The Log
Archive
733 stories, newest first.
August 2026
- Aug 23Treatment & Recovery
Two Psychedelic Drugs Got Rejected. Both Are Back at the FDA's Door — And the VA Just Widened the Stakes
Resilient's MDMA resubmission and Compass's psilocybin filing are converging with VA trials that now cover alcohol use disorder, not just PTSD — a detail the depression headlines keep skipping.
- Aug 23Harm Reduction
The FDA Just Approved More Nicotine Pouches — Teenagers Are the Ones Getting Trapped
Youth vaping rates are falling. Youth nicotine dependence isn't — it's getting worse, faster.
- Aug 23Science & Medicine
American Drinking Just Hit a Historic Low — Because the 'Healthy Glass of Wine' Myth Finally Died
Two datasets landed in the same week: how many Americans drink, and how many people worldwide die from it. Both point the same direction, and neither is a coincidence.
- Aug 23Policy & Funding
Cannabis Just Split Into Two Different Drugs — And the Label Doesn't Tell You Which One You're Buying
Federal rescheduling edges closer and blue-state voters keep crushing repeal campaigns, while DEA and state regulators race to purge the synthetic cannabinoids that were invented to dodge cannabis law in the first place.
- Aug 23Science & Medicine
Cannabis Use Disorder Just Passed Alcohol in America — and Emergency Rooms Are Already Catching the Bill
A JAMA Psychiatry study of nearly 187,000 adults found cannabis addiction climbing while alcohol addiction fell. A separate CDC report shows what that looks like in real bodies: an illness most heavy users have never heard of, showing up in ERs faster than doctors could name it.
- Aug 23Lived Experience & Community
A Mother Held Up Her Son's Photo in Tucson. Washington Wants to Cut the Program That Might Have Saved Him.
Fentanyl deaths are falling almost everywhere in the country except Arizona. The week the state buried more kids, the Trump administration proposed eliminating the $56 million grant that trains first responders to reverse an overdose.
- Aug 22Science & Medicine
Alcohol Use Disorder Is Finally Falling. Cannabis Use Disorder Is Climbing to Take Its Place.
A JAMA Psychiatry study of 186,823 US adults (2021-2024) found alcohol use disorder fell from 28.8M to 27.1M adults while cannabis use disorder rose from 15.3M to 19.4M, with the sharpest increases among women.
- Aug 22Treatment & Recovery
Your Xanax Dose Is Not a Detail. Finnish Researchers Just Showed It's the Whole Risk Curve.
A University of Turku study of 48,124 benzodiazepine users found dose-dependent mortality: low doses showed minimal risk, medium-high doses raised overall mortality 58%, and very high doses raised it 168%.
- Aug 22Science & Medicine
Oregon Has Run the Largest Real-World Psilocybin Experiment on Earth. The First Full Results Are In.
An OHSU study of 346 people using Oregon's licensed psilocybin services found 91.5% reported benefit at one month and only 7 reported harm, outside the controlled conditions of a clinical trial.
- Aug 22Treatment & Recovery
Cravings Aren't Constant. A Study of 400,000 People Trying to Quit Drinking Shows When They Actually Hit
A PLOS ONE study analyzing five years of r/stopdrinking posts found craving mentions decay exponentially with days sober and cluster around specific triggers — location, time of day, and mood.
- Aug 22Arizona Watch
Overdose Deaths Are Falling Everywhere in America Except Arizona
CDC data shows a national overdose decline near 12-14%. Arizona's overdose deaths rose 17.8% in 2025. Outreach workers in Phoenix and Tucson say triple-digit heat is an under-counted driver.
- Aug 22Harm Reduction
The Movement Lost Its Newsroom the Same Week Washington Declared It Finished
Filter magazine closed August 11 after eight years covering harm reduction. A day later HHS released a 'treatment first' toolkit that rejects the approach. Here's how a funding collapse took out the movement's journalism and its infrastructure in the same week.
