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873 stories, newest first.
October 2026
- Oct 21Technology & Innovation
Overdose Deaths Are Down 12%, and the CDC Just Built a Dashboard to Prove It. Good. Now Fix What It Can't See.
CDC's new Overdose Prevention Data Channel reports 67,798 predicted deaths in the 12 months to March 2026, down 12.3%. What the number says and what it hides.
- Oct 21Science & Medicine
24,643 Patients Later, Phenobarbital and Diazepam Look Like a Tie. Don't Rip Up the Protocol Yet.
A retrospective JAMA Internal Medicine study of 24,643 adults finds phenobarbital and diazepam perform about the same for alcohol withdrawal. What it can and can't tell your hospital.
- Oct 21Policy & Funding
Schedule a Sedative by Name and the Supply Hires the Next One
Depressants are one family: alcohol, benzodiazepines, barbiturates and the newer veterinary-derived sedatives. The law sorts them by name. The supply sorts them by what works. Here's what that gap costs.
- Oct 21Harm Reduction
The House Voted to Schedule Xylazine. The Drug That Replaced It Sends People to the ICU.
Nine states scheduled xylazine and saw medetomidine reports climb. As Congress weighs a federal xylazine ban, hospitals report ICU-level withdrawal and people who use say the sedation can't be fought. What helps now.
- Oct 20Science & Medicine
Hospitals Know How to Prevent a Brain Injury From Drinking. They Keep Giving the Wrong Dose.
A scoping review of 26 studies and 44,240 adults finds Wernicke encephalopathy is often treated late and with low thiamine doses, and no optimal regimen has been identified.
- Oct 20Policy & Funding
The DEA Finally Drew a Line Between Kratom Leaf and 7-OH. The Gas-Station Shelf Is About to Feel It.
DEA's October notice would place 7-OH and MGPI in Schedule I above an HHS-recommended concentration threshold, separating enhanced products from botanical kratom.
- Oct 20Lived Experience & Community
Your Appetite for Risk Moves First. The Drinking Follows a Month Later.
A Würzburg study found risk-taking rises a month before drinking does in mild-to-moderate alcohol use disorder, while Sober October and a thiamine review show how wide the alcohol spectrum really is.
- Oct 19Policy & Funding
HHS Found $96 Million for Eight Cities' Street Outreach While SAMHSA Stops Paying for Test Strips
HHS named eight STREETS communities on October 2 with $96 million over four years. The same agency told grantees it would stop paying for drug-checking supplies.
- Oct 19Lived Experience & Community
He Was Paid $7 for a Clean Test. What He Heard Was 'Good Job.'
Why small rewards for staying off meth work on people who have heard every lecture: they get told, in a way that sticks, that someone noticed.
- Oct 19Arizona Watch
Arizona's Cocaine Deaths Rose Nearly 70%. The Treatment That Works Is a Gift Card.
Arizona's stimulant deaths are climbing while overdose deaths fall nationally. The one treatment with proof behind it for meth and cocaine is a gift card, and a new Denver trial shows exactly where it falls short.
- Oct 17Science & Medicine
Ibogaine Is Being Sold as a Reset Button. Its Own Researchers Say the Evidence Is 'Modest.'
Ibogaine is still Schedule I, can disturb heart rhythm, and has modest evidence behind it. Why the pitch lands on people in withdrawal, and what providers should ask this week.
- Oct 17Treatment & Recovery
Patients in Franklin County Used to Drive an Hour for Methadone. A Settlement Grant Just Ended That.
Franklin County, New York got its first methadone clinic in August, paid for by opioid-settlement money. What a rural commute was doing to recovery, and what providers can copy.
- Oct 16Policy & Funding
CVS Pays $315 Million and Admits Nothing. The Pharmacist at the Counter Pays Too.
CVS agreed on Oct. 13 to pay $315 million to resolve a DOJ opioid-prescription case without admitting wrongdoing.
- Oct 16Lived Experience & Community
She Spent $300 to $400 a Day on a Whipped-Cream Gas. We Still Sell It Like That.
Nitrous oxide deaths rose 578% from 2010 to 2023. A sister's account of Meg Caldwell, 29, shows what the numbers hide.
- Oct 14Policy & Funding
Before the Senate Votes on SAMHSA's Next Chief, Someone Should Ask About Test Strips
SAMHSA nominee Timothy Westlake has reportedly cleared a Senate committee. Nobody we found has asked him on the record whether test strips belong in federal grants.
- Oct 14The Crisis, By the Numbers
HHS Is Claiming the Overdose Decline. Arizona, Where Deaths Rose, Isn't Invited to the Victory Lap.
Two HHS officials say overdose deaths are falling and the administration is continuing the momentum. The CDC-based reporting says the cause is unclear and that Arizona went the other way.
- Oct 14Lived Experience & Community
Psychedelics Are Racing Toward FDA Approval. For Addiction, the Evidence Is Still Mostly Stories.
Psychedelics have federal fast-track status for depression, anxiety and PTSD. For addiction, a recovery coach who credits them and the researchers who study them agree: the proof isn't there yet.
- Oct 11Harm Reduction
If Someone Stays Under After Naloxone, the Supply Changed. Medetomidine Is Why.
Medetomidine has replaced xylazine in the fentanyl supply, according to 2026 lab data. Naloxone does not reverse it, and its withdrawal can look like a cardiac emergency.
- Oct 11Harm Reduction
A Blister Pack That Looks Like Xanax Is Now Linked to Several Overdoses in Dublin
A new, unnamed benzodiazepine stronger than Valium or Xanax is linked to overdoses in Dublin, sold in blister packs that look legitimate. What it means for anyone who relies on a pill's packaging.
- Oct 11Science & Medicine
Doctors Are Writing Fewer Benzodiazepine Prescriptions. The Counterfeits Are Getting Stronger.
Benzodiazepine dispensing fell 26.7% from 2013 to 2024 while designer benzodiazepines took over lab detections. What a pharmacist's twenty-year dependence, and his withdrawal, say about what is missing in between.
- Oct 9The Crisis, By the Numbers
Nobody Can Tell You Why Overdose Deaths Fell, So Don't Cut Anything That Might Be the Reason
Massachusetts opioid deaths fell below 1,000. Epidemiologists say no single cause explains the national drop, which is the argument against cutting any plausible one.
- Oct 9Policy & Funding
FDA Wants to Know How to Test Ibogaine Without Stopping Hearts, and It Is Asking You
FDA has asked for public comment on how early ibogaine trials for opioid use disorder can be run safely, with heart-rhythm risk front and center.
- Oct 9Treatment & Recovery
Opioid Deaths Are Falling. Meth Didn't Get the Memo, and There Is Still No Pill for It
Massachusetts opioid deaths dropped below 1,000, but peer-support staff say meth is what fills their rooms now. A 2026 JAMA Psychiatry trial of mirtazapine shows how small the medication toolkit still is.
- Oct 8The Crisis, By the Numbers
Georgia Followed 130,267 Babies' Fathers for Five Years. Ninety-Three Died of Overdoses and Nobody Was Counting.
A JAMA Pediatrics study of Georgia births finds 796 fathers died within five years of a child's birth; 93 of those deaths were overdoses. What the study can and cannot say, and what a pediatric or postpartum visit can do about it.