The nation's top public health officials have joined in a call for expanded availability of medication-assisted treatment (i.e. methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone) to address the illegal use of heroin and prescription opiates.

In a commentary published in the New England Journal of Medicine on April 23, 2014 ("Medication-Assisted Therapies — Tackling the Opioid-Overdose Epidemic"), Nora D. Volkow, M.D., of NIDA; Thomas R. Frieden, M.D., M.P.H., of the CDC; Pamela S. Hyde, J.D., SAMHSA; and Stephen S. Cha, M.D., Center for Medicaide and CHIP Services, write:

This week: Part 1 of our coverage of the 57th Session of the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs meeting in Vienna, Austria. We hear from Mike Trace of the International Drug Policy Consortium; UN Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson; Guatemalan Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Carlos Raul Morales Moscoco; and Diego Canepa, Vice Secretary of the Office of the President of Uruguay.

Download, listen, and subscribe from http://www.podcastgarden.com/episode/drug-policy-facts-19_13675.

Drug Policy Facts Podcast #16 is available for download.

This week: Russian drug policies drive record high rates of HIV and Hepatitis C related to injection drug use; a police chief proves the value of accurate factual information; and we get to kick Dick Nixon around a little bit more. Listen, download, and subscribe from here: http://www.podcastgarden.com/episode/drug-policy-facts-16_12152

The new Drug Policy Facts Podcast is online!

This week: Oregon moves closer to putting marijuana on the 2014 ballot; the monitoring the future survey looks at drug use among today's high school students; and members of Congress leading the efforts to end prohibition and reform U S drug policies. Download/listen/subscribe!

The Download, listen, and subscribe from http://www.podcastgarden.com/episode/drug-policy-facts-14_11043>new Drug War Facts podcast is online. This week's installment is #14 in the series.

This week: Preventing overdose deaths; Sweden begins to reluctantly embrace harm reduction; and Attorney General Eric Holder talks about criminal justice reform and the injustice of felony disenfranchisement.

Download, listen, and subscribe from http://www.podcastgarden.com/episode/drug-policy-facts-14_11043.