WASHINGTON — Could a once-a-month alcoholism shot keep some of the highest-risk heroin addicts from relapse? A drug that wakes up narcoleptics treat cocaine addiction? An old antidepressant fight methamphetamine? This is the next frontier in substance abuse: Better understanding of how addiction overlaps with other brain diseases is sparking a hunt to see if…

WINFIELD, Mo. — Mexican drug smugglers are increasingly peddling a form of ultra-potent heroin that sells for as little as $10 a bag and is so pure it can kill unsuspecting users instantly, sometimes before they even remove the syringe from their veins. An Associated Press review of drug overdose data shows that so-called “black…

Rationalization and denial are key concepts in addiction treatment. To recover, addicts admit they have rationalized their habit (“I use so much less than my friends.”) and denied they have a problem (“I can handle it. It’s not affecting my job.”) Here’s another barrier to recovery from addiction: “I’m too smart for this to become…

Results of a study on sudden death show there is no such thing as safe recreational cocaine use, the researchers said, and suggest the 12 million Europeans who use cocaine are putting their lives on the line. “The notion that recreational cocaine use is ‘safe’ should be dispelled, since even small amounts may have catastrophic…

EL PASO – The threat of cartel violence is forcing civilians along the border to take up arms. The threat is also taking a toll on Texas law enforcement officers in West Texas. CHANNEL 5 NEWS traveled to El Paso where the violence there flared up several years ago. Culberson County Sheriff Oscar Carillo says…

The brains of ecstasy users show low levels of a certain protein, a finding that may explain why many feel they need to turn to higher doses of the drug. In Tuesday’s issue of the journal Brain, Stephen Kish of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto and his colleagues confirmed that low…

In this week’s “A Piece of My Mind” column in The Journal of the American Medical Association, a specialist in addiction offers a riveting tale of his own tragic drug habit. Dr. McCracken confesses to a daily, decade-long marijuana habit and three years of abusing opioids injected intravenously. But because of his extensive knowledge of…

BRASILIA – PRESIDENT Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Thursday unveiled a national war on crack cocaine, a drug that is increasingly causing addiction, health problems and crime in Brazilian cities and towns. ‘At least in Brazil there are no big dealers. They are basically small-time. The drug is scattered everywhere, which makes it difficult…

Cecelia Krebs, who oversees a drug treatment program for addicts in Santa Cruz, says she recently went to a conference where a state map was displayed: blue marked methamphetamine use and red was heroin. The whole map was blue but there was a red dot over Santa Cruz, she says. “I don’t know why Santa…

“When I was drinking, I would sometimes drink too much and do stupid things. And one of the stupid things I did was use cocaine,” says the Guelph-based writer, who survived a stroke in 2008 and now sometimes searches for words and has an occasional stutter.Mr. Munsch, 64, discovered cocaine relatively late in life —…