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August 2026
- Aug 4Arizona Watch
Arizona's Overdose Rate Is Twice the National Average. The One Number Going the Right Direction Is Getting Buried.
Arizona's overdose death rate has climbed to 43.5 per 100,000 — twice the national average and the only state above its post-COVID peak — even as nonfatal overdoses in Maricopa County trend down through mid-2026.
- Aug 4Science & Medicine
Ketamine Isn't Just Rewiring Your Mood. It's Quietly Eating Your Bladder From the Inside.
The biology behind ketamine-associated bladder dysfunction — a real, dose-dependent injury pattern showing up in both party users and, increasingly, patients getting frequent clinic infusions for depression.
- Aug 4Science & Medicine
One Dose of Psilocybin Beat Cocaine Craving for Six Months. The Placebo Group Knew Within an Hour Which Pill They'd Gotten.
A JAMA Network Open randomized trial found a single psilocybin dose paired with therapy produced a sustained drop in cocaine use over 180 days — the first study of its kind, run mostly with low-income Black participants for whom no FDA-approved medication currently exists.
- Aug 4Harm Reduction
The DEA Can Ban 7-OH Starting Tomorrow. It Tried This Once Before, and Lost.
The DEA's temporary Schedule I order on 7-hydroxymitragynine can take effect any day after August 5, 2026. It targets a compound thousands of people use to self-manage opioid withdrawal — and the agency tried the same move in 2016, then withdrew it under public pressure.
- Aug 3Harm Reduction
Cannabis Isn't One Story Anymore. It's a Psychosis Risk, a Drinking Substitute, and a Treatment Gap — All at Once.
New biological evidence explains why cannabis raises psychosis risk for some users and not others, while separate research shows THC beverages may be helping some people drink less alcohol — and teens with cannabis use disorder are facing longer waits for treatment.
- Aug 3Lived Experience & Community
Inside a Tennessee Prison, People Are Rebuilding the Thing Addiction and Incarceration Both Took From Them
Incarcerated writer Tony Vick describes, in Filter Magazine, how peer-led mutual aid groups inside a Tennessee prison are rebuilding trust, connection, and even physical health among people in recovery.
- Aug 3Science & Medicine
Ozempic Wasn't Built for Alcohol Use Disorder. New Data Says It's Helping Anyway.
A Truveta/Johns Hopkins/Duke study of over 40,000 adults with alcohol use disorder found GLP-1 receptor agonists like semaglutide and tirzepatide associated with significantly lower rates of alcohol-related hospitalization.
- Aug 3The Crisis, By the Numbers
SAMHSA Released Its Addiction Survey Earlier Than Ever. The Number That Matters Isn't the Headline One.
SAMHSA's 2025 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, released earlier than any prior edition, counts 45 million Americans with a substance use disorder — and roughly 30,000 people a day starting alcohol, nicotine, or marijuana use for the first time.
- Aug 3Science & Medicine
89 Drugs Went Up Against Cocaine Addiction. None of Them Won.
A network meta-analysis of 163 trials and nearly 15,000 participants found that none of 89 medications tested for cocaine use disorder outperformed placebo — a stark contrast to opioid and alcohol treatment, where medications work.
- Aug 3Treatment & Recovery
He Was Seven Minutes Late to His Methadone Dose. The Clinic's Rulebook Nearly Killed Him.
A Philadelphia man was turned away from his methadone dose for arriving seven minutes late. What happened next — withdrawal, a contaminated street supply, a near-death medetomidine poisoning — is a preview of what federal opioid treatment policy still gets wrong.
- Aug 2Policy & Funding
The DEA Just Banned Five Benzos Nobody Had Heard Of — And That's the Whole Problem
The DEA just placed the first benzodiazepines ever into Schedule I and emergency-scheduled a drug called 'designer Xanax' — but the scheduling system that let Valium addict a generation in the 1970s still can't outrun the next lab. Here's the through-line, the GHB death spike nobody's talking about, and what actually works.
- Aug 2Science & Medicine
A Weight-Loss Drug Is Beating Alcoholism's Two Boring Pills, and the VA Just Bet On It
The VA opened its own Phase 3 trial of semaglutide for veterans with alcohol use disorder on July 28, built on Lancet data showing the drug beat naltrexone and acamprosate's treatment odds outright.
