Did you ever wonder why new medications so often debut right after awareness of the condition they treat increases? It is no coincidence. The tactic is called unbranded advertising and “disease awareness” and drug companies spend more on it than they do for regular advertising.

Portugal treats addiction as a disease, not a crime.

But their findings bring up surveillance and privacy concerns.

On a broken-down set of steps, a 37-year-old fisherman named Mario mixed heroin and cocaine and carefully prepared a hypodermic needle. “It’s hard to find a vein,” he said, but he finally found one in his forearm and injected himself with the brown liquid. Blood trickled from his arm and pooled on the step, but he was oblivious.

Trump formed a commission to address the opioid crisis, but he's done very little to act on its recommendations. Members of Congress say the inaction is costing lives.

“It’s *high* time to address research into medical marijuana,” Hatch said.

Needle exchanges are proven to be effective. So why is it still such a challenge to fund them?

At the center of the new psychedelic renaissance is an Amazonian tea called ayahuasca, which contains dimethyltryptamine or DMT, one of the most powerful hallucinogens known to science. Traditionally brewed by indigenous shamans in places like Peru and Brazil, ayahuasca is gaining more mainstream appeal for its purported use in treating addiction, treatment-resistant depression and …

Tales of addiction. By Eric J. Iannelli.

One tribal council say 60% of babies must be put on morphine because of their mother's addiction.

MDMA photo via Flickr user Kripos_NCIS You may have heard that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently designated MDMA a ‘breakthrough therapy’—but what the heck does that mean?   Currently, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies is studying MDMA for its usefulness in treating extreme post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in conjunction with psychotherapy. They are …

The manufacturer of EpiPen devices failed to address known malfunctions in its epinephrine auto-injectors even as hundreds of customer complaints rolled in and failures were linked to deaths, according to the Food and Drug Administration. The damning allegations came to light today when the FDA posted a warning letter it sent September 5 to the manufacturer, Meridian Medical Technologies, Inc.

The rate of teen drug overdose deaths in the United States climbed 19% from 2014 to 2015, from 3.1 deaths per 100,000 teens to 3.7 per 100,000, according to data released this week. The new numbers involve teens ages 15 to 19 and were released by the National Center for Health Statistics.

The effect of heroin has been described as “a warm blanket on the brain”. Within seconds of the drug entering the bloodstream, it hits receptor molecules in the brain’s neurons that induce a surge of euphoria, followed by a prolonged sense of tranquillity. Yes, it feels good – and that’s the problem. But what if you took heroin and felt nothing? What if there was a treatment that cancelled its effects on the brain? Who then would bother to take it?

The man who beat the FBI to identify the mastermind of global online drugs market Silk Road.

When you hear about a substance people snort, something illegal or vaguely medicinal comes to mind. However, there’s now another powdery, recreational substance you ingested nasally, and it’s coming your way soon: chocolate.

But law enforcement's raid on AlphaBay won't end the darknet's vibrant drug trade.

Journalism in two different eras of drug waves illustrates how strongly race factors into empathy and policy.

Hospitals and pharmacies are required to toss expired drugs, no matter how expensive or vital. Meanwhile the FDA has long known that many remain safe and potent for years longer.

the major pharma companies agreed ... that they'd end the practice of only reporting on trials whose outcomes they were pleased with, leaving about half of all trials unreported-on.

One in 12 doctors received payments, totaling a whopping $46 million from pharmaceutical companies to push opioid painkillers, in just over two years.

People taking mushrooms in 2016 needed medical treatment less than for MDMA, LSD and cocaine, while one of the riskiest drugs was synthetic cannabis

The state's attorney general filed the lawsuit Wednesday, alleging fraudulent marketing. "They knew they were wrong," Mike DeWine says, "but they did it anyway — and they continue to do it."

For Haitians, untrained vendors are the main source of medicine. For the sellers, it's a way to survive.

As the nation’s opioid crisis worsens, authorities are confronting a resurgent, unruly player in the illicit trade of the deadly drugs, one that threatens to be even more formidable than the cartels: The Internet. In a growing number of arrests and overdoses, law enforcement officials say, the drugs are being bought online.

The American opioid epidemic continues to ravage the nation, making no exceptions. According to annual reports conducted by the CDC, Heroin-related deaths have surged, killing over 50,000 people in 2015 alone. No one is immune to the disastrous effects of the drug, not even addiction counselors themselves.

The AHA receives very substantial donations from various pharmaceutical companies who also, conveniently, produce cholesterol lowering medications. Conagra, Quaker Oats, Monsanto and Campbell Soups are all listed among the AHA’s lifetime donors of $1,000,000.00 or more in the AHA’s 2012-2013 annual report.

A crowd hovered over the man lying on the grass as his skin turned purple. Chera Kowalski crouched next to his limp body, a small syringe in her gloved hand. Squeeze. The antidote filled the man's nostril. The purple faded. Then it came back. Kowalski's heart raced.

Children in almost all areas of the country are being arrested for dealing Class A drugs, including crack, heroin and cocaine, The Independent can reveal. Criminals are turning to children as young as 12 to peddle hard drugs, according to police arrest records. Freedom of Information requests to police forces in England, Wales and Northern Ireland revealed that in 2016, 71 per cent of forces arrested children under the age of 16 on suspicion of supplying crack, heroin or cocaine.

One hundred and two people in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, overdosed on synthetic marijuana in three days, according to C. Robert May, director of Lancaster Emergency Medical Services. None of the overdoses were fatal. "Heroin is normally the issue but in the last week there's been an overdose of synthetic marijuana," also known as K2, May told CNN. "The assumption is that heroin is not readily available, so people are turning to K2."

Probably one of the last things the pharma industry wants to talk about today is the cost of drugs. Or does it? Industry trade group PhRMA has launched new advertising meant to tackle the issue head-on. The national campaign, “Let’s Talk About Cost,” is a specific print, radio, digital and social effort, but that moniker will also now serve as the branded umbrella for all of PhRMA’s cost and value communications that have been going on for years.

It's not just expensive weed.

The NHS has announced a ban on homeopathy and herbal medicine as they say it is "misuse of scarce funds". Officials today ruled that the treatments are among dozens of medicines which should not be funded by the health service. In the last five years, the NHS has spent almost £600,000 on homeopathic treatment, despite long running debate about whether alternative remedies work.

Medical experts from the UK have called for physicians and policy makers to stop instructing patients to complete courses of antibiotics, arguing that not only is the advice effectively baseless, but it might actually contribute to the superbug...

An injectable, jello-like substance reduces chronic inflammation, and may aid limb transplantations. By Jessa Gamble. (July 22, 2016)