John Patrick Bedell had a serious pot problem

(Newser) - John Patrick Bedell, who allegedly opened fire on the Pentagon last night before being shot and killed, was a “brilliant” engineering student with a “severe pot addiction,” according to a family friend. His mother “asked me to help,” says the former teacher. But “there...

Teen Pot, Booze Use Rises

Mar 2, 2010 2:26 PM CST

Teen Pot, Booze Use Rises

Numbers are up for the first time in 10 years

(Newser) - Alcohol and marijuana use among teens is on the rise, ending a decade-long decline. The number of high school students who reported drinking recently rose from 35% in 2008 to 39% last year, says an annual survey out today from the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. For pot, the number...

Boomers Enjoy
New 'Whatever'
'Tude on Pot

Nov 16, 2009 1:47 AM CST

Boomers Enjoy New 'Whatever' 'Tude on Pot

Older tokers find they can be open about once-taboo habit

(Newser) - Aging baby boomers are not only boosting the ranks of older pot smokers, they're enjoying a kind of neo Age of Aquarius of relaxed attitudes toward one of their favorite habits. The number of marijuana smokers in the 50-59 age group has doubled over the past decade, according to statistics....

Baby Boomers
Still Mad for
the Reefer, Man

Aug 19, 2009 1:08 PM CDT

Baby Boomers Still Mad for the Reefer, Man

(Newser) - Some Americans haven't let go of one part of the 1960s: getting high on illicit drugs. The percentage of Americans age 50-59 who reported use of illicit drugs within a year nearly doubled from 2002-2007, from 5.1% to 9.4%, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reported...

Let's Lock Up
Casual Drug Users

OPINION

Jun 30, 2009 12:10 PM CDT

Let's Lock Up Casual Drug Users

Addicts need help, but casual users need jail: Monbiot

(Newser) - The head of the UN drug and crime office recommended last week that casual drug use be decriminalized and said users "need medical help, not criminal prosecution." We should certainly help addicts, but casual users of marijuana and cocaine belong in jail, George Monbiot of the Guardian writes....

15% of Teens Expect
to Die Young

Jun 29, 2009 4:42 AM CDT

15% of Teens Expect to Die Young

Expectation linked to risky behavior

(Newser) - Teenagers who engage in risky behavior may do so because they believe they’re going to die young anyway, and may create a self-fulfilling prophecy with that belief, reports the Minneapolis Star Tribune. A study that tracked 20,000 kids in grades 7 through 12 found that 15% thought they...

You Can Dance If You Want to ... Just Not in Vietnam

May 11, 2009 8:19 PM CDT

You Can Dance If You Want to ... Just Not in Vietnam

Ban mulled to curb drugs, prostitution

(Newser) - Vietnam is considering a measure aimed at eliminating drugs and prostitution that might seem strange to Westerners: banning dancing. The edict would only apply to karaoke bars, reports GlobalPost, and it has a surprising amount of support from people who agree that dancing in such venues is usually a cover...

Army May Not Want
You So Bad After All

Apr 19, 2009 10:14 AM CDT

Army May Not Want You So Bad After All

Jobless rate drives surge in applicants

(Newser) - Rising unemployment and safer conditions in Iraq have boosted interest in joining the Army, allowing recruiters to raise acceptance standards. The Washington Post reports that felons and recent drug users need not apply, and the pool of applicants also is better educated. For the first time since 2004, the Army...

Study Links Cannabis
to Testicular Cancer

Feb 9, 2009 5:45 AM CST

Study Links Cannabis to Testicular Cancer

THC may intercept cancer-fighting chemicals

(Newser) - Cannabis use has been linked to a significant increase in the risk of developing testicular cancer, the Independent reports. Those who light up have a 70% higher risk of getting nonseminoma cancer—found in younger men—and the odds worsen with frequency and duration of use, the research has found....