The Log
Archive
261 stories, newest first.
June 2026
- 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.
- Jun 6Treatment & Recovery
In Four States, Doctors Can Get Paid to Treat Meth Addiction. In Arizona, There Is No Treatment.
Four states now cover contingency management under Medicaid for stimulant use disorder. Arizona is not one of them. With no FDA-approved medications for meth and overdose deaths rising 17% in AZ, the treatment gap is lethal.
- Jun 6Science & Medicine
At the Clinical Threshold: MDMA Has a VA Trial, Ibogaine Has 71% Abstinence Data, and Psilocybin Has Two States. Insurance Has None of This.
The VA launched an MDMA trial for PTSD and alcohol use disorder in veterans on June 2, 2026. Stanford's ibogaine study shows 71% abstinence in treatment-resistant OUD. Compass Pathways may have FDA approval by early 2027. The access question hasn't been answered.
- Jun 6Harm Reduction
The April Memo That Ended the Test Strip Era
On April 24, 2026, SAMHSA banned federal funding for fentanyl test strips, syringes, and other harm reduction supplies. Ohio ran out of strips by June 5. Phoenix banned park distribution June 1. Arizona overdoses are up 20% against a national decline.
- Jun 5Lived Experience & Community
Recovery Is Their Credential. It's Also Their Vulnerability.
New qualitative research names the 'wounded healer' paradox in peer support work: the recovery credential that gets you hired is the same thing that makes the job uniquely dangerous for your own sobriety.
- Jun 5Technology & Innovation
An AI Can Now Diagnose Addiction With 83% Accuracy. The Treatment System Still Can't Keep Up.
University of Cincinnati researchers built an AI that diagnoses substance use disorder with 83% accuracy using behavioral economics tools. The harder problem is what happens after the diagnosis.
- Jun 5Science & Medicine
GLP-1 Drugs Slashed Overdose Deaths by 50% in a New BMJ Study. Here's What It Actually Means.
A June 2026 BMJ study found GLP-1 medications reduced drug-related deaths by 50% and overdoses by 40% in people with existing substance use disorders. The findings could reshape how we think about addiction pharmacotherapy.
- Jun 5Science & Medicine
What Ketamine Does to Your Brain — and Why Regulators Can't Agree on What to Do About It
Ketamine works in hours when antidepressants take weeks. A March 2026 study in Molecular Psychiatry finally explains why — and also why the regulatory chaos surrounding it is far from over.
- Jun 5Policy & Funding
The Exemption That Isn't
CMS finalized Medicaid work requirements on June 1, 2026. The SUD exemption sounds protective — but its fine print narrows eligibility in ways that could strip coverage from 1.6 million people in treatment.
- Jun 4Treatment & Recovery
California's Contingency Management Program Just Hit 10,000 Patients. Forty-Five States Don't Have One.
California's Recovery Incentives Program hit ~10,000 patients. Five states have CMS-approved Medicaid contingency management programs. The other 45 — including Arizona — are leaving the most evidence-based stimulant treatment on the table.
- Jun 4The Crisis, By the Numbers
Overdose Deaths Fell 14 Percent in 2025. The Decline Is Already Slowing.
CDC provisional data shows 69,973 drug overdose deaths in 2025 — a 14% decline from 2024 and the largest single-year drop in recorded history. The rate of decline is already slowing. The programs being cut right now drove the improvement.
- Jun 4Science & Medicine
Cannabis Has Been Legal in Thirty-Eight States. There Is Still No FDA-Approved Treatment for Cannabis Use Disorder.
The DEA's June 29 hearing on broader marijuana rescheduling could unlock research infrastructure for cannabis use disorder — currently the only major SUD with zero FDA-approved medications. 19.2 million Americans have CUD. The treatment gap is enormous.
- Jun 4Policy & Funding
The Rule That Looks Like a Win Has a Trap in It
The CMS Interim Final Rule finalized June 1 exempts people with SUD from Medicaid work requirements — but only until they've been in recovery for five years. Here's what that cliff means for 1.6 million enrollees and for Arizona specifically.
- Jun 3The Crisis, By the Numbers
Overdose Deaths Fell Everywhere. Cocaine Didn't Get the Memo.
Stimulant-only overdose deaths rose to 23.8% of all U.S. drug fatalities in 2024, even as overall deaths fell 24%. Cocaine deaths disproportionately kill Black Americans. There is no FDA-approved medication for cocaine use disorder.
- Jun 3Arizona Watch
Arizona Spent $582 Million on SUD Treatment Last Year. Federal Policy Is About to Test Whether That Investment Survives.
AHCCCS spent $582 million on SUD treatment in FY2025, with Medicaid as the primary payer. The new federal work requirements, going live by December 31, 2026, don't cut the treatment funding — they cut the coverage that pays for it.
- Jun 3Science & Medicine
Prescribed and Trapped: Medicare's Benzodiazepine Numbers Reveal a Crisis Built by Doctors
A 2026 Frontiers in Medicine study found Medicare benzodiazepine prescribing rose 51% from 2017–2023 — even as overall U.S. prescribing fell 26%. Seniors average 108 days of medication per year against a 30-day guideline.
- Jun 3The Crisis, By the Numbers
The Overdose Decline Is Real. The People Still Dying Are Increasingly Black, Indigenous, and Killed by Stimulants.
Friedman et al. in Addiction (June 2, 2026): overdose deaths fell 24.4% in 2024 — the first-ever decline across all four waves of the crisis. But stimulant-only deaths rose to 23.8% of all fatalities, concentrated in Black and Indigenous communities.