Small city's opioid addiction task force serves as case study for a proactive approach to drug addiction.

In a small city approximately 125 kilimetres northeast of Toronto in Sourthern Ontario, a drug task force has been created to tackle opioid addiction.

In May of 2009, the city of Peterborough, Ont., created a drug task force, partnering the Peterborough County-City Health Unit and members of the city police force, after police noticed that opioids were rapidly becoming a problem, replacing even crack-cocaine as the city’s drug of choice.

The primary goal of the task force is to address drug addiction at the root, concentrating on prevention over prohibition. Working with schools and students, the task force is looking to stop drug use before addiction sets in.

Previously teenagers who were caught with marijuana or prescription painkillers would simply be warned and have the drugs confiscated. Now, Peterborough police have become proactive, instituting instead a referral system whereby police refer caught teens to community agencies that offer drug counselling.

They are then monitored on an on-going basis to see if they are charged or caught with drugs again.

The task force sees drug counseling as a chance to get to the root of addiction problems before it begins, addressing why these teens are using drugs to begin with.

The previous warning system, conversely, had no means of attending to the why, simply the what.

Peterborough’s OxyContin task force is also looking to end drug trafficking in schools with a focus on building strong relationships with both teachers and students, instead of filling hallways with uniformed officers.

All in all, this small city is an interesting case study on a proactive approach to drug addiction that appears to yield results. The task force focuses on building relationships and networks within the community, looking to also include the medical community including both physicians and dentists to address the source of these prescription medications.

The vast majority of teens find their drugs in their own medicine cabinets.

Many local pharmacists in Peterborough are now passing the message along, encouraging parents to keep track of and secure their prescription medications.

Opioids are a class of drugs that include such prescription painkillers as OxyContin and Percocet, as well as heroin.

Source: The Peterborough Examiner

According to a new report from the CBC, OxyContin has become the most commonly abused drug in Ottawa.

OxyContin has overtaken crack as the most commonly abused drug in Ottawa. In 2007-08 alone, about $54 million worth of OxyContin prescriptions were filled in Ontario. As well, in the five-year period between 2004 and 2009, over 450 deaths in the province were associated with OxyContin abuse.

However, the province is also taking this trend seriously.

Recently, the Ontario Health Ministry announced that it would lead a national investigation into OxyContin addiction and use. The province is also looking at imposing new guidelines for prescribing the drug and introducing a tracking system to help curb “double doctoring”, where patients seek out several health professionals in order to obtain multiple prescriptions for either personal use or resale.

OxyContin is highly lucrative, with very high profit margins. In response, Ottawa has also seen a rash of pharmacy robberies.

OxyContin is a prescription painkiller from the oxycodone family. As an opiate, it is similar to morphine and heroin. When chewed or crushed and snorted, it produces a rapid heroin-like euphoria.

OxyContin, and prescription medications in general, have come under great scrutiny with several celebrity deaths associated with their abuse.

The rise of Oxycontin addiction has been seen across Canada.

Source: CBC News

Mephedrone, the new drug to hit the party scene in the UK, will soon make its appearance across the pond, say experts.

Mephedrone, also known as Meow, Drone or Bubble, may reach our shores in a matter of months, say experts. The latest drug to hit the party/club scene in the UK is currently the most popular of a number of “legal highs”.

Although many of these drugs have since been banned, Mephedrone is currently only under review. Sold legally as a plant food, it has been linked to at least two deaths.

Mephedrone has already been banned in Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Sweden and the Channel Island of Jersey.

According to Health Canada, it is a controlled substance, but researchers say, according to the Globe and Mail, that nonetheless the drug has been found here.

Mephedrone is a synthetic stimulant, a member of a new generation of drugs synthesized, experts say, by chemists in China and Southeast Asia. A cross between ecstasy and cocaine, it produces a sense of euphoria, heightened alertness, lowered inhibitions and increased talkativeness.

Mephedrone is a white, off-white, or sometimes yellowish powder that is snorted or swallowed from wraps of paper. Side effects, however, include anxiety, depression, short-term memory loss, heart palpitations, excessive sweating, headaches, and blurred vision. The drug is also particularly dangerous as many users report that once started, it is very hard to stop, leading to insomnia and hallucinogens.

Possibly most dangerous of all, Mephedrone is sold online legitimately and cheaply, making it both easily and widely available.

Highly addictive, the drug poses also quite a high risk of overdose and addiction.

Last year, the drug was hardly known in the UK. One year later, it has quickly become a favourite among drug users in the club scene. A recent survey found that it is now the fourth most popular drug, with 41.7 percent of respondents reporting to have tried it, and 33.6 percent having used it in the last 30 days.

Read user testimonials gathered by the BBC News.

Source: The Globe and Mail and The Guardian

According to new reports, Oxycontin is quickly becoming a drug of choice for Manitobans.

Due to geographic location and socio-economic similarities, many once feared the invasion of methamphetamines into Canada’s heartland. But, today, according to new reports, Oxycontin has quickly become the drug of choice throughout the province, wreaking havoc on many lives.

According to officials, Oxycontin, often referred to as “hillbilly heroin”, invaded Manitoba without warning, press coverage or public hype.

