The Log
Archive
261 stories, newest first.
June 2026
- Jun 16Science & Medicine
The Ego Goes Quiet, and So Does the Pattern: What Psychedelics Actually Do to the Psychology of Addiction
Psilocybin suppresses the default mode network. MDMA reduces amygdala reactivity during trauma processing. Ibogaine resets mu-opioid signaling. Here’s what the science says about the psychology of psychedelic therapy for addiction.
- Jun 16Arizona Watch
Arizona Released Its Annual Substance Use Report. Meth Is Now the Primary Story.
AHCCCS’s SFY2025 Annual Substance Use Treatment Report documents a shift in Arizona: methamphetamine presentations are now outpacing opioid-primary cases in parts of Maricopa and Pima counties. The evidence-based treatment for meth still isn’t consistently covered.
- Jun 16Science & Medicine
France Just Approved IV Ketamine for Suicidal Crisis. The US Has an Excuse, Not an Answer.
France’s ANSM became the first national regulator anywhere to authorize IV racemic ketamine for adult acute suicidal crisis. The US approved esketamine in 2019 but won’t standardize IV ketamine—because it’s a generic with no commercial sponsor.
- Jun 16Science & Medicine
The FDA Just Cleared the First US Ibogaine Trial. It Took 30 Years.
DemeRx received FDA IND clearance for noribogaine—an ibogaine metabolite—for alcohol use disorder. Dr. Deborah Mash has been waiting three decades for this regulatory opening.
- Jun 16Harm Reduction
69,973 Deaths. The Number That Proves Harm Reduction Works—and the Policy Quietly Undoing It.
CDC provisional data projects 69,973 overdose deaths for 2025—a 13.9% decline. The same spring, SAMHSA ended federal funding for fentanyl test strips. The drug supply has never been more dangerous.
- Jun 15Science & Medicine
Psychedelic and Dissociative Drugs as Medicines
At ASAM 2026, ketamine showed promise as a dual treatment for comorbid depression and alcohol use disorder. A concurrent Frontiers paper asks the question the field keeps avoiding: what about ketamine's own addiction liability?
- Jun 15Science & Medicine
Naltrexone augmented with prazosin for alcohol use disorder: results from a randomized controlled proof-of-concept trial
A January 2026 study found blood-based biomarkers that predict whether a patient will respond better to naltrexone or nalmefene for alcohol use disorder. Precision prescribing for AUD may finally be within reach.
- Jun 15Technology & Innovation
Relationship between attentional bias and psychological craving in methamphetamine use disorder
There's no FDA-approved medication for methamphetamine addiction. A dual-target TMS trial enrolling in 2026 targets the MPFC and DPFC simultaneously — the two brain regions most compromised by chronic stimulant use. Here's the science behind the approach.
- Jun 15Arizona Watch
Arizona Addiction Treatment Funding 2026: New Resources
Arizona's AHCCCS loses its hospital assessment authority for behavioral health on July 1 — two weeks away. The state has $1.2 billion in opioid settlement funds. The two systems aren't designed to fill each other's gaps.
- Jun 15Science & Medicine
The association between cannabis and depression: an updated Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
A Kaiser Permanente analysis finds teens who used cannabis at 13-17 were more likely to receive diagnoses of psychosis, bipolar disorder, depression, and anxiety in young adulthood. The science is clear. The cultural frame hasn't caught up.
- Jun 15Harm Reduction
Responding to the Emerging Threat of Xylazine
On April 24, SAMHSA banned federal funding for fentanyl, xylazine, and medetomidine test strips for public distribution — precisely as the June 2026 Labcorp report shows medetomidine in 91% of Philadelphia's fentanyl supply. The policy contradiction that kills people who use drugs.
- Jun 14Arizona Watch
Arizona Has $1.2 Billion to Fix Its Addiction Crisis. Here Is What Is Happening to the Money.
Arizona has $1.215 billion in opioid settlement funds over 15+ years. How those dollars get allocated — and what the SAMHSA block grant consolidation threatens — matters for every person seeking treatment in the state.
