Trucking company, C.R. England, recently published the results of a year long study of the difference between using a urine drug test versus a hair drug test as part of the pre-employment drug screen. The DOT requires trucking companies to use a urine drug test and the company will continue to do so, however, the results of additionally using a hair drug test are substantially different. "With hair testing, we are able to detect months of time rather than the handful of days checked with...

...What do you do now? Most parents of teens have to ask this question at some point. Drugs are ubiquitous, especially as your teen grows older. For example, as shown in our teen drug use infographic, 82.1% of high school seniors think marijuana is "easy or fairly easy" to get. That's more than 4 out of 5 teenagers, so it's likely that at least one person in your teen's social circle feels confident they could obtain marijuana. About 90% of 12th graders think alcohol is easy or fairly easy to...

Bath salts have been around forever but you probably never gave them much thought until recently. The Epsom salts used to help sore feet are not really all that interesting. Or at least, they probably weren't until someone high on "bath salts" decided to kill his neighbor's pet goat. But no worries, these aren't the same "bath salts" you are used to - these new "bath salts" are a unique and dangerous phenomenon of their own. The source of emergency room visits and bizarre headlining crimes has...

Heart disease is still the #1 killer of men and women in the United States. Taking care of your heart should be a lifelong goal, as some heart problems can originate in childhood, and many aspects of heart healthcare involve habits, such as smoking and nutrition, that are easier to shape from youth. While it's no longer February, the CDC's Heart Month resources are always worth a look. EverydayHealth.com has also produced a list of resources for taking care of your heart that is well worth a...

This week, the White House unveiled a new national plan to deal with prescription drug abuse, a subject we have devoted considerable time to on our blog. If you haven't checked out the 2009 CurrentTV short documentary "The OxyContin Express," it is well worth your time (45 minutes) and really gives the lay of the land in terms of the problem, especially when it comes to pill mills. What's a pill mill? A particular focus of House talks in DC have been pill mills, clinics that dispense a great...

A new study, released today by The Partnership at Drugfree.org and the MetLife Foundation, found a number of interesting trends in teen drug use. Some of them echo the findings of Monitoring the Future from the past year - for example, that marijuana use in teens has been trending up in the past 3 years. Rising ecstasy use was also reported. As you can see in our teen drug use infographic, marijuana use has been rising for a few years, while cigarette use is set on a downward path. (data for...