America's kids are safer now than a decade ago when it comes to many types of injury, with two glaring exceptions: drugs and guns.
That's the crux of a new study that looked at injury trends among U.S. children and teenagers between 2011 and 2021.
It found that non...
The lax enforcement of age limits by many online marijuana dispensaries makes it easier for minors to buy weed, claims new research that looked at online weed sales in 32 states.
“It is imperative to require strict age-verification procedures prior to cannabis purchase...
Teens who use stimulant medication like Ritalin to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) do not have an increased risk of illicit drug use later, a new study finds.
This study looked specifically at cocaine and methamphetamine use. High school seniors wh...
It's not always necessary to lower a child's fever, but parents often do.
A new poll from Michigan Medicine found that about one-third of parents reach for fever-reducing medicines too quickly.
“Often parents worry about their child having a fever and want to d...
Getting into prescription or over-the-counter medicines at home is a major source of accidental poisoning for young children.
Yet, nearly half of parent...
Ohio State University is warning students to be wary of fake Adderall pills after two students died last week.
University officials said that Columbus Public Health has warned the community about the counterfeit Adderall, which contain the deadly synthetic opioid fentany...
The U.S. drug epidemic continues its death march, with new research showing American teens and young adults have lost nearly 1.5 million years of life due to drug overdose deaths in recent years.
Some recreational pot shops are using tricks from the old playbooks of alcohol and tobacco companies to target underage users on social media, a new study reports.
Despite state laws restricting such marketing, researchers found marijuana retailers on social media promot...
There may be a silver lining to the COVID-19 pandemic, with U.S. health officials reporting an "unprecedented" decline in teens' use of alcohol, marijuana, other illegal drugs and vaping.
"We have never seen such dramatic decreases in drug use among teens in just a one-y...
Teenagers have followed the vaping trend into marijuana use, with recent studies chronicling a boom in pot vaping among adolescents in the United States and Canada, researchers report.
The percentage of teens who've experimented with vaped pot has more than doubled in re...
More U.S. teens use e-cigarettes, traditional cigarettes and marijuana together, posing greater risks to their health and behavior than if they used only one substance, a new study finds.
Called "triple users," this group score high on a profile of psychosocial risk, whi...
The coronavirus pandemic has posed significant challenges for many, but it did not appear to drive U.S. preteens and young teens to drugs.
Repeated surveys of more than 7,800 10- to 14-year-olds between September 2019 and August 2020 found the overall rate of drug use r...
Accidental exposure to fentanyl pain patches is putting children's lives at risk, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warns.
Fentanyl is a powerful opioid pain reliever; so powerful that fentanyl patches are typically only prescribed to patients who require round-the-c...
President Joe Biden plans to nominate Dr. Rahul Gupta as the head of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.
Gupta led the Biden transition team for that office, was the former health commissioner of West Virginia, and is chief medical and health officer ...
U.S. high school seniors say marijuana was significantly harder to come by during the pandemic -- yet their use of the drug continued at rates similar to those before school closures began, a new study finds.
Their binge-drinking also continued at similar rates, accordin...
Smoking pot appears to affect teens' brain development, altering it in ways that could diminish their reasoning, decision-making and memory skills as they age, a new study reports.
Brain scans of about 800 teenagers found that those who started smoking pot tended to have...
Teens who try marijuana or other drugs are at greater risk of developing a drug addiction than those who wait a few years before experimenting with drugs, a new study finds.
"Though not everyone who uses a drug will develop addiction, adolescents may develop addiction to...
As pot gains in acceptance among adults, teenagers appear to be more tempted to try it, a new study out of California finds.
After the state legalized marijuana use for adults in 2016, teens' use of the drug also climbed after years of steady decline.
Research...
Growing numbers of younger kids are overdosing on stimulant medications commonly used to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a new study indicates.
The researchers called for greater efforts to identify kids at risk for overdose, and more education on ...
Steady reductions in teen marijuana use in Washington state may have been disrupted by legalization of the drug, a new study suggests.
Teens interviewed after voters approved recreational pot in 2012 were several times more likely to report past-year marijuana use. T...
Parents are increasingly interested in whether medical marijuana can help their children with problems like cancer-related pain and nausea -- but there's concern about interactions with their medications and a general lack of research.
That's one of the main takeaway...
