While many people think marijuana is harmless, some people do become addicted to it. Roughly one million people receive substance abuse treatment for cannabis each year and the majority resume using marijuana following program discharge.

Separate the facts about cannabis use from the myths in an interview with Itai Danovitch, MD, director of Addiction Psychiatry Clinic Services at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Smoking remains a scourge despite almost universal acknowledgement of its harms. This raises a puzzling question: If smoking is so bad for you, why do people continue to smoke?

The FDA approved the use of Zubsolv on July 3. The medication contains buprenorphine and naloxone and is manufactured by Swedish drug maker Orexo AB. It comes in a once-daily tablet that dissolves under the tongue.

The FDA rejected a new medication to treat opioid addiction that would have been implanted under the skin. The implant, Probuphine, is a long-acting version of buprenophine that is implanted under the skin of the upper arm in a procedure that can be done in a physician’s office in about 10–15 minutes.

Patients often report alcohol use as a way to “self-medicate” mood symptoms. A new study demonstrates that this self-medication may serve as a precursor to the development or persistence of alcohol dependence, as defined by the DSM-IV.