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The most recent monthly provisional overdose death data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show the rate of fatal overdose continuing to decrease nationally, but at a slower pace than it had been previously, and with a corridor of increasing fatalities in the West. Within that corridor, Arizona appears to be separating onto its own trajectory, with the increase slowing down even as it speeds up in neighboring states.

People in the United Kingdom are using nicotine pouches in rapidly growing numbers—both to quit smoking, where these low-risk options have a strong track record, but also in some cases as an alternative to vapes. A recent survey of over 2,000 British pouch users—from Haypp, an international e-commerce company specializing in safer nicotine products, and its subsidiary Northerner.com—explored how and why nicotine pouches were being used.

One morning in July we wake to rumors of being on lockdown, which happens at least once a month these days. Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC) cell doors don’t electrically lock anymore; a majority have functional dead-man locks welded on but the few officers here don’t care enough about the job to use those. So while the main building door to this dorm remains locked, movement inside is free.

About 97 percent of marijuana seized by California officials in unincorporated areas of the state came from counties that continue to ban licensed growers, new data from the Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) reveals. That shows how local governments that have refused to get on board with California’s legalization law, which voters approved 10 years ago, “benefit” the illicit market, the state’s top cannabis regulator told State Affairs, which obtained and first reported on the data.

The Food and Drug Administration has unveiled multiple actions supporting President Donald Trump’s executive order fast-tracking access to psychedelic therapies for mental health conditions and substance use disorder (SUD). On July 14 the agency announced a public hearing to get feedback about potential psychedelic therapies, and simultaneously published final clinical guidance for developers preparing to submit investigational new drug applications (INDA).

At 6:50 am on Tuesday, July 7, Houston resident Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was on the way to his work of running a construction business when ICE agents tried to stop his white van. Video footage shows an agent’s car swerve into the van, and the vehicle come to a stop. Other footage starts moments later: men, including Araujo, on their stomachs, handcuffed. Araujo, 52, had been shot in the abdomen. He would die in the hospital.

Four years after Washington state sued Albertsons Companies, Inc. alleging that the grocery chain’s opioid dispensing “created a public health crisis and a public nuisance,” the litigation has made it to court. The trial kicked off July 13 in King County Superior Court, where it’s expected to continue through early September.

Ireland is banning disposable vapes, which are a low-barrier entry point to vaping for many people who switch from cigarettes. It’s the latest in a series of political moves against tobacco harm reduction in the country in recent years—and looks unlikely to be the last. The Public Health (Single-Use Vapes) Bill 2025 completed Ireland’s parliamentary process at the Oireachtas on July 7. It currently awaits the signature of President Catherine Connolly, which is expected to be a mere formality.

Massachusetts lawmakers have advanced a groundbreaking measure to establish a state-sanctioned psychedelic-assisted therapy pilot program. The move could create a narrower medical framework for legal access, following the controversial defeat of Question 4, a psychedelic legalization and decriminalization ballot measure, in 2024. The new psychedelics measure was inserted as an amendment into an economic development omnibus bill, which passed the House by 148 votes to 2 on July 8.

The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) has finally released the Trump administration’s overdue Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions, the document that lists all the updated rulemaking actions each federal agency has undertaken or completed since the last Agenda. Published over a holiday weekend without any acknowledgment from the White House, this Agenda is only the second one the current administration has produced.