Teens who are bullied about their weight are at increased risk for alcohol or marijuana use -- and this is especially true for girls, a new study suggests.
Researchers surveyed more than 1,300 students at five public middle schools in Connecticut. The students were a...
It's never good news that kids are using drugs and alcohol, but fewer U.S. teens are starting before their 16th birthday, a new study finds.
Researchers found that between 2004 and 2017, the age at which teens started drinking alcohol and smoking rose from 16 to 17 ...
Treatment with the opioid addiction drug buprenorphine is on the rise among most age groups in the United States, but falling among 15- to 24-year-olds, a new study finds.
"While it's encouraging to see an overall increase in prescription rates for buprenorphine, the...
"Secret shoppers" calling California drugstores to find out how to dispose of unneeded antibiotics and opioid painkillers were given bogus information more than half the time, a new study finds.
Even fewer stores provided correct information if the callers, who were ...
The number of kids overdosing on commonly prescribed anxiety medications such as Xanax, Valium or Ativan has risen dramatically during the past decade, a new study shows.
Child and teenage ODs caused by these benzodiazepine drugs increased by 54% between 2000 and...
An alarming number of young people are showing up in America's emergency rooms after overdosing on opioid painkillers, a new study finds.
In a study of more than 200,000 cases of kids misusing and abusing opioid painkillers, researchers found that, although the numb...
Three-quarters of U.S. teens who use e-cigarettes are vaping addictive or mind-altering substances -- more than once suspected, according to a new study.
The findings add to growing concerns about teen vaping.
"We found that youth were more likely to report...
The United States just received its annual checkup, and the news isn't good.
Life expectancy has declined over the past three years, driven down by increasing rates of suicides and drug overdoses.
Electronic cigarette use among teens nearly doubled in the l...
As they get older, U.S. children born with HIV are less likely to take the medicine they need to fight the AIDS-causing virus, a new study finds.
About 12,000 children, teens and young adults in the United States have had HIV since birth. Antiretroviral therapy (ART)...
Teens who take prescription opioid painkillers to get high could be taking a step toward heroin use, researchers say.
"Prescription opioids and heroin activate the brain's pleasure circuit in similar ways," said senior author Adam Leventhal. He's director of the Inst...
Teens who use Spice, K2 or other synthetic marijuana products may risk medical harm, including coma and seizures, researchers report.
A review of emergency department records in the United States also found that those who mixed the manmade "marijuana" with other dru...
Teens who feel connected with others at home and school have fewer serious health problems and risks as young adults, a new study suggests.
Young adults who had higher levels of connectedness -- feeling engaged, supported and cared for at home and at school -- when t...
Parents who find a sex-based text on their teenager's phone should be on the lookout for other problems in their child's life, a new evidence review suggests.
Teens who share sexually explicit images are much more likely to be involved in other troubling activities, in...
Children of parents who use opioids have more than double the risk of attempted suicide, a new study finds.
Researchers noted that along with a dramatic rise in suicides among young people in the United States in the past 15 years, opioid use among adults has spiked....
Though they know that nearly all heroin is laced with the dangerous synthetic opioid fentanyl, many Baltimore users aren't prepared to prevent or treat fentanyl-related overdoses, a new study finds.
Baltimore has a thriving heroin trade and 1,000 opioid overdose deat...
While the vast majority of American parents support legal medical marijuana, they want pot dispensaries banned near schools or day care centers, according to a new national survey.
The C.S. Mott Children's Hospital poll was conducted by the University of Michigan.
Codeine is one of the drugs at the center of the opioid epidemic affecting adults and teens across the United States. There are also concerns about its effects on very young children -- not addiction, but life-threatening events and deaths due to codeine's side effects.
...Marijuana legalization has been sweeping across the United States, raising concerns that more teens will start toking as pot smoking gains in legitimacy.
A new study suggests that's not the case. Researchers actually found fewer teen marijuana users in states that have...
Ninety percent of people who survived opioid overdoses in West Virginia did not receive recommended treatment to reduce their risk of overdosing again, according to a new study.
West Virginia has the highest opioid overdose death rate in the United States, four times...
The synthetic drug alpha-PVP -- or Flakka -- is sometimes called the "zombie" or "cannibal" drug, and about 1 percent of U.S. high school seniors have tried it, according to a new study.
"Flakka is infamous for being tied to rashes of bizarre behavior, which has le...