Adolescent drug use often triggers moral panics, fear-mongering and the passage of draconian laws to “keep the kids safe” by ...

Teen use of marijuana has jumped significantly in recent decades - by 245% since 2000, with over 30% of U.S. high school ...

For decades, my colleagues and I advanced the premise that early substance use—nicotine, alcohol, or cannabis (or other addicting drugs)—interferes with critical maturation stages, particularly ...

Those who grew up when Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) pamphlets were common in the school counselor's office are probably familiar with the “gateway drug” theory, which suggests the use of ...

A study of nearly 10,000 adolescents funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has identified distinct differences in the brain structures of those who used substances before age 15 compared ...

Adolescent substance use is a significant predictor of future addiction and related disorders. Understanding neural mechanisms underlying substance use initiation and frequency during adolescence is ...

Until recently, the prevailing belief was that brain development ceased at around the time a child entered kindergarten (i.e., that the brain is 90-95% formed by age six). However, recent findings ...

Ketamine is a powerful anesthetic used for surgery and acute pain management. But in recent years, it has also gained a ...

For decades, Americans have been told a simple story about addiction: taking drugs damages the brain—and the earlier in life children start using substances, the more likely they are to progress ...