A new study finds teenagers are less likely to drink at parties if their community has strong social hosting laws. These laws hold adults responsible if teens drink on their property, even if the adults claim they were unaware that underage drinking was taking place.

The researchers looked at 50 communities in California, half of which had social hosting laws, Business Standard reports. Teens were less likely to say they drank at parties if they lived in communities with especially strong social hosting laws.

"It does look like there is less-frequent drinking among teenagers in cities with stringent social host laws, even when other city and youth characteristics that are related to underage drinking are controlled for," lead researcher Mallie Paschall of the Prevention Research Center in Oakland, California said in a news release. "So these laws might be an effective strategy for reducing hazardous drinking." He noted, "Most kids get alcohol from social sources, not commercial ones."

The findings are published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.

Strong social hosting laws specifically target underage drinking. They include a civil penalty, such as a large fine, that is quickly administered, Paschall said. Strong social hosting laws also hold property owners responsible, even if they say they didn't know underage drinking occurred. He said police in some communities don't enforce these laws, possibly because of a lack of support from the public or the local prosecutor's office.

The researchers plan to study rates of teen drinking before and after social hosting laws are passed, to better measure their impact. They also want to assess the laws' effect on problems related to teen drinking, such as drunk driving.

The national trend toward legalizing marijuana is impeding the fight against prescription drug abuse, according to the Acting Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Michael Botticelli says one in nine people who use marijuana will become addicted to the drug. He noted early use of marijuana increases the risk a person will develop dependency on other drugs, including prescription painkillers and heroin, the Associated Press reports.

"It's hard to say at one level that we want to think about prescription drug abuse and heroin abuse without looking at how to prevent kids from starting to use other substances from an early age," he said at a town hall forum on opioid abuse in Maine.

Botticelli is in long-term recovery from a substance use disorder, celebrating more than 25 years of sobriety. He said he began drinking at an early age, and struggled with alcoholism. "My personal story is very illustrative of what we see with people who go on to significant addiction later in life," he told the AP.

A new government report finds emergency rooms visits related to synthetic marijuana more than doubled between 2010 and 2011, HealthDay reports.

Synthetic marijuana, also known as "K2" or "Spice," is especially dangerous because there is a widespread misconception these drugs are safe and legal, according to Pamela Hyde, Administrator at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

Emergency rooms reported more than 28,500 visits linked to synthetic marijuana in 2011, up from 11,400 in 2010, according to the report. Among teens ages 12 to 17, the number of visits linked to synthetic marijuana rose from about 3,800 to nearly 7,600 during that year. Among young adults ages 18 to 20, ER visits linked to synthetic marijuana rose from about 2,000 to more than 8,000.

Short-term effects of synthetic marijuana include loss of control, lack of pain response, increased agitation, pale skin, seizures, vomiting, profuse sweating, uncontrolled/spastic body movements, elevated blood pressure, heart rate and palpitations. The drug takes effect in three to five minutes, and the high lasts from one to eight hours. In addition to physical signs of use, users may experience severe paranoia, delusions, hallucinations and increased agitation. Its long-term effects are unknown.

The Synthetic Drug Prevention Act of 2012 specifically prohibits the sale or possession of some types of synthetic marijuana. The Drug Enforcement Administration and nearly all states have also taken some regulatory action against these products once they have been identified, according to SAMHSA. "However manufacturers of these compounds continue to modify their chemical structures in an attempt to evade current laws," the agency notes.

Officials in San Francisco have introduced a bill that would require drug manufacturers to fund and manage a take-back program for prescription drugs. The move follows a decision earlier this month by a federal appeals court that forces drug makers to pay to dispose of unused and unexpired medications in Alameda County, California.

San Francisco has a pilot drug take-back program, The Wall Street Journal reports. The pharmaceutical industry provides about 40 percent of the funding for the program. The bill would expand the number of drop-off sites from 13 to as many as 60.

"There has been great demand for a permanent solution to this environmental, public health and public safety issue. We all have unused and leftover drugs in our homes, but not all of us have a reasonable means to properly discard them," San Francisco Board of Supervisors President David Chiu said in a statement.

Alameda County passed an ordinance in 2012 to establish a drug take-back program. The county said the measure is the first in the nation to require drug makers to set up a program to dispose of expired and unused medications. County officials said the annual cost of the program will be about $330,000. The industry trade group, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, estimates the program would cost drug makers about $1.2 million.

The county wants to reduce contaminants in drinking water by giving people an alternative to flushing their medications down the toilet. Officials also hope the measure will reduce prescription drug abuse by reducing the amount of medication in home medicine cabinets.