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June 2026
- Jun 10Science & Medicine
COMPASS Pathways Is Filing an NDA for Psilocybin. The FDA Priority Vouchers Were the Signal.
COMPASS Pathways has two positive Phase 3 trials for COMP360 psilocybin. Rolling NDA Q4 2026. FDA National Priority Voucher shortens review to ~6 months. What it means for addiction treatment — and why delivery infrastructure is the real problem.
- Jun 10Lived Experience & Community
Buprenorphine Is Now a Foster Care Prevention Tool. That's Worth Sitting With.
ACF's February 2026 Title IV-E expansion now covers 50% federal match for MOUD when parents are at imminent foster care risk. 53,000 children entered care in 2024 due to parental drug use.
- Jun 10Treatment & Recovery
The First New Quit-Smoking Drug in Two Decades Is Ten Days from an FDA Decision
The FDA has until June 20 to approve cytisinicline, a plant-derived alkaloid from the laburnum tree with 60 years of European use. Two Phase 3 trials. The first potential new quit-smoking drug since Chantix in 2006.
- Jun 10Science & Medicine
Ozempic for Addiction: What the VA's 600,000-Person Study Actually Found
A June 2026 BMJ study of 600,000+ VA veterans found GLP-1 drugs cut overdose rates 39% and drug-related deaths 50%. The finding is observational — but it's the largest real-world addiction signal from these drugs yet.
- Jun 10The Crisis, By the Numbers
The Numbers Are Good. The Explanation Is Contested.
CDC data projects 69,973 overdose deaths for 2025. Researchers are split between fentanyl supply disruption from China and harm reduction expansion as the primary driver. The answer determines what we protect and what we can afford to cut.
- Jun 10Harm Reduction
The Strips That Won't Be Replaced
SAMHSA's April 24 Dear Colleague letter banned federal funding for fentanyl test strips. Columbus, Ohio is burning through its last inventory. Arizona's harm reduction programs are next — and the state's opioid settlement dollars weren't designed to fill a federal hole.
- Jun 9Harm Reduction
After Fentanyl: The DEA Just Scheduled Another Ketamine Analog. Here’s What’s Already Replacing It.
DEA temporarily scheduled 2-fluorodeschloroketamine on May 22, 2026. 34 nitazene analogues in 37 countries. Medetomidine in opioid supplies. No consumer test strips for any of these compounds.
- Jun 9Science & Medicine
The Brain on Meth: New Research Maps How Craving Hijacks Attention Before You Know It’s Happening
New 2026 research: methamphetamine attentional bias is pre-conscious, preceding reported craving. Two craving subtypes require different interventions. The science of relapse is more specific than most treatment plans reflect.
- Jun 9Arizona Watch
143,997 Arizonans Got SUD Treatment Last Year. The Number That Worries Us Is the One Not in the Report.
AHCCCS SFY2025: 143,997 members in SUD treatment, $582M spent, 62.2% in Central GSA. Progress — against a backdrop where Arizona ranks 49th for behavioral health access.
- Jun 9Harm Reduction
What Happens When You Give People With Severe AUD Their Daily Drinks
Two 2026 peer-reviewed studies — Halifax and Calgary — show managed alcohol programs produce measurable harm reduction: 25% fewer acute harms, 9% fewer seizures.
- Jun 9Science & Medicine
Cocaine Killed 30,000 Americans Last Year. Scientists Just Found the Brain Switch Behind Relapse — and It Isn’t Willpower.
A 2026 MSU study identifies DeltaFosB as the molecular engine of cocaine-induced compulsive relapse — the first precise molecular target in the relevant neural pathway. Cocaine kills ~30,000 Americans annually with zero FDA-approved medications.
- Jun 8Treatment & Recovery
The High That Was Already in the Cupboard
Inhalant use disorder kills by cardiac arrest on first use and slowly by neurological damage over years. It's undertreated, under-studied, and missing from most recovery conversations. It shouldn't be.
- Jun 8Science & Medicine
The FDA Just Cleared the First Human Trial of Kratom as an OUD Treatment
NIH cleared an IND for mitragynine to study kratom as an OUD treatment. A milestone — that arrives alongside a 1,200% increase in kratom-related poison center calls.
- Jun 8Policy & Funding
The FDA Just Authorized Mango and Blueberry Vapes. Sen. Durbin Called It a Gift to Big Tobacco.
The FDA authorized fruit-flavored e-cigarettes in May 2026 while withdrawing a menthol ban proposal. The policy tension: adult smoking cessation tool vs. adolescent nicotine recruitment vector.
- Jun 8Harm Reduction
Cychlorphine Is in the Supply and Your Test Strips Won't Catch It
Cychlorphine — up to 10x stronger than fentanyl — does not appear on standard fentanyl test strips. The White House issued its first-ever Drug Threat Notice. Here's what harm reduction workers need to know.
- Jun 8Science & Medicine
Ozempic Cut Alcohol Consumption by 70 Percent in the First Rigorous Clinical Trial
The first randomized controlled trial of semaglutide for alcohol use disorder found a 70% reduction in drinking over 26 weeks. What the data shows, where it falls short, and why clinicians are already acting on it.
- Jun 8Arizona Watch
Going the Wrong Way: How Arizona's Overdose Deaths Climbed While the Country's Fell
While U.S. overdose deaths fell 14% in 2025, Arizona posted a 17% increase — the highest monthly death totals ever recorded. Here's why, and what it demands.
- Jun 7Science & Medicine
Cytisinicline Has 13 Days. So Does the Generation That Started Vaping in Eighth Grade.
Cytisinicline's FDA PDUFA date is June 20. If it's approved, it'll be the first new pharmacotherapy for nicotine dependence since 2006 — and the timing against the vaping epidemic could not be more consequential.
- Jun 7Harm Reduction
Six Weeks After SAMHSA's Test Strip Ban, Here's What It Looks Like on the Ground
Six weeks after SAMHSA banned federal funding for harm reduction supplies, organizations are running out of test strips, closing mobile units, and watching the infrastructure they built to keep people alive start to come apart.
- Jun 7Treatment & Recovery
The Only Drug Combo That's Worked Against Meth Is Still Waiting on the FDA
The XR-NTX + bupropion combination is the most promising pharmacological treatment for methamphetamine use disorder ever tested. Five years after the Phase 3 result, there is still no approved drug.
- Jun 7Arizona Watch
Arizona's Behavioral Health Budget Just Got a July 1 Fuse
AHCCCS's ability to use the hospital assessment to fund behavioral health services for certain Medicaid enrollees ends July 1, 2026 — and the facilities relying on it have 24 days to figure out what comes next.
- Jun 7The Crisis, By the Numbers
The Decline Is Real. The Reason Should Unsettle Everyone.
The 13.9% drop in overdose deaths is real. But new research from Lancet identifies the drivers as market saturation and supply disruption — not the interventions we're currently funding or cutting.
- Jun 7Treatment & Recovery
The Door That Opens When You're About to Lose Everything
The ACF's February 2026 decision to fund MOUD through Title IV-E is a meaningful policy advance — and an indictment of a system that requires parents to reach the edge before offering a hand.
- Jun 6Science & Medicine
Stress Makes You Want a Drink. But Not Everyone's Brain Works the Same Way, and the Treatment System Doesn't Know That Yet.
The Lancet's May 2026 semaglutide trial reduced heavy drinking days in AUD patients. A 2026 study shows stress-induced craving splits into two distinct patterns. Yale found alcohol directly reduces synaptic density. The treatment system still treats AUD as one thing.