- Aug 21Policy & Funding
The FDA Isn't Just Approving Nicotine Pouch Flavors — It's Approving Big Tobacco's Next Business Model
The FDA authorized four new flavored 'on!' nicotine pouches this month through its pilot review program, while Big Tobacco's own numbers show pouches are its bet on replacing cigarettes — built on the same discreetness and flavor appeal that make them easy for teens to use undetected.
- Aug 21Harm Reduction
New Jersey Already Tried Recalling 'Gas Station Heroin' Once. Now the DEA Is Running the Same Play on Kratom.
New Jersey recalled tianeptine in 2024 and people kept getting poisoned. This January it scheduled the drug instead. The DEA is now trying a similar escalation on concentrated kratom extract — with no guarantee it works either.
- Aug 21Science & Medicine
Cannabis Didn't Get Safer Than Alcohol — the Evidence Against It Just Got Sharper
A JAMA Psychiatry survey of 186,823 adults finds cannabis use disorder climbing as alcohol use disorder falls, while a 149-study meta-analysis finds cannabis users developing psychosis years earlier — a gap that widens with age.
- Aug 21Lived Experience & Community
You Don't Get a Vote on Whether Someone Is Telling the Truth About Their Own Drinking
A philosophy professor's new essay argues people with addiction histories are systematically disbelieved about their own drinking. Gallup's record-low numbers suggest the doubt is misplaced.
- Aug 21Harm Reduction
The Trump Administration Just Defunded the Warning Label on Street Drugs
SAMHSA's April 2026 Dear Colleague Letter bars federal grantees from distributing drug-checking test strips, right as Baltimore's Penn North neighborhood was self-funding new strips for a benzodiazepine that naloxone can't reverse.
- Aug 20Science & Medicine
The Psilocybin Lab Left the Building — Two New Studies Show What Happens Next
A 346-person study of Oregon's legal psilocybin services and the world's largest psilocybin brain-imaging study both published August 19, 2026 — real-world outcome data, with a real-world limitation attached.
- Aug 20Technology & Innovation
A Patch That Doesn't Wait for Someone to Notice You're Overdosing
A penny-sized Virginia Tech patch detects fentanyl under the skin and releases naloxone automatically, no bystander required — a proof-of-concept mouse study with real promise and no human trial date yet.
- Aug 20Lived Experience & Community
Craving Isn't Just Wanting. Sometimes It's Your Own Memory Ambushing You.
A Zurich study tracked 43 people with cocaine use disorder in real time and found intrusive drug memories aren't the same thing as craving — but the more vivid the memory, the worse the craving that follows.
- Aug 20Treatment & Recovery
The Meth Sentencing Law Is Still Fighting a Drug That Doesn't Exist Anymore
The U.S. Sentencing Commission is rewriting 1988-era meth guidelines built on a purity distinction street meth erased years ago — while a quarter of federal prisoners serve time under it and no FDA-approved medication exists to treat the disorder driving the arrests.
- Aug 20Policy & Funding
Methadone Clinics Loosened the Rules and Retention Jumped 17%. HHS's New Toolkit Buries That.
HHS's new 'Treatment First' toolkit sidelines methadone and buprenorphine and attacks Housing First just as data show flexible dosing reforms raised three-month retention 17% at clinics nationwide.
- Aug 19Lived Experience & Community
A New Trial Finally Tested Therapy for People Who Drink to Cope
A randomized trial of 194 adults with alcohol use disorder found that adding emotion regulation therapy to standard treatment led to more drink-free days at 12 months — because coping skills, not reduced craving, drove the outcome.
- Aug 19Technology & Innovation
An Addiction Clinic Just Built an AI Companion App for Everyone
Pelago, the venture-backed telehealth clinic for alcohol, opioid, tobacco and cannabis use, quietly launched an AI companion app called Sona for general mental wellness. Why that pivot deserves scrutiny, not applause.