The survey, conducted last year, found residents rated their training in these areas as fair or poor, Health Canal reports. Many said they were not prepared to diagnose or treat addiction or substance use disorders.

“Our residents estimated that one in four hospital inpatients has a substance use disorder, which matches what other studies have found and represents a disease prevalence similar to that of diabetes,” lead author Sarah Wakeman, MD said in a news release. “Finding that the majority of residents feel unprepared to treat addiction and rate the quality of their education so low represents a tremendous disparity between the burden of disease and the success of our current model of training.”

Wakeman noted several previous studies have indicated a deficiency in addiction education for medical residents. Some programs offer no training in this area, she said. Massachusetts General Hospital says it has increased residents’ training in addiction medicine as a result of the findings.

The survey, based on responses from 101 residents, is published in the journal Substance Abuse. One-quarter said they felt unprepared to diagnose addiction, and 62 percent said they felt unprepared to treat it. Only 13 percent felt very prepared to diagnose addiction, and no residents felt very prepared to treat addiction.

Participants were asked six questions to evaluate their knowledge about diagnosing and treating substance abuse. None answered all the questions correctly. Only 6 percent correctly answered all three questions about medication treatment options for addiction.

The letter asked the company to stop selling a line of items that look like prescription pill bottles, boxes, pads and syringes, according to The Miami Herald.

“These products are not in any way fun or humorous but make light of this rampant problem,” the attorneys general wrote. “We invite you to pull these products from your shelves and join with us to fight prescription drug abuse.”

Earlier this month, The Partnership at Drugfree.org urged people to write or email Hayne, or sign a Facebook petition calling on Urban Outfitters to remove the products from its stores and website. A week later, the Chairman of the U.S. House Appropriations Committee, Hal Rogers, called on Urban Outfitters to stop selling the products.

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who signed the letter, said in a statement, “Profiting from an ad campaign that is contrary to Florida’s efforts to combat prescription drug overdoses and drinking is unacceptable. We are calling on Urban Outfitters to forgo a few sales and help us save a lot of lives.”

While 70 percent of smokers see a doctor regularly, most try to quit smoking on their own, according to CDC Director Thomas Frieden. Having the help and advice of a doctor more than doubles the success of quitting smoking, he said. A doctor can provide counseling and options, prescribe medications and explain nicotine replacement therapy.

The campaign includes television and online ads with tips from former smokers, which will run from May 27 to June 2, according to the Los Angeles Times. As part of the campaign, doctors will be offered training on helping patients quit smoking. A number of medical organizations have partnered with the CDC to reach doctors.

“Taking just a few minutes to talk to your patients about smoking can double the odds of them successfully quitting,” Surgeon General Regina Benjamin, MD, said in a news release. “As a physician, I know that clinicians and their staff can play an incredibly important role in helping smokers move from thinking about quitting to taking real steps toward successful quitting.”

The compound, called CGP3466B, blocks the brain pathway that cocaine acts on, CBS News reports. It has been tested on humans with Parkinson’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, without causing serious side effects. The compound was not successful in treating either disease.

In the new study, mice were given the choice of visiting two rooms, one of which occasionally dispensed cocaine. When the mice spent all of their time in the cocaine room, they were considered addicted. When these mice received CGP3466B, they started spending equal time in both rooms. This suggested they were no longer addicted, the researchers said.

The study appears in the journal Neuron.

“What’s exciting is that this drug works at very low doses, and it also appears only to affect this specific pathway, making it unlikely to have unwanted side effects,” researcher Dr. Risheng Xusaid in a news release.

Last month, scientists from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the University of California, San Francisco announced they used laser lights to turn cocaine cravings off and on in a study of rats.

CNN reports the new diagnosis, found in the updated Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, known as DSM-5, could follow college students into adulthood. The earlier version of the manual, DSM-4, had separate categories for alcohol abuse and the more serious alcohol dependence.

A recent study suggests the changes to alcohol disorders may not improve the diagnosis of alcoholism. The study found the changes are unlikely to result in a less accurate diagnosis, but they do not represent a clear improvement above the current diagnostic criteria.

In addition to being used by mental health professionals to diagnose patients, the DSM is used by insurance companies and schools in making decisions about coverage and special provisions for people with developmental or mental disorders, the article notes.

Critics of the DSM-5 say it will expand the list of what constitutes mental illness and will lead to a needless increase in diagnoses. A growing number of psychiatrists, psychologists and clinical social workers say depression and other normal responses to life events are too often labeled as mental illness, increasing the use of potentially dangerous medication.

The CDC found about 60 percent of American adults drink, HealthDay reports. The percentage of adults who had five or more drinks in one day in the previous year increased from 20.5 percent in 2005-2007, to 23.6 percent in 2008-2010.

About 20 percent of adults smoke. Among young adults ages 18 to 24, the percentage who smoke declined from 23.5 percent in 2005-2007, to 21.2 percent in 2008-2010. Less than one-half of smokers tried quitting in the past year, the report found. The findings come from a survey of 77,000 people.

“Smoking has remained very stubborn at one in five adults. It’s just a terrible addiction,” said report author Charlotte Schoenborn of the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. “The one small little glimmer of hope I saw was in the 18- to 24-year-olds, where we saw some improvement.”

The study assumes next year, 642,772 state residents—about 12.5 percent of the population—will use marijuana, now that it is legal in Colorado. Researchers estimate each person will use 3.53 ounces annually, at a cost of $185 per ounce. Residents can only purchase one ounce of marijuana at a time, the article notes.

