Press Releases

A new study has identified genetic factors that influence both a person’s risk of developing an addiction and their educational attainment. Researchers found that some genetic variants affect both traits in opposite directions, meaning that a higher genetic risk for addiction is associated with an increased likelihood of lower educational attainment.

The most reliable predictor of an ex-smoker’s relapse isn’t strong urges to smoke or low confidence in the ability to stay off tobacco – it’s weariness with the efforts to remain a non-smoker. Ex-smokers appear to return to smoking most often because they’re exhausted from the constant vigilance needed to remain a non-smoker.

A new study has found that young adults in the US do not ‘titrate’ when using strong cannabis. In fact, it’s the opposite: young adults who report using strong cannabis also typically use it more frequently and in higher quantities than young adults who use weaker forms of the drug.

A new study has found that, among women with a high desire to avoid becoming pregnant, those who drank heavily had a 50% higher risk of becoming pregnant than those who drank moderately or not at all. In contrast, participants who used cannabis were no more likely to have an undesired pregnancy than participants who did not use cannabis.

A new systematic review has found that parents and other child caregivers who have alcohol-related diagnoses are twice as likely to maltreat children in their care than parents and caregivers with no alcohol-related diagnoses. 

“Tusi”, also known as “tucibí” or “pink cocaine”, is a drug concoction that emerged in Latin America and Europe within the past decade and is becoming increasingly popular in the USA. A new study estimates that in 2024, 2.7% of electronic dance music-nightclub attending adults in New York City (NYC) used Tusi in the past year, with higher use among Hispanic people and people who use other drugs.

While US youths who start vaping during secondary/high school typically take about three years to progress to frequent use, a newly identified group of young adults who start vaping a bit later, after graduation (mean age = 20 years), tend to reach frequent use in about one year.

A new study has found that opioid smoking appears to be associated with lower mortality risk compared with opioid injecting; however, the authors caution that opioid smoking still carries a substantial overdose risk and that these results should not be interpreted as suggesting that opioid smoking is safe.