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733 stories, newest first.
July 2026
- Jul 12Lived Experience & Community
Clients Can Tell Who's Actually Been There. A New Study Explains Why That Matters.
A qualitative study of 36 Australian alcohol and drug service workers finds that peer staff with their own history of substance use build client trust credentialed-only staff often can't — but only when workplaces actively support them.
- Jul 12Science & Medicine
Washington Just Fast-Tracked Psychedelics. Nobody's Fast-Tracking the Safety Answers.
An April 2026 executive order directs the FDA to accelerate psychedelic drug review as Compass Pathways' psilocybin candidate clears late-stage depression trials — but legal scholars flag a puzzling early nod to ibogaine, a compound that hasn't cleared basic safety review.
- Jul 12Policy & Funding
MAHA Went After Seed Oils, Sugar, and Vaccines. Alcohol Got a Pass.
While MAHA targeted seed oils and food dyes, the administration quietly closed the CDC's alcohol program, cut a federal substance-use agency's staff, and scrubbed NIAAA's website — even as alcohol kills more Americans yearly than opioids and infectious disease combined.
- Jul 12Harm Reduction
Oklahoma Had a Law That Was Working. Lawmakers Let It Die Anyway.
Oklahoma's five-year legal protection for sterile syringe programs expired July 1, exposing harm-reduction workers to felony paraphernalia charges. The last legal packaging shift happened six days before the deadline — and the volunteers kept going anyway.
- Jul 11Arizona Watch
Arizona's Health Department Says Overdoses Are Down More Than Half. The CDC Says Arizona Is One of Three States Where They're Not.
ADHS says Maricopa, Pima, and Pinal county opioid overdoses dropped more than 50% year over year. CDC provisional data says Arizona is one of only three states where overdose deaths rose 10% or more in 2025. Both can't be telling the full story.
- Jul 11Harm Reduction
A GHB Overdose Cluster Killed One Person in Wellington Over a Single Weekend. The Trend Line Behind It Has Been Climbing for a Decade.
A GHB overdose cluster in Wellington, New Zealand left one person dead and three hospitalized in a single weekend. Australian research shows GHB deaths have risen tenfold since 2013 — and the drug's overdose margin is narrower than most users realize.
- Jul 11The Crisis, By the Numbers
The DEA Just Scheduled a New Synthetic Opioid Your Fentanyl Test Strip Can't See
The DEA placed cychlorphine and three related synthetic opioids in Schedule I on July 1, 2026. Unlike nitazenes, cychlorphine isn't detected by standard fentanyl test strips.
- Jul 11Treatment & Recovery
There's Still No Pill for Meth Addiction. There's a Gift Card, and It's Working.
Stimulants are involved in a majority of U.S. overdose deaths and there is still no FDA-approved medication for stimulant use disorder. Contingency management — paying people for negative drug tests — is the best evidence-backed alternative, and the psychology behind why it works.
- Jul 11Treatment & Recovery
Kentucky Turned $865,000 in Opioid Settlement Money Into a Lifeline for Five Counties. Arizona Has $1.2 Billion and Nothing Like It.
Kentucky spent opioid settlement money on a peer-staffed rural recovery hub. Arizona's settlement fund is roughly the same size and hasn't built anything comparable — while Arizona's own overdose numbers are moving the wrong way.
- Jul 10Treatment & Recovery
Heroin Basically Disappeared From the Drug Supply. Recovery Culture Hasn't Caught Up.
Fentanyl has functionally replaced heroin in the U.S. illicit opioid supply, but recovery culture, treatment intake forms, and 12-step language still center a drug most people in treatment today never used. What the disappearance of heroin means for how we talk about opioid recovery.
- Jul 10Harm Reduction
A Gift Card Cut Overdose Deaths by 41%. The VA Data Just Proved It Wasn't a Fluke.
A national VA cohort study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry found veterans with stimulant use disorder who received contingency management were 41% less likely to die within a year.
