New Risks for Nicotine Treatment: Stop Smoking

Chantix is a most popular drug, available to help people stop smoking. Although recently tested, and found acceptable, by Ontario, Canada for use in a publicly funded nicotine withdrawal program, new risks have now emerged that cast into doubt the wisdom of the Ontario decision. see article According to Dr Sonal Singh of John Hopkins University, Chantix that is already linked to depression and suicide – is...

Crack Cocaine – Burning our Bridges

The latest news from the USA is that up to 12,000 prisoners may be released from jail, on average three years early, under the Fair Sentencing Act 2010 for crack cocaine offences. The move is said to address the issue of sentencing for crack cocaine offenders being more severe than jail terms imposed on people for cocaine offences. The penalties under the previous law, that was enacted in 1986, imposed high...

Digital Drugs – A Gateway to Substance Abuse?

An article in BBC News in 2010 raises the question of whether or not digital drugs can lead to substance abuse. the article refers to schoolchildren using binaural tone downloads on their i-pods and experiencing “high” effects. It is of concern that the producers of these media items also appear to promote a range of “legal” psychoactive substances – aimed at the teen...

Drug Use and our Aging Population.

In modern times we are seeing people living for many years longer than they used to do. In former times the average lifespan was shorter, and more people died prematurely from disease and accidental causes. Today with medical support and surgical interventions, people are continuing to survive and live longer. Many people are living into old age, with some form of disability. There are also social problems of...

Drug Use Ontario – Have We Lost the Plot?

CAMH the Center for Addiction and Mental Health, Canada has recently released the results of a 2009 survey, conducted about the population of Ontario, and found that people in Ontario are increasingly using alcohol and marijuana, with an increasing number of the population reporting that they have mental health problems. Cannabis use, for both males and females of all age groups, has risen to 13.3% in 2009, from...