Illegal Drugs News

June 26, 2025

Top Headlines

Cannabis Use Among Seniors Surges 46% in Two Years--Study Reveals

June 7, 2025 — Cannabis use among older Americans has climbed dramatically, with 7% of adults 65 and older now reporting recent use. This rise isn't just in numbers but also in diversity older users today are more likely to be women, college-educated, and ...

Clinical Research on Psychedelics Gets a Boost from New Study

June 3, 2025 — As psychedelics gain traction as potential treatments for mental health disorders, an international study stands to improve the rigor and reliability of clinical ...

Record High: Study Finds Growing Cannabis Use Among Older Adults

June 3, 2025 — Marijuana use among older adults in the US has reached a new high, with 7 percent of adults aged 65 and over who report using it in the past month, according to a recent ...

Whether It's Smoking or Edibles, Marijuana Can Be Bad for Your Heart, Study Suggests

May 28, 2025 — A new study finds that chronic cannabis use -- whether it's smoked or consumed in edible form -- is associated with significant cardiovascular ...

Tiny Genetic Switch Found to Control Brain Balance and Behavior

May 26, 2025 — Researchers have identified a remarkably small but critical piece of genetic code that helps determine how brain cells connect, communicate, and function. The discovery not only deepens our understanding of how the brain's wiring is built but may ...

Scientists Discover New Way the Brain Learns

May 14, 2025 — Neuroscientists have discovered that the brain uses a dual system for learning through trial and error. This is the first time a second learning system has been identified, which could help explain how habits are formed and provide a scientific ...

Is AI Truly Creative? Turns out Creativity Is in the Eye of the Beholder

May 12, 2025 — What makes people think an AI system is creative? New research shows that it depends on how much they see of the creative act. The findings have implications for how we research and design creative AI systems, and they also raise fundamental ...

Cannabis Study: Legalization Reduces Problematic Consumption, Particularly Among Certain Individuals

May 9, 2025 — Researchers are investigating how the legal supply of cannabis affects consumption and mental health among participants. In a first academic publication, the study team has now reported on the direct ...

Discovery of Dopamine Receptors in a Previously Overlooked Part of the Brain Sheds Light on the Complex Circuitry for Anxiety and Depression

May 7, 2025 — Researchers have discovered distinct roles for two dopamine receptors located on nerve cells within the portion of the brain that controls approach vs. avoidance ...

Ancient Andes Society Used Hallucinogens to Strengthen Social Order

May 5, 2025 — Snuff tubes uncovered at Chavin de Huantar in Peru reveal how leaders used mystical experiences to cement their ...

Dopamine Signals When a Fear Can Be Forgotten

May 4, 2025 — A new study shows how a dopamine circuit between two brain regions enables mice to extinguish fear after a peril has ...

Physical and Psychological Symptoms of Ketamine Abuse Revealed in Research

May 4, 2025 — Ketamine addiction is linked to high levels of physical health problems and psychological consequences, with nearly half of those affected not seeking support or treatment, new research has ...

Latest Headlines

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Study Links Childhood Trauma to Increased Substance Use and Unexpected Effects on Heart Rate and Blood Pressure in Adolescents

May 4, 2025 — Childhood trauma significantly increases the likelihood of engaging in harmful alcohol consumption, smoking and illicit drug use, by the age of ...

Mindfulness Therapy Reduces Opioid Craving and Addiction, Study Finds

May 2, 2025 — Researchers found that Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE) can help rewire the brain's response to natural healthy pleasure, leading to reduced opioid cravings. The findings suggest that ...

First Synthetic 'Mini Prion' Shows How Protein Misfolding Multiplies

Apr. 30, 2025 — Prions transmit their abnormally folded shape onto other proteins. Researchers designed a synthetic fragment of the tau protein that exhibits prion-like behavior. Misfolded tau proteins are the ...

Psychedelics Can Reverse Neuroimmune Interactions That Boost Fear

Apr. 23, 2025 — A new study suggests that fear and the immune system are connected in previously unknown ways. Researchers found that the immune system can influence stress and fear behaviors by changing how brain ...

How Dopamine Helps Us Learn to Avoid Bad Outcomes

Apr. 22, 2025 — Dopamine is the brain's motivational spark, driving us to chase what feels good, say scrolling another reel on social media, and steer clear of what doesn't, like touching a hot stove. But scientists ...

More Americans Are Using Psilocybin -- Especially Those With Mental Health Conditions, Study Shows

Apr. 22, 2025 — Use of psilocybin, the hallucinogenic chemical found in what is known as 'magic mushrooms,' has increased significantly nationwide since 2019, ...

How Disturbed Signaling Pathways Could Promote Epileptic Seizures

Apr. 16, 2025 — Focal cortical dysplasia (FCD) type 2 is a congenital malformation of the cerebral cortex that is often associated with difficult-to-treat epilepsy. In the affected areas, nerve cells and their layer ...

Simulate Sound in 3D at a Finer Scale Than Humans Can Perceive

Apr. 15, 2025 — Ambisonic rendering is a way to simulate the precise locations of sounds in 3D, and an ambisonics algorithm has allowed researchers to create rich virtual 'soundscapes.'Researchers decided to test ...

'Eolving' Opioid Epidemic Across U.S.

Apr. 14, 2025 — The heart of the opioid epidemic that killed 665,341 people in the United States between 2005 and 2020 shifted geographically from the Northwest to the East, according to a new geographical ...