Law enforcement officials and addiction treatment workers, those most often of the frontlines of drug life, have been reporting:

• continuous police raids
• an increase in the number of addicts seeking drug addiction treatment 
• an increase in the number of overdoses 
• addiction treatment programs being overrun with Oxycontin addicts

The profile of the typical Oxycontin addict, they say, is a young male either in school or working who comes, most likely, from in intact suburban family.

Furthermore, they are asking for education programs on the risks and signs of Oxycontin abuse and addiction before the problem worsens, and the need for more beds in addiction treatment facility, especially for women.

Oxycontin is a powerful opiod, much like heroin, which has also been growing significantly in Winnipeg.

Treatments for Oxycontin addiction include:

• residential addiction treatment or 
• methadone therapy, for the short and medium-term

both in combination with individual psychotherapy to treat the root problems of addiction.




Source: The Winnipeg Sun

Recently we discussed the benefits of enjoying new activities for your addiction recovery process. Today, let’s turn our attention to a particular powerful activity.

The ancient practice of yoga.

There are many different schools of yoga from the slow-paced, calming practice of Hatha, to the more rigorous and energizing practice of Ashtanga. Each school has its own merits and each is suited for a particular time of day and mood.

But no matter which you choose to practice today, yoga’s greatest benefit, and it’s greatest lesson in recovery, is the practice of mindfulness.

Mindfulness is just that—the practice of being present and mindful in this very moment of your entire presence physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Without realizing it, most of us in and out of recovery live our lives totally outside of our bodies, virtually numb to everything that is happening. Rarely do we feel, both physically and emotionally, at every moment.

We numb ourselves with the Internet, television, text messages, smart phones, over-working, and the rigours of daily life. For those of us with addictions, we sought out extreme measures to keep ourselves numb from our pain, sadness, and anxiety, or to simply quiet our overwhelming thoughts.

Mindfulness brings us back into our bodies.

Through practicing mindfulness on the mat, we become aware of our minds, and its thoughts and feelings. By requiring us to align our breath with our movement, yoga does not allow us to numbly or blindly move through our practice. Instead, we must focus and concentrate to bring thoughts, movements, and breath into alignment.

By far, the greatest lesson of yoga is learning how to take our mindfulness off the mat and learning to live our daily lives mindful of our own selves—our thoughts, bodies, and emotions—and of others. 

Research has found a significant increase in the number of drunk driving incidents among young women from 1995 to 2007. 

Men, who characteristically are the culprits of drunk driving, still make up the vast majority of drunk drivers in the US.

However, researchers are seeing an alarming increase of both drunk driving and the number of fatal car crashes involving alcohol among young women. 

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Drug use is, for the most part, an attempt to escape daily life, and the stress, anxiety, and sometimes seemingly insurmountable problems that come along with it.

We all use different coping mechanisms to deal with these. Some of us were fortunate to learn early on healthy coping mechanisms on which to now rely on. The rest of us, on the other, did not. For those of us suffering from a drug or alcohol addiction, we rely on our substance of choice as the coping mechanism that we think works best.

But in reality, we are only fooling ourselves. Drugs and alcohol only dampen the negative feelings; they are merely temporarily blocking them out—the key word here being temporarily. Inevitably, when the effects wear off and we’re left sober, those feelings of stress, anxiety, sadness come rushing back.

Drugs and alcohol do not work to solve or resolve our problems. Sometimes, because of their negative effects on our emotional well-being and general outlook on life, they only make things worse. Never mind their familial, professional, financial, and sometimes judicial consequences.

The goal of addiction rehab, as part of your recovery from a drug or alcohol addiction, is to learn new, healthy and beneficial, coping mechanisms through professional psychotherapy and counselling. Activities like exercise, art, and even hobbies may also help to fill the void left by drugs or alcohol.

Without drugs or alcohol in your life, you will find a pretty large void in your life—probably bigger than you initially expected. Especially in the early stages of your recovery, there will be a void in your time. The time usually spent drinking or doing drugs will need to be filled with something else healthier and more constructive.

As well, you will need something to replace drugs or alcohol as a means to relax, to alleviate stress, anxiety, and even boredom; as something to do when you’re happy; as something to reward yourself with; and as something to comfort you.

Addiction treatment helps you to be mindful to not replace your old, unhealthy, habit with a new one. Working with an addiction counsellor while in treatment helps you to find a suitable, best-fitting way to deal with your negative feelings in a constructive way.

What are some of the other ways that you count on?

According to the Center for Addition & Mental Health (CAMH), online interventions can be effective for alcohol addiction.

In the first evaluation of its kind, CAMH, Canada’s premier research center for addiction and substance abuse, determined that online resources help to change problematic or dangerous drinking behaviours, and be greatly beneficial to public health.

In a recent survey, CAMH found that approximately 80% of problem drinkers have Internet access, a third of whom indicated that they would seek intervention help online.

Upon launching CheckYourDrinking.net, a short web-based intervention service, CAMH found that when problem drinkers, those at risk of alcohol addiction, were given access to the online screener, they reduced their consumption of alcohol by 30%, or six to seven drinks a week.

