Roundup: Hospitals May Be Required to Deal with Addictions; Teens Say Easier to Get Pot than Cigarettes; and More

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A potential game-changer in the field of adolescent (and adult) substance abuse: hospitals may soon be required to screen and provide brief intervention for addictions in order to be accredited.

According to the 2008 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NASDUH), adolescent misuse of prescription drugs has dropped, but even so, teens say it's easier to get marijuana than cigarettes. And just in time for back-to-school, SAMHSA released its Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS) report on referrals of schoolchildren to alcohol and drug abuse treatment.

TIME magazine had yet another article on juvenile justice, this time on why reforming the New York juvenile justice system is receiving so much opposition.

We know that “early-onset aggression in children as young as age 3 is the single most-important predictor of later delinquency, substance abuse and violence." What causes children to become aggressive? Apparently, one cause is early spanking.

Recovery Month kicked off with a Rally for Recovery, with various local events, including a big gathering in New York City, where singer Smokey Robinson performed. Anyone enrolled in a Recovery High School or College program is eligible to participate in the Recovery Month 2009 essay contest (deadline is October 16th) -- first prize is an iPod Touch.

Two different longitudinal studies have shown that mental disorders appear to be much more common than historically believed, leading to disagreements about whether or not they're under- or over-diagnosed.

It's official: nonprofits are under a "triple strain" of increasing demand, rising costs, and dwindling funds; state budget problems mean that many states are behind in their payments to nonprofit service providers; and even churches are hurting. In such an environment, it's not surprising that the Alabama corrections department signed a deal to drill for oil on prison grounds, in the hope of easing its financial woes. (If they hit a gusher, will the state really let the corrections department keep all the profits?)