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The article focuses on the significant decline in drug overdose deaths in the United States and its causes including a decrease in opioid addiction, the increased availability of naloxone, and the ongoing racial disparities in overdose deaths that need to be addressed.

The article focuses on the misconception that dopamine fasting, which involves abstaining from pleasurable activities to reset the brain, is a solution for addiction; the complex role of dopamine in both pleasure & addiction; and the need for addressing deeper issues of connection and purpose.

The article explores Miami's successful harm reduction approach to addiction through programs like the IDEA Exchange, credited with reducing overdose deaths despite political challenges, illustrating its effectiveness and potential for broader adoption.

The article focuses on the use of algorithms like NarxCare and genetic tests to predict opioid addiction risk, highlighting concerns about their effectiveness and potential for harm, including exacerbating biases in medical decision-making and impacting patient access to pain management.

The article focuses on the challenges faced by healthcare professionals, particularly Rachel Winograd, in distributing naloxone to counter opioid overdoses due to the belief among some individuals that it could enable addiction or increase risk-taking.

The article focuses on the debate surrounding Oregon's drug decriminalization law and its potential impact on national drug policy. Topics discussed include the arguments for and against recriminalization, the role of fentanyl in overdose deaths, and the importance of evidence-based drug policies and harm reduction strategies.

The article focuses on the author's personal journey of self-discovery and the importance of developing social skills and the ability to truly see and understand others, as well as the need for these skills in today's diverse and divided society.

A personal narrative is presented which explores the authors experience of being people with past addictions should never take any potentially addictive substances for medical reasons.

The article offers information on the overlooked suffering of individuals experiencing chronic pain amid efforts to address the opioid crisis.

The article focuses on a new study refuting claims that overdose prevention centers, designed to address the opioid crisis by providing supervised drug consumption, increase crime or public drug use in their neighborhoods.

The article discusses the ineffectiveness of sending people to jail for low-level drug crimes, particularly those related to drug possession. Topics include the lack of access to treatment for individuals incarcerated for drug-related offenses, the misconceptions surrounding drug courts, and the racial disparities in drug arrests.

The article focuses on the history and failure of mandatory drug sentencing laws, particularly in relation to the current opioid crisis and the debate around imposing tougher penalties for fentanyl-related offenses. Topics include the enactment and subsequent ineffectiveness of the Boggs Act in 1951; the flawed Rockefeller drug laws of 1973; and the continuing push for harsher penalties despite evidence of their inefficacy in reducing drug use, addiction rates, and overdose deaths.

The article focuses on a psychedelic therapy called MDMA-assisted psychotherapy, which shows promise in treating survivors of cults and abusive groups by providing healing and transformative experiences that can help them recover from trauma and regain their sense of self.

The article explores the potential of new weight-loss drugs, such as Ozempic, and their impact on desire, pleasure, and addiction, shedding light on how these medications can alter appetite and compulsive behavior while challenging moral judgments of obesity and addiction as solely character flaws.

In the article, the author examines the issue of whether addicts have free will by citing her own experiences as example. Also cited are the studies on the possible reasons why people continue taking illegal drugs like street fentanyl, how policymakers use said studies to create drug policies, and how psychotic disorders and traumatic childhood experiences like sexual abuse could compel people to take drugs during their adult life.

The article discusses the severe shortage of Adderall and related stimulant medications used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in the U.S.

The article explores how concerns that interrupt our day-to-day lives are not always a sign of serious mental distress such as Obsessive-compulsive disorder.

The article informs that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have issued warnings about the life-threatening dangers of cutting or ending opioid prescribing involuntarily.

In the article, the author discusses the reasons why the U.S. drug laws, particularly its marijuana policy, should be amended to legalize the recreational use of marijuana and effectively control psychoactive substances like alcohol, tobacco, and opioids.

In the article, the author discusses how U.S. authorities and school officials can effectively raise awareness about illegal drugs like fentanyl and their dangers to their health to make them avoid the drugs.

In the article, the author discusses issues of drug overdose deaths and addiction in the U.S., particularly the need by policymakers to address the main reasons why people use drugs, namely, hopelessness, trauma, and mental illnesses.

