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Fake Adderall Being Sold Online, FDA Warns

A counterfeit form of the drug Adderall is being sold online, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned.

Adderall, prescribed for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and narcolepsy, also is used illicitly to increase attention and get high, the Los Angeles Times reports. The drug is in short supply because of manufacturing problems, the article notes. Distributors of the fake medication are taking advantage of the shortage.

U.S. Says Drug Abuse Needs Treatment, Not Just Jail

Jail The United States sees drug abuse as a public health problem as much as a crime issue and is seeking to learn from countries in Europe and elsewhere about how to treat addiction as a disease, Barack Obama's drugs policy chief said recently.

Gil Kerlikowske, the U.S. president's director of national drug control policy, said the United States is taking a more balanced approach to substance abusers rather than fighting a "war on drugs" centered mainly on law enforcement.

7-Eleven Makes Moves to Fight Underage Addiction

Ethnic 2 7- Eleven recently announced new and aggressive approaches against illegal underage sales of age-restricted products including alcohol, tobacco, potential inhalants and lottery tickets. The technology will verify the birth date stored on the card but will not store any other information about the customer.

Reducing Alcohol to Half a Unit a Day Saves Lives

Beer About 4,600 lives in England could be saved by reducing alcohol intake to just half a unit a day, say experts. The Oxford University report warned that alcohol consumption is a risk factor for many chronic diseases.

The government recommends that men drink no more than three to four units per day and women no more than two to three.

Alcohol Treatments: Not One-Size-Fits-All

Despondent-man-with-bottle Not all treatments for alcoholism work for everyone who needs them, experts tell The New York Times. There are a few drugs that have shown promise in treating alcoholism when used with therapy. The challenge is to determine which treatments will benefit which patients.

"Just as breast cancer isn't just one type of breast cancer, alcoholism is heterogeneous as a disorder, so there's clearly not one drug that is going to work for everybody," Dr. Nora D. Volkow, Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, told the newspaper.

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