Citing the dangers of marijuana, the lack of clinical research on a controlled substance with a high potential for abuse, and the physician’s oath to “first, do no harm,” the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) today issued a white paper recommending a halt to using the weed as a medicine in states where it has been declared legal.

Afghanistan, the world’s biggest producer of opium, is also a major producer of cannabis. These are the findings of the Afghanistan Cannabis Survey, the first ever UNODC report on cannabis in Afghanistan, which was released today.

A report that contains an analysis of the drug control situation worldwide so that Governments are kept aware of existing and potential situations that may endanger the objectives of the international drug control treaties. It looks at the history of international drug control as in 2009 it will commemorate 100 years of such control.

The national press, and especially the foreign, has referred with outlandish insistence, on the eve of two important elections in Portugal, the “resounding success” of the decriminalization of drugs launched in 2001 by the Socialist Government, neglecting all other European countries and in prejudice of the guidelines of the UN Conventions of which Portugal is a signatory.

According to researchers at the University of Hertfordshire’s School of Pharmacy, who looked at stimulant related deaths across UK between 1997 and 2007, ecstasy is more likely to kill young, healthy people than other stimulants.

Debra Jones, of Holy Springs, N.C., had become addicted to prescription Percocet, which she was taking for rheumatoid arthritis, and had to seek substance abuse treatment. She’s been clean two years.

I used to have fairly liberal views on cannabis and have compared it favourably in the past with alcohol and tobacco, both of which exact a bigger toll on our society than all illegal drugs combined. [...]

Smoking marijuana over an extended period of time appears to greatly boost a young man’s risk for developing a particularly aggressive form of testicular cancer, a new study reveals. [...]

Metro schools will start using a new spray to test students for drug possession, a method designed to keep illegal narcotics off campuses. [...]

One difference between a smoker and an ex-smoker is that the latter has successfully overcome cravings for tobacco. To learn how people achieve this feat, NIDA-funded researcher Dr. Arthur Brody has been looking inside the brains of would-be quitters. [...]