Addiction Treatment

Two attorneys say they'll take an Iowa case before the nation's highest court next week that could alter how federal judges sentence convicts after appeals. The issue is if judges can weigh a convict's efforts at rehabilitation while an appeal is pending.

Drug prohibition related cases are clogging the dockets of the country’s courts and, as a result, jails are filled with drug suspects. Former Supreme Court Associate Justice Adolf Azcuna and present head of the Philippine Judicial Academy, said, "If you want to restore the drug offenders, you should be improving the places where you help drug addicts recover from their addiction."

The Food and Drug Administration has approved an injectable drug designed to treat people addicted to opiates who have undergone detoxification treatment. Vivitrol, made by Massachusetts drug maker Alkermes, is a so-called extended-release formulation of the drug naltrexone that is injected once a month into the muscle, according to an FDA statement. The drug works to block opioid receptors in the brain.

Researchers at the University of California Los Angeles say they’ve come up with an implanted device that administers the medication buprenorphine, which helps end dependence on heroin and opioids that are found in many prescription painkillers.

The FDA has approved a new sublingual film formulation of the opioid dependence treatment combination buprenorphrine/naloxone (Suboxone).

An article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal slams the federal government for its efforts to shut down Insite in downtown Vancouver, Canada's only safe injection site for drug addicts.