The article focuses on needs of homeowners and businesses and those of people who are unsheltered often conflict. Topics include considered community leaders, faced with increasing crime and disorder, frequently see police sweeps as the only answer, while advocates for homeless people argue that this response is merely a stopgap that does more damage than good.

The article reports that with the fall of Roe v. Wade, physi- cians across the country are struggling to balance the conflicting im- peratives of their calling to care with their institutional duty to avoid legal liability, all to the detriment of their patients. Medicine is hard to govern with the blunt instrument of criminal law. Human biologi- cal processes, including pregnancy, are enormously variable.

In the article, the author discusses the issue of codependence in the rehabilitation of people with addiction, wherein partners and parents of the patients could act as enablers for the patients' continued use of substances, and how to address it.

In the article, the author discusses the reasons why the legally mandated addiction treatment and rehabilitation programs for drug abusers in the U.S. are a failure.

The article discusses that the DOCTORS didn't think Brent Slone would survive his gruesome 2011 car crash, and his car flipped after he swerved to avoid a stalled vehicle.

The article reports that MORGAN GODVIN arrived at the Multnomah County Inverness jail in Oregon in June 2013, and she had volunteered to be locked up during a drug court appearance for felony heroin possession, and many Americans, she believed that incarceration would help her recover.

A personal narrative is presented which explores the author's experience of being told myself that I'd never try heroin because it sounded too perfect. It's like "warm, buttery love," a friend told me.

The author revisits the 2016 guidelines presented by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention related to limiting opioid pain medications for all people unless nearing an end of life situation, ignoring people with chronic pain conditions. The guidelines were meant for general practitioners, but have been adopted by physicians across specialties. The Veterans Health Administration has reported higher suicide rates when physicians reduce or eliminate their pain prescriptions for people dealing with chronic pain situations.

The article discusses the problem of opioid addiction in Americans including recovering from addiction with programs such as Narcotics Anonymous, professional treatment with medications like methadone or buprenorphine, and stories of three addicts and their recovery.

The article reports on the views of author that most of programs aimed at stopping opioid addiction focus on abstinence as only true recovery although abstinence treatment has not decisively proven to reduce mortality and is less effective than the medication at preventing relapse. Skepticism towards addiction medication and government policies towards it are discussed.

The article offers information on the anti-drug program Preventure, developed by Patricia Conrod, professor of psychiatry at the University of Montreal, which recognizes how child's temperament drives the risk for drug use, personality testing and behavior impacting mental health issues.

The author discusses the treatment of addiction with topics including the connection between addiction and brain science, the recognition of addiction as a learning disorder, and the implications for treatment.

The author discusses the legal use of methadone in court hearings in the U.S., which has been proven to save lives but not all American drug courts allow its use.

The article discusses the author's views about treatment of mental illnesses in the U.S. It is commendable that some legislators cutting across party affiliation have introduced legislative measures in both houses of the Congress to ensure equal insurance coverage for mental and physical illnesses, says the author. However, unless mental disease patients are provided with scientifically-proved treatment, all efforts will be a futile exercise, observes the author.

Comments on the use of naloxone as an antidote for heroin overdoses.

Comments on the proposal of the Senlis Council, a European drug-policy research institution, to let the International Narcotics Control Board license Afghanistan sell its opium to bolster the country's stability and end trafficking problems.

Opinion. Calls for the New York government to allow over-the-counter sales of hypodermic needles. Author as a former drug addict; Prevention of intravenous drug-related AIDS; Findings the Kaiser Family Foundation's poll on making clean needles available to drug addicts; Cost consideration; Bill introduced by State Assemblyman Richard Gottfried and Velmanette Montgomery.

Narrates the author's experiences on computers. Equipment; Cyber-interaction; Social engagements.

Several letters to the editor are presented in response to articles in previous issues in January 2016 including "Can Shame Be Useful?," by Sally L. Satel and Scott O. Lilienfeld, "El Salvador's Advice on Zika: Don't Have Babies," and "Liberals Turn to Cities to Pass Laws Others Won't."

Several letters to the editor in reponse to the articles "Naloxone saves lives after a heroin overdose, but does it also encourage addiction?" in the previous issue and "A Lifesaver for Heroin Users, but No Cure for an Epidemic" in the July 31 issue.