- Jul 10Policy & Funding
SAMHSA Put $281 Million Back on the Table. Look at Which Line Items Are Smallest.
SAMHSA announced $281 million across 15 grant programs on July 6, 2026. The largest award funds medication access; recovery community services and workforce support split a fraction of that.
- Jul 10Research Roundup
A New Study Asked People Why They Relapsed. The Answer Wasn't Willpower.
A February 2026 Scientific Reports phenomenological study interviewed nine adults about relapse and found it was rarely one bad decision — it was an accumulation of isolation, unresolved stress, and a coping toolkit that had quietly stopped being used.
- Jul 10The Crisis, By the Numbers
Cocaine Killed More People Than Ever Last Year. There Still Isn't a Pill for It.
Cocaine-involved overdose deaths have more than quadrupled since 2015, mostly from fentanyl contamination users never chose. There is still no FDA-approved medication for cocaine use disorder — and the one treatment that works is barely funded.
- Jul 9Science & Medicine
Closer to Treatment Isn't the Same as Getting It
Four 2026 studies complicate easy narratives on opioid treatment access, pediatric cannabis exposure, peer coaching for returning citizens, and e-cigarette warning labels.
- Jul 9Arizona Watch
Phoenix's Deadliest Month Isn't Just Heat — It's Heat and Meth, Together
Maricopa County data shows stimulants were involved in nearly all 236 combined heat-and-substance deaths last year. Here's the biology behind why, and what to do about it this week.
- Jul 9Policy & Funding
Oregon Just Priced Out the Psychedelic Program It Built for Everyone Else
Oregon Health Authority's proposed psilocybin licensing fee hikes would quadruple costs for nonprofit and veteran service centers, eliminating the discount tier the program was built on.
- Jul 9Lived Experience & Community
Losing an Apartment, Not Losing Willpower, Sent Jeff Noland's Friend Back to the Street
Jeff Noland's Filter essay on the sex offender registry shows how losing housing, not losing willpower, is what pulls people back into drug use and unhoused life.
- Jul 9Science & Medicine
Xylazine Outlasts the Overdose It Causes — And Policy Hasn't Caught Up
A new human pharmacokinetic study shows xylazine clears the body far slower than animal data predicted, explaining prolonged sedation after overdose — plus what's actionable now on naloxone, wound care, and stalled federal scheduling.
- Jul 9Policy & Funding
DEA Wants 'Gas Station Heroin' Banned. History Says the Shelf Won't Stay Empty.
The DEA has proposed permanently placing tianeptine — an antidepressant sold legally at gas stations that acts like an opioid at high doses — into Schedule I. The comment period closes August 7, 2026.
- Jul 8Lived Experience & Community
Your Worst Years Just Got Confirmed as a Professional Qualification. The Study Also Explains Why That Job Wrecks People.
A July 2026 study of 36 workers with lived addiction experience found their history functions as real professional expertise — and that the field offers almost no structural support for the toll it takes.
- Jul 8Technology & Innovation
South Carolina Put a Naloxone Machine in a Public Building. The Data It Collects Might Matter More Than the Doses.
South Carolina launched a data-driven naloxone vending machine in Columbia — free, anonymous access paired with usage data meant to guide where the next one goes.
- Jul 8Policy & Funding
Arizona's Anti-Weed Ballot Campaign Just Gave Up. The DEA's Rescheduling Hearing Is Still Arguing Over the Wrong Question.
An Arizona campaign to repeal recreational marijuana abandoned its signature drive. The DEA's cannabis rescheduling hearing, running through July 15, isn't addressing the harms of past criminalization.
- Jul 8Policy & Funding
The FDA Just Told Smokers a Nicotine Pouch Is Safer. Nobody Told the 13-Year-Old Buying the Same Can.
The FDA authorized 20 ZYN nicotine pouch products to market a modified-risk health claim. Pouch sales nearly tripled in two years, and teen use is already measurable.