Simultaneous Alcohol, Cannabis Use May Fuel More Drinking

Apr. 14, 2025 — A recent study found that people may perceive fewer negative effects of alcohol if they are also using cannabis at the same ...

LSD Analogue With Potential for Treating Schizophrenia Developed

Apr. 14, 2025 — Researchers have developed a new, neuroplasticity-promoting drug closely related to LSD that harnesses the psychedelic's therapeutic power with reduced hallucinogenic ...

Brain Study Increases Understanding of What Triggers Drug Use Relapse

Apr. 10, 2025 — Research on the biological basis of addiction has found that the critical epigenetic enzyme histone deacetylase 5 (HDAC5) limits the expression of the gene Scn4b, regulating neuronal activity and ...

Brain Pathway Links Inflammation to Loss of Motivation, Energy in Advanced Cancer

Apr. 10, 2025 — Researchers identified a direct connection between cancer-related inflammation and the loss of motivation characteristic of advanced cancer. In a mouse study, they describe a brain pathway that ...

What Links Cannabis Use and Psychosis? Researchers Point to Brain's Dopamine System

Apr. 9, 2025 — A new study found that people with cannabis use disorder (CUD) had elevated dopamine levels in a brain region associated with ...

Researchers Identify Safer Pathway for Pain Relief

Apr. 8, 2025 — Scientists have helped identify a novel drug compound that selectively activates pain-altering receptors in the body, offering a potentially safer alternative to conventional pain ...

Perceiving One's Own Body: Babies Sense Their Heartbeat and Breathing

Apr. 7, 2025 — Body signals such as heartbeat and breathing accompany us constantly, often unnoticed as background noise of our perception. Even in the earliest years of life, these signals are important as they ...

Medicinal Cannabis Is Linked to Long-Term Benefits in Health-Related Quality of Life, Study Finds

Apr. 2, 2025 — Patients prescribed medicinal cannabis in Australia maintained improvements in overall health-related quality of life (HRQL), fatigue, and sleep disturbance across a one-year period, according to a ...

Researchers Concerned About Rise in Nitrous Oxide Misuse, Deaths in US

Apr. 2, 2025 — Despite a recent Food and Drug Administration warning against inhaling nitrous oxide, commonly known as laughing gas, deaths due to misusing the substance are rising in the United ...

PET Imaging Confirms Direct Involvement of Dopamine in Cognitive Flexibility

Mar. 28, 2025 — Scientists have confirmed a neurobiochemical link between dopamine and cognitive flexibility. PET imaging shows that the brain increases dopamine production when completing cognitively demanding ...

Study Identifies Shisa7 Gene as Key Driver in Heroin Addiction

Mar. 26, 2025 — Researchers have found a unique molecular signature and genes in the orbitofrontal cortex associated with heroin-seeking behavior. A preclinical rodent model implicated a gene called Shisa7 as the ...

Scientists Discover Why Obesity Takes Away the Pleasure of Eating

Mar. 26, 2025 — Many obese people report losing pleasure in eating rich foods -- something also seen in obese mice. Scientists have now discovered the reason. Long-term high-fat diets lower levels of neurotensin in ...

Potential Risk Biomarkers Found for Schizophrenia Resulting from Cannabis Use

Mar. 21, 2025 — A new study has analyzed and compared the fatty acids in the blood of individuals with schizophrenia, of those with cannabis use disorder and of those with both diagnoses, with the aim of shedding ...

Research Into Alcohol Use Disorder: Imagining Future Events Changes Brain to Improve Healthy Decision-Making

Mar. 19, 2025 — Learning to think more about specific events in the future appears to reduce impulsivity, improve decision-making, and shows potential as a therapy for alcohol use disorder, a new study found. The ...

Cannabis Users Face Substantially Higher Risk of Heart Attack

Mar. 18, 2025 — Marijuana is now legal in many places, but is it safe? Two new studies add to mounting evidence that people who use cannabis are more likely to suffer a heart attack than people who do not use the ...

Dopamine's Unexpected Role in Memory Devaluation

Mar. 12, 2025 — New research expands on current understanding of the brain chemical dopamine, finding that it plays a role in reducing the value of memories associated with rewards. The study opens new avenues for ...

Cannabis Terpenes Offer Potential New Way to Treat Fibromyalgia Pain

Mar. 12, 2025 — A recently completed study found that certain terpenes in Cannabis sativa are effective at relieving post-surgical and fibromyalgia pain in preclinical ...

Dopamine Signals in Primate Brains

Mar. 12, 2025 — We're all familiar with Pavlovian conditioning, in which a reward-anticipatory behavior follows a reward-predicting stimulus. Perhaps you experience it yourself when passing a cafe or restaurant ...

Humans Have a Long Way to Go in Understanding a Dog's Emotions

Mar. 10, 2025 — New research has revealed that people often do not perceive the true meaning of their pet's emotions and can misread their dog. The reasons for this are many and include a human misunderstanding ...

Clinical Trial Tests Novel Stem-Cell Treatment for Parkinson's Disease

Mar. 9, 2025 — A recently launched Phase 1 clinical trial is examining the safety and feasibility of a groundbreaking treatment approach for Parkinson's disease in which a patient's stem cells are ...

Does Getting ADHD Drugs Via Telehealth Increase Addiction Risk?

Mar. 5, 2025 — A study of people who started ADHD stimulant treatment via telehealth vs in-person visits shows no difference in risk of new substance use disorders except for young adults age ...