Lead: US drug overdose deaths involving stimulants without opioids continued to rise in 2024Lead: US drug overdose deaths involving stimulants without opioids continued to rise in 2024
This Week in Addiction Medicine from ASAM
This brief news update reviews recent research on stimulant overdoses, cannabis use, adolescent substance co-use, alcohol treatment services, and youth emergency visits. It focuses on how current data may guide clinical practice and policy in addiction medicine.
7:36•15 Sept 2026
Stimulant Overdoses, Cannabis Questions, and Youth Risk: A Week of Addiction Medicine Headlines
Episode Overview
- Stimulant-only overdose deaths involving cocaine and methamphetamine have stayed the same or increased, despite declines in opioid-related deaths.
- Trauma-informed, client-driven care navigation with contingency management did not significantly improve linkage to methamphetamine treatment within 30 or 90 days.
- Cannabis is detected in a substantial portion of overdose deaths but is rarely listed as the direct cause, and youth cannabis use offers an opportunity for early intervention.
- Diagnostic criteria for cannabis use disorder may need adjustment for people using legally prescribed medical cannabis, affecting clinical and policy decisions.
- Individual factors like sex, race, and income interact with community income levels to shape the risk of substance-related emergency department visits among young people.
“"Researchers found that DOD rates related to cocaine without opioids and methamphetamines without opioids remain stable or increased between 2023 and 2024."”
What resources and support systems are available for sobriety? This weekly briefing from "This Week in Addiction Medicine" gives you a fast, research-focused snapshot of what’s changing in substance use and treatment across the US. Hosted by Zach Caruso and backed by the American Society of Addiction Medicine, the episode moves briskly through several new studies, keeping things clear and jargon-light while staying firmly rooted in data.
It’s aimed at clinicians, researchers, and anyone who likes their addiction information evidence-based rather than anecdotal. The lead story looks at US drug overdose deaths involving stimulants without opioids in 2024. You’ll hear that while opioid-related deaths have fallen, rates tied to cocaine and methamphetamine without opioids "remain stable or increased between 2023 and 2024," with the biggest rise in the Northeast. The authors of the report suggest that "stimulant-specific interventions may be needed" to address this shift.
From there, the episode moves through a randomised clinical trial on care navigation for methamphetamine use disorder, highlighting that trauma-informed, client-driven support with contingency management didn’t significantly change linkage to treatment at 30 or 90 days, despite decent engagement. It then reviews new data on cannabis detection in overdose deaths, showing cannabis present in 21% of cases but rarely listed as a cause of death.
You’ll also hear about medical cannabis and whether "prescription cannabis use disorder" should be considered separately, adolescent co-use of nicotine, alcohol, and cannabis and how co-use relates to higher doses, and the impact of inpatient addiction consult services on alcohol use disorder medication use and outcomes. Rounding things off, the episode covers prenatal alcohol exposure and brain development, plus emergency department visits among young people and how individual and community-level factors interact.
If you’re interested in how fresh data can shape better addiction treatment and policy, this concise news round-up might be just what you’re looking for – what trend in these findings stands out most to you?
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