Michigan drivers could become the first in the nation subject to roadside drug testing under a bill introduced Wednesday in the Legislature. The legislation would authorize police to administer a roadside saliva test for illegal drug use, just as they do breath tests for alcohol, when they stop a driver suspected of being intoxicated. Read…

The federal government has posted signs along a major interstate highway in Arizona, more than 100 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border, warning travelers the area is unsafe because of drug and alien smugglers, and a local sheriff says Mexican drug cartels now control some parts of the state. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/aug/31/signs-in-arizona-warn-of-smuggler-dangers/

Elected officials in the San Mateo Union High School District are taking a stand against a statewide measure that would legalize marijuana for people over 21 years old, arguing passage of Proposition 19 will have negative effects on the youth it serves. http://www.smdailyjournal.com/article_preview.php?id=139743

Prescription medicines are the way that many drug addicts first get hooked, making these legal medicines the new “gateway” drugs, new study findings show. http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/642429.html

While the problem isn’t new, the repercussions are mounting. One government study released last month found that the share of substance abuse treatment admissions involving prescription narcotics increased more than fourfold between 1998 and 2008, from 2.2 to 9.8 percent. (The proportion of admissions tied to use of alcohol and such illicit drugs as cocaine,…

Increased heroin use is being attributed mainly to a surge in prescription drug abuse. People who become addicted to prescription drugs such as OxyContin, a powerful synthetic opiate, often turn to heroin as a substitute. Heroin is cheaper and easier to get. Police also recently were advised that Purdue, the manufacturer of OxyContin, has changed…

New research from the United Kingdom suggests that personality-based interventions –delivered by mental-health specialists or teachers given brief training — can substantially reduce drug and alcohol use in teens, the BBC reported Aug. 25. http://www.jointogether.org/news/research/summaries/2010/school-based-interventions.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_content=%23addiction%20%23drugs

The Tampa Bay area has supplanted South Florida as the epicenter of a statewide cottage industry that dispenses prescriptions and pills in multitudes, according to a federal agency that inspects pain-management clinics. As a result, people are dying, state and local officials say.

With a growing number of states decriminalizing medical marijuana, employers find themselves faced with a legal dilemma. http://www.hreonline.com/HRE/story.jsp?storyId=489191411

A DAD who plunged 300ft to his death after taking the terrifying new legal high Ivory Wave was pretending he could FLY minutes before he fell. Ivory Wave is labelled as “soothing” bath salts – but is more dangerous than banned Meow Meow, a high once sold legally as “plant food”. http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3100833/Ivory-Wave-cliffs-plunge-dad-Michael-Bishton-thought-he-could-fly.html