- Aug 2Science & Medicine
The Craving Will Pass Either Way. New Research Says Your Breath Can Make the Passing Easier
A Monash University systematic review in Addiction found breathing techniques like HRV biofeedback produce small but real craving reductions across nicotine, alcohol, opioid, and stimulant use — a free tool for the moment a craving hits, not a substitute for treatment.
- Aug 2Lived Experience & Community
The Drug Being Fast-Tracked as a Depression Cure Is Quietly Costing Some People Their Bladders — and No One in the System Saw It Coming
As the UK debates ketamine's legal classification, Amy Massey's near-bladder-removal and the peer network that intervened where clinics couldn't show where the real harm reduction is happening.
- Aug 2Harm Reduction
SAMHSA Just Made It Cheaper to Die Than to Know What You're Dying From
SAMHSA banned federal funding for fentanyl, xylazine, and medetomidine test strips just as medetomidine — a sedative naloxone can't reverse — took over Philadelphia's drug supply. Kentucky Harm Reduction Coalition lost $400,000 days after distributing 48,465 strips.
- Aug 1The Crisis, By the Numbers
One in Four Bags of Cocaine Now Carries Fentanyl. There's Still No Medicine for What's Underneath It.
One in four cocaine samples now tests positive for fentanyl and cocaine overdose deaths rose from 3,822 to 29,449 since 1999 — yet no FDA-approved medication exists for cocaine or meth use disorder. Here's why, and what actually works.
- Aug 1Arizona Watch
Arizona Got Its Billion-Dollar Settlement. The Overdose Rate Set a Record Anyway.
Arizona's 2025 overdose rate hit 43.5 per 100,000, now double the national rate, even with $1.2B in opioid settlement money flowing in. Why the money and the deaths are moving in opposite directions.
- Aug 1Policy & Funding
DEA Erases Gas-Station Opioids in Four Days — and Erases an Off-Ramp Some People Were Actually Using
DEA's Schedule I action on concentrated 7-OH takes effect within days. It targets real gas-station opioids — and strands people who were using them to avoid withdrawal.
- Aug 1Science & Medicine
Twelve Veterans Had Already Failed Every PTSD Treatment. Nine Are in Remission After Two Doses of Psilocybin.
A 12-person Ohio State pilot found 75% PTSD remission in veterans after two psilocybin doses. Here's what the number means, what it doesn't prove yet, and how it fits alongside Texas's $50M ibogaine bet and new research on peer support workers.
July 2026
- Jul 31Technology & Innovation
Eli Lilly Just Paid $3.8 Billion to Bet That Depression's Next Blockbuster Looks Like DMT
Eli Lilly's up-to-$3.8 billion acquisition of AtaiBeckley, weeks after FDA finalized psychedelic clinical trial guidance, signals mainstream pharma is done waiting on the sidelines of psychedelic medicine.
- Jul 31Policy & Funding
The Medicaid Work-Requirement Rule Takes Effect Today. Its Recovery Exemption Has an Expiration Date Built In.
CMS's new Medicaid work-requirement rule is effective today. People in active SUD treatment are exempt — but the exemption disappears after five years in recovery, right when documentation habits have gone slack.
- Jul 31Policy & Funding
DEA Wants to Schedule Concentrated 7-OH Kratom Like Heroin. The Comment Window Closes Today.
HHS's public comment period on DEA's plan to temporarily Schedule I concentrated 7-OH kratom compounds closes today. The rule is narrower than the headlines — here's exactly what it does and doesn't touch.
- Jul 31Science & Medicine
The Ozempic-for-Drinking Trial Just Published Real Numbers. The Headline Effect Missed Its Own Primary Target.
A Phase 2 trial of oral semaglutide for alcohol use disorder found real reductions in heavy drinking days and craving — but missed its own pre-registered primary endpoint. Here's what that gap means, and why the VA is running the next version now.
- Jul 31Lived Experience & Community
Cocaine Got $300 More Expensive an Ounce. Nobody's Demand Went Anywhere — It Went Shopping.
DEA agents in Palm Beach County say they've never seen this much meth. The reason isn't a new addiction — it's a $300-an-ounce price gap with cocaine. What the switch reveals about how dependency actually works.