- Jun 14Science & Medicine
Two Kinds of Wanting: How Methamphetamine Craving Actually Works in the Brain
A new study distinguishes withdrawal craving from cue-induced craving in methamphetamine use disorder, finding different relationships to attentional bias and different treatment implications.
- Jun 14Science & Medicine
Semaglutide Just Outperformed Every Approved Alcohol Treatment on the Market
A randomized clinical trial of once-weekly semaglutide for alcohol use disorder produced a 41.1% reduction in heavy drinking days with an NNT of 4.3 — outperforming every currently FDA-approved treatment for AUD.
- Jun 14Science & Medicine
What Weed Cannot Fix: The Lancet Review on Cannabinoids and Mental Health
The Lancet Psychiatry 2026 meta-analysis of 54 RCTs and 2,477 participants is the most comprehensive review yet of cannabinoids for mental health and substance use disorders. Here is what it actually found.
- Jun 14The Crisis, By the Numbers
The Fourth Wave Breaks — and Tells Us Exactly Who Was Left Behind
A new peer-reviewed study in Addiction maps the 24.4% decline in U.S. overdose deaths in 2024 by race, ethnicity, and substance — revealing a historic drop driven by falling fentanyl deaths, persistent racial gaps, and a new crisis forming around stimulants and xylazine.
- Jun 13Treatment & Recovery
Prescribed Into a Corner: The Benzodiazepine Dependence Millions Don't Know They Have
Chronic benzodiazepine dependence affects millions prescribed the drugs appropriately. New February 2026 guidelines recommend 5-10% tapers every 2-4 weeks — far slower than typical clinical practice. But the people most affected are already years into protracted withdrawal syndrome, disbelieved by their doctors, managing their own detox with community guidance.
- Jun 13Arizona Watch
Arizona Spent $582M on Addiction Treatment Last Year. It Also Lost $2.8B to Fraud and Turned Away 140,000 Patients.
AHCCCS spent $582M on SUD treatment in SFY2025, but $2.8B in Medicaid billing fraud occurred and 140,000 patients were disenrolled. Sen. Werner's reform bills are moving through committee. American Indian Health Program patients are still being turned away.
- Jun 13Policy & Funding
The Block Grant Consolidation's Hidden Cut Is in the Mandates, Not the Number
The Behavioral Health Innovation Block Grant consolidates three SAMHSA programs at $4.126B vs $4.6B+ previously. The dollar gap understates the policy shift: categorical mandates that pushed money toward syringe programs, workforce, and harm reduction are what actually get eliminated.
- Jun 13Science & Medicine
A 24% Drop in Overdose Deaths Is Real. So Is the Racial Gap That Didn't Shrink.
The age-adjusted overdose death rate fell 24.4% from 2023 to 2024 — the largest single-year drop on record. But stimulant-only deaths rose, and American Indian/Alaska Native people face a rate 2x the national average.
- Jun 13Harm Reduction
The Drug Inside the Drug: How Medetomidine Is Breaking Every Overdose Response Playbook
Medetomidine, a veterinary sedative 200 times more potent than xylazine, has displaced xylazine in Philadelphia's fentanyl supply and is confirmed in nine states. It produces sedation that naloxone cannot reverse, withdrawal that requires ICU-level care in 91% of hospitalized patients, and clinical presentations that emergency departments are consistently misidentifying.
- Jun 12Research Roundup
The Largest Study on Cannabis and Mental Health Found No Evidence It Works for Depression, Anxiety, or PTSD
The medical cannabis industry has built much of its consumer-facing argument on three claims: that cannabis products treat anxiety, that they relieve depression, and that they help with PTSD. These cl
- Jun 12Science & Medicine
What Alcohol Does to the Brain, and What the Brain Has to Do to Come Back
Somewhere around day three of not drinking, the craving arrives in a way that feels less like wanting and more like need. It's not a preference. It doesn't feel like preference. It arrives with a phys
- Jun 12Daily Pulse
The Best Treatment for Meth Is $225 a Month in Gift Cards. The Federal Limit Is $75.
There are no FDA-approved medications for methamphetamine use disorder. There are none for cocaine use disorder. Almost 40 years of pharmaceutical research has not produced a pill or injection that re