How does a policy that vilifies the illegal drug user translate into human cost? The drug news of featured dramatic predictions that from 375,000 to 650,000 "cocaine-exposed babies" each year would suffer low birth weight, neurological impairment, and fetal malformations. The annual care cost for these babies was projected as high as three billion dollars. Dire predictions were also made about the effect of maternal cocaine use on childhood development. More than fifty mothers were prosecuted, but not one was convicted on charges including drug possession with intent to deliver, child abuse, and murder.

Should physicians be permitted to prescribe marijuana to alleviate suffering? The Administration and Congress say no. For example, in such a setting is to be horrified by the senseless carnage. "Violence is as much a public health issue for me and my successors in this country as smallpox, tuberculosis, and syphilis were for my predecessors in the last two centuries," declared former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, M.D. in 1984.27. To design effective interventions we need to understand the precursors to violence both in children and adults, the genesis and effects of violence among family members, and the nature of street violence. Efforts such as a large prospective longitudinal study of several thousand children at risk for antisocial behavior are already underway.

Until recently, there was very little evidence in animal models for marijuana tolerance and withdrawal, the classic determinants of addiction. For at least four decades, million of Americans have used marijuana without clear evidence of a withdrawal syndrome.

The fired both barrels last week, announcing that a variety of anti-seizure medications—as well as the anti-smoking pill, Chantix—may increase the risk of suicidal thoughts in patients who take them. The FDA will require new label warnings for a total of 11 drugs used for epilepsy.

In 1957, two scientists in the research department of CIBA Pharmaceutical Products in New Jersey reported on “an indole alkaloid with central-stimulant properties” used by native peoples in the Congo: “The crude extracts of Tabernanthe iboga caused a feeling of excitement, drunkenness, mental confusion, and, possibly, hallucinations.” The CIBA researchers were working from early reports by French and Belgian explorers in the 1800s, which had noted the use of this remarkable shrub in the Congo and surrounding regions.

Several years ago, molecular biologists identified the elusive brain receptor where THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, did its work. Shortly after that discovery, researchers at Hebrew University in Jerusalem identified the body’s own form of THC, which sticks to the same receptors, in pulverized pig brains. They christened the internally manufactured substance “anandamide,” after the Sanskrit ananda, or bliss.

The California Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that employers have the right to fire workers who test positive for marijuana—even if the pot is being used in line with California’s medical marijuana statutes.

Heavy marijuana use has been found to contribute to gum disease, apart from the known effects that tobacco smoke was already known to have. In a group of more than 900 New Zealanders, smoking cannabis more than 40 times a year since age 18 was found to be responsible for more than one-third of the new cases of periodontal disease between ages 26 and 32, according to a new study.

Using a brain imaging technology called functional magnetic resonance imaging, scientists have discovered that cocaine-related images trigger the emotional centers of the brains of patients addicted to drugs -- even when the subjects are unaware they've seen anything.

Only about 6 percent of former alcoholics and 4 percent of former illicit drug users will relapse into their addictions in any given year following an organ transplant. Substance abuse can lead to serious organ diseases for which transplantation is increasingly considered an acceptable treatment.