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.

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

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.

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.

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...

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

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.

Librarians across the country are witnessing opioid overdoses on the job. Here's how some library systems are choosing to respond.

The more researchers learn about metformin, the more it seems like a medieval wonder drug that could extend lifespans in the 21st century.

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.

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.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions doesn’t have the tools he needs to reverse a five-year decline in drug prosecutions.

Most people will take a pill, receive an injection, or otherwise take some kind of medicine during their lives. But most of us don’t know anything about how these substances actually work. How can various compounds impact the way we physically feel, think, and even behave? Sara Garofalo explains how different drugs alter the communication between cells in the brain.

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.

Modern humans have designed the perfect environment for drug and food addiction.

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."

It's not just expensive weed.

According to the most recent Global Drug Survey, psilocybin “magic” mushrooms are the safest recreational drug on the planet—even less dangerous than marijuana. Yet, despite the fungi’s wealth of medical benefits—including potential treatment for addiction, depression and end-of-life anxiety—psilocybin remains a Schedule I substance in America, meaning the federal government believes mushrooms have no medicinal …

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.

Taking proton-pump inhibitors, commonly prescribed to people with acid reflux, was related to an increased risk of early death from any cause, a new study finds.

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.

Cost could also be a factor. The head of the Norwegian Association for Retirement and Nursing Medicine, said that medicating patients is cheaper than hiring caregivers to take on extra shifts. Even though antipsychotics aren’t approved for dementia patients, one third of those with dementia who spend more than 100 days in nursing homes are given the drugs, which raise their risk of mortality and cause problems like movement disorders and low blood pressure. This, in turn, prompts them to take even more drugs to correct these side effects, creating a vicious cycle of overmedication – and sizeable profits for Big Pharma.

2017 is on track to be Mexico's deadliest year since the government began releasing crime statistics in 1997.

The Nurofen Specific Pain range was pulled from shelves at the end of last year after it was found they contained nearly identical ingredients, despite being marketed as specifically targeting migraines, tension headaches, back pain and period pain. If you bought Nurofen from 2011 to 2015, in Australia, you may be able to claim compensation. Only those whose claims exceed $200 will be asked to provide proof of purchase of the drugs. This may take the form of receipts, bank statements or photos of the purchases.

Picking up a quest abandoned by Big Pharma, academic labs are using new disruptive technology to develop contraceptive drugs for men.

Type 2 diabetes, although influenced by a person’s genes, is largely thought to be brought about by a poor diet and being overweight for prolonged periods of time, particularly at an old age. The pancreas is either unable to produce enough insulin, or the body’s cells simply don’t react to insulin, which leads to dangerously high blood sugar levels. This is known as insulin resistance, and at present, there is no medical way to treat this. A new drug forged by a team at the University of California, however, might prove to be a veritable game-changer.

And not the kind you’re thinking of. By Christina Stiehl.

As many as 300,000 victims of Mexico's drug war could be hidden in fosas clandestinas.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers seized nearly $1 million in smuggled drugs at the U.S-Mexico border crossing in Nogales last week, officials said Monday. Border agents arrested five U.S. citizens and two Mexican nationals in separate attempts to smuggle drugs into the United States from Mexico. They involved 412 pounds of methamphetamine, heroin and cocaine that was worth more than $919,000, the agency said in a media release. The seizures occurred over three days last week. CBP provided these details:

Flakka was believed to be behind two cannibalistic attacks in Florida that left one man blind and a married couple dead. It wasn't so. Here‘s why we need facts, not myths, about dangerous drugs. By Joseph Palamar. (Nov. 28, 2016)