Washington Imposes New Rules on Prescribing Powerful Painkillers
The state of Washington plans to impose tough new rules on doctors who want to prescribe opiate painkillers to patients, including mandatory third-party evaluation of patients who request higher doses of the drug but don’t show signs of improvement.

Clergy a Common Resource for People Battling Addiction
About 15 percent of people seeking recovery from alcoholism turn to clergy members for support, a University of Michigan study finds.

Conn. Candidates Spar on Marijuana Use, Legalization
Republican candidates for Congress are slinging accusations of hypocrisy over marijuana use and policy, including the spectacle of a candidate who favors legalization defending a YouTube video focused on his opponent’s arrest a decade earlier for marijuana possession.

Smoking Alters Hundreds of Genes, Study Finds
Smoking causes dangerous changes in literally hundreds of genes in the body, including those related to tumor growth, inflammatory disease and immune-system suppression, according to researchers from the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research.

Doctors Not Reporting Impaired Colleagues, Survey Finds
A study from the Harvard Medical School found that 17 percent of doctors knew of drunk, addicted or otherwise incompetent colleagues, but one-third said they did nothing to report the behavior.

Police Challenged by Crashes Involving Prescription Drugs
Car crashes involving prescription drugs are often harder to detect and prosecute than those involving alcohol or illicit drugs.

U.S. Ban on Clove Cigarettes Draws International Scrutiny
U.S. lawmakers say they banned clove cigarettes because of their health risks and appeal to young smokers, but the World Trade Organization (WTO) is investigating whether the ban violated international free-trade agreements.

Proposed FDA Plan on Prescription Drugs Rejected
A lack of mandated training for physicians has helped sink a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposal intended to curb misuse of prescription drugs.

Veterans Dept. Allows Use of Medical Marijuana
Veterans in states with medical-marijuana laws will be allowed to use the drug without losing their access to pain medication under a new policy announced by the federal Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

More Americans Making Moonshine
Recession penny-pinching and the homemade food fad are driving more Americans -- from hobbyists to trendy hipster kids -- to make homemade liquor, or moonshine.