The reduction in alcohol consumption was also sustained at both the three-month and six-month follow up.

Results, published in Addiction, are, according to CAMH, comparable to face-to-face intervention services.

CheckYourDrinking.net leads to an anonymous online survey, which provides a comprehensive report on your alcohol use habits. The report compares your intake against the national average, lists the health and physical risks associated with your drinking habits, the amount of money spent in the last 12 months, as well as the number of calories and pounds associated with your alcohol intake.

Finally, it calculates the number of hours you’ve spent over the last year under the influence of alcohol and provides you with safer drinking guidelines allowing users to evaluate and judge their or their loved one’s drinking safely and privately.

CAMH hopes that the online resource will reduce alcohol consumption and help problem drinkers to seek out appropriate and necessary alcohol addiction treatment.

CheckYourDrinking.net hopes to fill a gap in alcohol addiction intervention services currently available. Seeking professional help, such as a residential addiction treatment center, is always optimum. However, there are often barriers, including the stigma of alcohol addiction and access to resources.

For a great majority of alcohol addicts, they have yet to recognize or acknowledge that their drinking has become a problem. Alcohol addiction can be hard to reconcile for both the functioning alcoholic and the family—there is always an excuse and justification for the excessive drinking. Thus, addiction treatment is left on the wayside.

A discreet, anonymous resource that provides a dry assessment of behaviour, without judgement, can be the impetus needed.

If you or your loved one is having difficulty with alcohol addiction , please call one of our experienced cousellors today. 1-866-330-9818

Source: ScienceDaily

From the January 10th 2009 issue of the Harvard Mental Health Letter, research has found that women find it harder than men to recover from addiction.

Women, research shows, tend to progress more quickly from use to dependency and addiction, more quickly develop medical or social consequences from their addiction, and are more susceptible to relapse after a period of sobriety.

The reasons for the gender difference, on the other hand, are not yet clear.

However, researchers have found that a woman’s menstrual cycle appears to affect the craving and use of some illicit drugs. Studies have shown that during the luteal phase, quitting cocaine appears more difficult and less successful, whereas it is easier during the follicular phase. Hormonal fluctuations may, researchers have concluded, increase cravings for cocaine, as well as nicotine, affecting the initial phase of recovering from a cocaine addiction.

Conversely, men are more likely to be afflicted by addiction than women. For example, in the 2008 US National Survey on Drug Use and Health, it was found that 11.5% of males 12 years and older had a substance abuse or addiction problem, compared to 6.4% of females.

Women and Addiction Treatment Programs 
Researchers concluded that women are less likely to enter an addiction treatment program, but once there, are just as likely as men to recover.

Gender differences can and should, on the other hand, affect addiction treatment. Traditional addiction treatment programs were developed based on research on men. According to the Harvard Mental Health Letter, until the early 1990s, addiction research focused primarily on men. Now, however, agencies require federally funded studies to enroll more women.

Now there is a growing body of evidence that female addicts face challenges that male addicts simply don’t, especially in terms of familial responsibilities. The Harvard Mental Health Letter’s authors recommend a better appreciation of these gender differences in order to help women avoid the pitfalls of addiction, including relapse.

Source: The Harvard Mental Health Letter
Photo credit: Nevit Dilmen courtesy of Wikipedia

According to addiction workers, Winnipeg is seeing a dramatic rise in heroin use amongst inner-city drug users—a concerning trend.

Heroin use has always been extremely low in Manitoba, with abuse rates near zero. However recently, the province is seeing a trend in both increased heroin use and intravenous-drug users in the Winnipeg core.

Concerned health workers say that the trend means heightened risks of overdose, Hepatitis C and HIV/AIDS among the region’s intravenous drug users.

Manitoba’s addiction workers are reporting:

• A rise in the number of opiate addictions in the last 12 months, most notably in the prescription painkiller Oxycontin
• A drastic increase in the number of heroin users in the last year

Opiate addiction started with middle-class suburban youth, but has since spread to the inner city. Meanwhile, the method of use has gone from snorting the drugs in powder form to injection.

Manitoba is seeing an increase in addiction and use of opiates of all kinds—not simply heroin, but other opioid painkillers such as Oxycontin and fentanyl.

As well, there seems to be an overall increase in intravenous drug use, where drugs that aren’t traditionally consider an intravenous drug, like fentanyl, are being used as such. It seems, reports one drug addiction worker, that Manitoban drug addicts are experimenting, possibly due to the relatively low availability of these drugs.

Furthermore, the province is experiencing a shortage of treatment spaces to meet this increased demand. There is currently anywhere from a three to 12-month wait for methadone treatment, a common addiction treatment method for opioid addiction from heroin to Oxycontin, with 147 individuals already on the wait list.

Some addiction workers fear the results of a province-wide systematic crackdown on prescription opiate use.

Some are asking if the government cracks down on the drugs, making them no longer as easily available or more risky to seek out, will these addicts turn to heroin to get their fix?

Does this perhaps already help to explain the current increase in heroin’s popularity?

Source: Winnipeg Free Press