Last spring, two Ohio State University students died after taking counterfeit pills laced with the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl. These deaths sparked support for legislation that has now decriminalized the test strips that can detect the presence of fentanyl in a given substance. Until recently, such strips were regarded as drug paraphernalia, and a person caught possessing or using one in Ohio faced up to 30 days in jail. Ohio’s News 5 found that even the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association supported this decriminalization.

Dr. Kimberly Hu and her colleagues at Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center have developed, implemented and evaluated a training curriculum for third-year medical students on treatment for opioid use disorder. In U.S. healthcare, such treatment is typically separated from primary care, and addiction is rarely a focus of study for medical students. In a presentation for the American Psychiatric Association, Hu noted that both future patients and future doctors stand to benefit from enhanced addiction training in medical schools.

Binge drinking and alcoholism are profound problems, and they seem only to get worse with each passing year. For more than eight decades, Alcoholics Anonymous has been the leading prescription for alcoholism, but it doesn’t work for everyone. Enter a different solution. Described as an opioid antagonist, which works by shutting off the pleasure centers of the brain triggered by alcohol, naltrexone received FDA approval in 1994. But it’s only recently that Americans have started opening up to this unconventional approach to curbing addiction.

Some research suggests that treatment for a variety of different addictions might come in the form of a vaccine. Researchers have developed a vaccine for nicotine addiction, and others have been working on vaccines to block the effects of phencyclidine (PCP), as well as methamphetamine and opioids like heroin and fentanyl. But some remain skeptical. Addiction vaccines have produced mixed results in clinical trials, and pharmaceutical companies are hesitant to fund them.

In your view, why is the addiction crisis in the U.S. getting worse?