The quality and price of marijuana, as well as how much a person uses, will influence how much a person actually will spend. Last month, one ounce of marijuana averaged $206 on the black market. The price is expected to drop once marijuana is sold in specially licensed stores, starting in January.

The report estimates that a 15 percent excise tax on wholesale marijuana will bring in $21.7 million per year. The state expects the tax will raise $40 million annually.

“As competition forces growers and sellers to be more efficient, margins will erode, and both wholesale cost and retail prices are forecast to fall,” the report states. The authors predict a “decline in the rate of growth of consumption as the ‘wow’ factor erodes over time, and any marijuana tourism begins to decline, particularly if other states follow Colorado and Washington and legalize marijuana.”

“Even if you do everything right, you can be burned,” said Dr. Paul Sanford, MMA’s treasurer. “It’s waltzing in a mine field.”

According to Carol Falkowski, a state drug abuse safety officer, only 40 percent of pharmacists and 30 percent of doctors in Minnesota are using the state Prescription Monitoring Program. The system allows users to see if a patient is “doctor shopping” for prescription drugs.

The MMA is considering whether to require doctors to take courses on how to manage pain and addiction, and wants to increase use of the prescription monitoring program, the article notes.

In Minnesota in 2011, 20 percent of admissions to addiction treatment programs in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area were for heroin or other opiates, compared with 8.7 percent in 2005, according to a MMA news release.

“We found recovery has tangible benefits, including decreases in costly emergency room visits and in engagement in the criminal justice system,” says Pat Taylor, Executive Director of Faces & Voices. “Investing in recovery makes sense and benefits everyone. It’s time to end discriminatory barriers and ensure access to a full range of health care and other services for people in and seeking recovery.”

The survey found that compared with when they were actively addicted, people in recovery experienced a 10-fold decrease in involvement with the criminal justice system and use of emergency departments, and a 50 percent increase in participation in family activities and in paying taxes.

People in recovery report they are much more likely to vote, obtain health insurance, hold a steady job, further their education or start their own business. They are much less likely to be involved in domestic violence or have untreated emotional or mental health problems, compared with when they were actively addicted.

“Many of the approximately 23 million Americans with a drug or alcohol addiction and their families are hopeless about their chances for recovery—this survey documents the fact that people get better,” says Alexandre Laudet, PhD. She is Director of the Center for the Study of Addictions and Recovery at the National Development and Research Institutes, Inc., and developed, conducted and analyzed the survey. “It’s a light at the end of the tunnel, and provides hope for a better life.”

The survey also found addiction takes a heavy toll on both individuals and the country as a whole, Taylor notes. Half of respondents said they had been fired or suspended once or more during their active addiction. Half said they had been arrested at least once, and one-third had been incarcerated at least once.

Participants were asked to answer questions about when they had been in active addiction, and since they entered recovery. The researchers then were able to examine experiences at different phases of recovery: less than three years, three to 10 years, and 10 years or more. The survey found as recovery progresses, people’s lives improved in every area. For example, they increasingly take care of their health, eat better, exercise more and go to the dentist. Rates of employment, participation in family activities, returning to school or training and paying taxes all gradually increase as a person spends more time in recovery. These improvements continue over time as recovery is maintained.

The survey was conducted over two months, and included 3,228 participants who learned about it through the Faces & Voices website, as well as other social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. They tended to be white, employed and college-educated. Dr. Laudet acknowledges that while the survey respondents are not representative of the recovery community as a whole, the findings are consistent with previous, locally-based, longer-term recovery studies. “There needs to be proper funding to do a scientifically rigorous study that includes a broad, diverse sample of people in recovery, using various recruiting strategies,” she said. “Only then can we hope to recruit truly representative samples of the recovery community.”

Taylor says the group’s goal is to demonstrate to the public and to policy makers that addiction is extremely costly, people can and do recover and that investing in recovery benefits individuals, their families and the nation in many ways, including economically. There are more than 23 million Americans in recovery. Faces & Voices is also using the survey results to underscore the need for removing discriminatory barriers to recovery. “So many people with addiction become involved in the criminal justice system, which affects the rest of their lives,” she says. “They face barriers in employment, voting, eligibility for housing and government benefits. It makes it very difficult for them to get their lives back on track.”

Dr. Laudet hopes the survey will encourage people in recovery to be proud of their accomplishments. “Because of the anonymity that many people in the recovery community have chosen, there are few role models of recovery,” she says. “This survey shows people in recovery are like everyone else. They are working—they are your colleague, your neighbor, the parents of your kids’ friends. This shows they can function at least as well as everyone else. They are doing something extraordinary, and can become role models for others. We need to celebrate them.”

The poll, conducted by the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan, found half of parents say they are very concerned about teens using “study drugs” in their communities, and more than 75 percent support school policies aimed at stopping abuse of study drugs, including requiring children who are prescribed ADHD medications to keep them in a secure place such as the school nurse’s office.

“Taking these medications when they are not prescribed for you can lead to acute exhaustion, abnormal heart rhythms and even confusion and psychosis if the teens get addicted and go into withdrawal,” Matthew M. Davis, MD, who directed the poll, said in a news release. Taking study drugs has not been proven to improve grades, he noted.

Only 27 percent of parents said they have talked with their teens about using study drugs, the poll found. “If we are going to make a dent in this problem, and truly reduce the abuse of these drugs, we need parents, educators, health care professionals and all who interact with teens to be more proactive about discussing the issue,” Dr. Davis said.

Parents may not know their children are using these drugs because their effects are more subtle than drugs such as cocaine and heroin, Fox News reports.