The Log
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September 2026
August 2026
- Aug 31Science & Medicine
Banning Xylazine Didn't Shrink the Tranquilizer Supply. It Just Renamed the Problem Medetomidine.
A peer-reviewed study of nearly 114,000 drug-checking reports finds states that scheduled xylazine as a controlled substance saw a measurable rise in medetomidine detections — evidence that scheduling one adulterant pushes the illicit supply toward its more dangerous replacement.
- Aug 31Science & Medicine
The Same Drug Class Behind Ozempic Is Now the Most Promising Alcohol Medication in 20 Years
GLP-1 drugs — the same drug class as Ozempic and Wegovy — are now in four separate trials for alcohol use disorder, the first genuinely new pharmacological approach to the disease in nearly two decades. The science is moving faster than the insurance system that would need to pay for it.
- Aug 31Lived Experience & Community
Harm Reduction Was Built for Opioids. If You Use Meth, You Already Know It Shows.
A first-person Filter essay on years of daily meth use, paired with new Yale craving research, makes the case that harm reduction services built for opioid users still don't fit stimulant users — and that the gap is measurable, not just felt.
- Aug 31Arizona Watch
Arizona Kept Native Patients Using Drugs to Keep the Medicaid Checks Coming. The Arrests Are Still Happening.
Arizona's sober-living-home Medicaid fraud scandal, which targeted Native American patients and kept them using drugs to sustain fraudulent billing, has produced 42 more arrests and roughly $2.8 billion in identified fraud since 2021 — with about 200 cases still under investigation.
- Aug 31Treatment & Recovery
Rural ERs Still Aren't Starting Addiction Medication. Six Years of Data Just Proved It.
A CDC report published August 27 shows rural emergency departments started buprenorphine in overdose patients at a third the rate of urban EDs, a gap that hasn't moved since 2019 — a fixable protocol problem hiding inside a national success story.
- Aug 31Harm Reduction
SAMHSA Killed Test-Strip Funding on the One Day We're Supposed to Count the Dead
SAMHSA's April letter banning federal harm-reduction dollars from test strips is now closing drug-checking programs nationwide — on the same week HHS rolled out a faith-based 'treatment-first' toolkit and the CDC touted a 12% drop in overdose deaths. The strips didn't cause the decline. They may be part of why it's happening.
- Aug 30Harm Reduction
The Best Treatment for Stimulant Addiction Pays You to Stay Clean. For Forty Years, We Refused to Try It.
Contingency management pays people for evidence of not using stimulants, and a new cohort study links it to lower mortality. Medicaid coverage is finally spreading — decades after the evidence arrived.
- Aug 30Arizona Watch
The Sacklers' Money Is Finally Landing in Arizona. The Fight Over It Is Just Starting.
Arizona's opioid settlement total climbs past $1.19 billion as the Purdue/Sackler agreement takes legal effect — with most funds still to be distributed over the next three years.
- Aug 30Lived Experience & Community
Yale Just Proved Craving Doesn't Cloud Your Judgment. It Rewrites It.
A Yale study in Nature Mental Health shows craving actively reshapes decision-making in the moment, not just makes relapse tempting — reframing what willpower can and can't do.
- Aug 30Treatment & Recovery
Washington Built the Playbook That Cut Overdose Deaths. It Just Told States to Stop Using It.
HHS just told cities to drop harm reduction for a 'Treatment First' model. The fentanyl test strips and syringe programs it's defunding are the same tools credited with the overdose decline it's celebrating.
- Aug 29Technology & Innovation
Brave Died. The Tech It Proved Didn't.
Canada's Brave app proved remote overdose supervision works, then shut down anyway. What that means for the predictive relapse-risk tools now being built to replace it.
- Aug 29Harm Reduction
SAMHSA Had to Write a Letter Confirming Naloxone Isn't 'Harm Reduction' — to Keep It Funded
SAMHSA's July 29 Dear Colleague letter excludes naloxone from the 'harm reduction activity' classification, insulating overdose-reversal funding from a politically contested label.
- Aug 29The Crisis, By the Numbers
Cocaine Isn't Killing People Anymore. Fentanyl Riding Inside It Is
CDC data shows 79% of cocaine overdose deaths co-involve an opioid, almost always fentanyl. Harm reduction still treats cocaine as an opioid-free drug.
- Aug 29Science & Medicine
The Cannabis Red Flag Isn't How Often. It's How Many Ways.
A new Addictive Behaviors study finds cannabis users who mix routes — smoking, vaping, edibles, dabbing — are nearly 3x more likely to use daily or meet criteria for cannabis use disorder. Here's the screening question providers should be asking.
- Aug 29Lived Experience & Community
Nobody Gets Fired for Taking Blood Pressure Meds. Suboxone Patients Aren't So Lucky.
Buprenorphine and methadone patients hide their treatment from employers and even from other people in recovery. The research says that fear is rational — and it's costing lives.
- Aug 29Arizona Watch
Arizona Just Paid Five Sheriffs $2 Million Each to Build What Jail Should Never Have Made Necessary
Arizona AG Kris Mayes gave five county sheriffs $2 million each in opioid settlement money for reentry programs. A look at what that money actually buys, who's watching it, and what it means if you're the one walking out of county.
- Aug 28Harm Reduction
Bend Police Are Now Giving Six Doses of Narcan to Revive One Person. The Supply Changed Under Them.
Bend, Oregon police now routinely need 2-6 doses of naloxone to revive an overdose, as street fentanyl is increasingly cut with methamphetamine and other non-opioid adulterants Narcan can't reverse.
- Aug 28Policy & Funding
The Government's Own Lawyers Just Said Cannabis Can't Stay in Schedule I. The Judge Still Hasn't Ruled.
DEA released the complete transcript of its cannabis rescheduling hearing, in which government attorneys argued marijuana can no longer remain in Schedule I. Here's what's actually changed, and what hasn't.
- Aug 28Lived Experience & Community
Brad Pitt Says He Can Drink Again 'in a Restrained Manner.' Your Brain Didn't Get the Memo About Restraint.
Brad Pitt says he can drink 'in a restrained manner' after seven sober years. The neuroscience of craving — and the doctors who avoid treating addiction at all — explain why that's a harder bet than it sounds.
- Aug 28Science & Medicine
The Feds Are Scheduling Three New Drugs at Once. The Chemists Are Already on a Fourth.
7-OH kratom, tianeptine, and medetomidine are reshaping the drug supply faster than regulators can keep up — here's what each one actually does to the body, and why banning one keeps producing the next.
- Aug 28Policy & Funding
Louisiana Gave Sheriffs 20 Cents of Every Opioid Settlement Dollar. Nobody Made Them Prove It Saved Anyone.
A KFF Health News investigation found Louisiana sheriffs spent opioid settlement millions on license-plate cameras and body cams while a father who lost his son to fentanyl keeps distributing naloxone himself.
- Aug 27Harm Reduction
Nobody Told Claudia Dimit's Son That a Can of Computer Duster Could Kill Him. The Label Still Doesn't.
Inhalants killed at least 30 Oregonians in three years and remain the most overlooked substance category in addiction coverage. New research shows exactly which teens are most at risk — and why the reasons have almost nothing to do with getting high.
- Aug 27Science & Medicine
Psilocybin Just Got the FDA's Fastest Lane Ever Built. Getting There Is Still the Hard Part.
An April executive order created FDA 'National Priority Vouchers' that cut psychedelic drug review from 10-12 months to 1-2 months. Compass Pathways, Usona, and Transcend Therapeutics now hold them — but scheduling and state-law access gaps haven't moved at the same speed.