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Top News of the Week FEATURED NEWS: Addiction and Mental Health Parity Progress is Slow, Especially for Children: Expert While there have been substantial gains on the issue of parity – making addiction and mental health coverage equal to physical health coverage – much work still needs to be done, especially for children, according to Ron Manderscheid, Ph.D., Executive Director of the National Association of County Behavioral Health and Developmental Disability Directors and the National Association for Rural Mental Health. Learn more » Help Us Continue to Empower Families: Rise in Drug Overdoses Contributes to Increase in Premature Deaths Among Whites A new study finds premature death rates in the United States have risen among whites and American Indians/Alaskan Natives. A significant jump in drug overdoses is the primary reason for the increase, HealthDay reports. Learn more » Researchers Discover Gene Variant Linked With Opioid Addiction in African Americans The discovery of a gene variant associated with opioid addiction in African Americans may lead to personalized methadone treatment, according to HealthDay. Learn more » Hospitals Retraining Staff to Minimize Opioid Prescriptions  A growing number of hospitals across the country are rewriting protocols and retraining staff in an effort to minimize opioid prescriptions, PBS NewsHour reports. Learn more » More Americans with Substance Use Disorders, Mental Illness Got Insurance Under ACA More people with substance use disorders and mental illness had insurance coverage in 2014 because of the expansion of health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, a new study finds. Many barriers to treatment remain, according to researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Learn more » Study: 28 Percent of American Adults, 9 Percent of Teens Use Tobacco Twenty-eight percent of American adults, and 9 percent of teens, use tobacco products, according to a new survey. Researchers found 40 percent of people who use tobacco say they use more than one product. Cigarettes and e-cigarettes are the most common combination. Learn more » Other Headlines of Interest Opinion: Take Back Our Cities From Opioids (U.S. News & World Report) Opinion: Fentanyl Is Killing Us (U.S. News & World Report) A way to predict who'll become a drug addict (CBS News) Opinion: Repealing ObamaCare will threaten our mental health (The Hill) Opinion: Opioid addiction threatens more than health, it threatens safety (The Hill) My Daughter Needs Help, Not Jail: Mental Health, Addiction (Hartford Courant) Prescription for pain: Arizona medical boards can take years to penalize doctors who overprescribe (Cronkite News) Rural Colorado's Opioid Connections Might Hold Clues To Better Treatment (NPR) Why psychedelic drugs are having a medical renaissance (PBS NewsHour) Can Sobriety Tests Weed Out Drivers Who've Smoked Too Much Weed? (NPR) The Herren Project Celebrates 5 Years of Going Purple (The Herren Project Project Purple Initiative) Tostitos' new bag wants to fight drunk post-Super Bowl driving (USA Today)

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