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Most teens who use drugs are searching for calm and hoping to relieve stress, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analysis suggests. The study points toward mental health challenges among teens as a driver of drug misuse — and says educating teens on harm reduction while expanding mental health treatment could reduce overdose deaths. ... Most of the adolescents in the study — 73 percent — reported using drugs and alcohol to “feel mellow, calm, or relaxed.” (Blakemore, 2/17)

British Columbia ... became the first province to decriminalize small quantities of hard drugs for personal use in 2022, about two decades after Vancouver opened the first supervised injection site in North America. ... In Richmond, one of British Columbia’s largest cities, with 230,000 people, municipal council chambers turned raucous this week as a full public gallery of residents opposed a plan for staff to study whether a safe consumption site for drug users would be viable in the community. The plan was adopted on Tuesday, but the effort is off to a rocky start, with few officials and agencies standing up to defend it. (Isai, 2/17)

It's a common sight on the streets of downtown Portland, Oregon: people in front of stores, trendy restaurants and hotels, on sidewalks, corners, and benches, crouched over torch lighters held up to sheets of tinfoil or meth pipes. Some drape blankets over their heads, or duck behind concrete barriers. Others don’t try to hide. "All summer long, we were right out in the open. You didn't have to be paranoid anymore, you didn't have to be worried about the cops," said John Hood, a 61-year-old drug addict living on the streets of Oregon’s most populous city. (Bloom, 2/18)

The GLP-1 medication liraglutide significantly reduced opioid cravings in a small analysis presented on Saturday. It is the first randomized controlled trial to test anti-obesity drugs against opioid addiction, which kills around 80,000 people in the U.S. each year. (Bajaj, 2/17)