Can You Get Over an Addiction?
I SHOT heroin and cocaine while attending Columbia in the 1980s, sometimes injecting many times a day and leaving scars that are still visible. I kept using, even after I was suspended from school, after I overdosed and even after I was arrested for dealing, despite knowing that this could reduce my chances of staying out of prison.
My parents were devastated: They couldn’t understand what had happened to their “gifted” child who had always excelled academically. They kept hoping I would just somehow stop, even though every time I tried to quit, I relapsed within months.
There are, speaking broadly, two schools of thought on addiction: The first was that my brain had been chemically “hijacked” by drugs, leaving me no control over a chronic, progressive disease. The second was simply that I was a selfish criminal, with little regard for others, as much of the public still seems to believe. (When it’s our own loved ones who become addicted, we tend to favor the first explanation; when it’s someone else’s, we favor the second.)
We are long overdue for a new perspective — both because our understanding of the neuroscience underlying addiction has changed and because so many existing treatments simply don’t work.
Addiction is indeed a brain problem, but it’s not a degenerative pathology like Alzheimer’s disease or cancer, nor is it evidence of a criminal mind. Instead, it’s a learning disorder, a difference in the wiring of the brain that affects the way we process information about motivation, reward and punishment. And, as with many learning disorders, addictive behavior is shaped by genetic and environmental influences over the course of development.
Scientists have documented the connection between learning processes and addiction for decades. Now, through both animal research and imaging studies, neuroscientists are starting to recognize which brain regions are involved in addiction and how.
The studies show that addiction alters the interactions between midbrain regions like the ventral tegmentum and the nucleus accumbens, which are involved with motivation and pleasure, and parts of the prefrontal cortex that mediate decisions and help set priorities. Acting in concert, these networks determine what we value in order to ensure that we attain critical biological goals: namely, survival and reproduction.
In essence, addiction occurs when these brain systems are focused on the wrong objects: a drug or self-destructive behavior like excessive gambling instead of a new sexual partner or a baby. Once that happens, it can cause serious trouble.
If, like me, you grew up with a hyper-reactive nervous system that constantly made you feel overwhelmed, alienated and unlovable, finding a substance that eases social stress becomes a blessed escape. For me, heroin provided a sense of comfort, safety and love that I couldn’t get from other people (the key agent of addiction in these regions is the same for many pleasurable experiences: dopamine). Once I’d experienced the relief heroin gave me, I felt as though I couldn’t survive without it.
Understanding addiction from this neurodevelopmental perspective offers a great deal of hope. First, like other learning disorders, for example, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder or dyslexia, addiction doesn’t affect overall intelligence. Second, this view suggests that addiction skews choice — but doesn’t completely eliminate free will: after all, no one injects drugs in front of the police. This means that addicts can learn to take actions to improve our health, like using clean syringes, as I did. Research overwhelmingly shows such programs not only reduce H.I.V., but also aid recovery.
The learning perspective also explains why the compulsion for alcohol or drugs can be so strong and why people with addiction continue even when the damage far outweighs the pleasure they receive and why they can appear to be acting irrationally: If you believe that something is essential to your survival, your priorities won’t make sense to others.
Learning that drives urges like love and reproduction is quite different from learning dry facts. Unlike memorizing your sevens and nines, deep, emotional learning completely alters the way you determine what matters most, which is why you remember your high school crush better than high school math.
Recognizing addiction as a learning disorder can also help end the argument over whether addiction should be treated as a progressive illness, as experts contend, or as a moral problem, a belief that is reflected in our continuing criminalization of certain drugs. You’ve just learned a maladaptive way of coping.
Moreover, if addiction resides in the parts of the brain involved in love, then recovery is more like getting over a breakup than it is like facing a lifelong illness. Healing a broken heart is difficult and often involves relapses into obsessive behavior, but it’s not brain damage.
The implications for treatment here are profound. If addiction is like misguided love, then compassion is a far better approach than punishment. Indeed, a 2007 meta-analysis of dozens of studies over four decades found that empowering, empathetic treatments like cognitive behavioral therapy and motivational enhancement therapy, which nurture an internal willingness to change, work far better than the more traditional rehab approach of confronting denial and telling patients that they are powerless over their addiction.
This makes sense because the circuitry that normally connects us to one another socially has been channeled instead into drug seeking. To return our brains to normal then, we need more love, not more pain.
In fact, studies have not found evidence in favor of harsh, punitive approaches, like jail terms, humiliating forms of treatment and traditional “interventions” where families threaten to abandon addicted members. People with addictions are already driven to push through negative experiences by their brain circuitry; more punishment won’t change this.
In line with the idea that development matters, research also shows that half of all addictions — with the exception of tobacco — end by age 30, and the majority of people with alcohol and drug addictions overcome it, mostly without treatment. I stopped taking drugs when I was 23. I always thought that I had quit because I finally realized that my addiction was harming me.
But it’s equally possible that I kicked then because I had become biologically capable of doing so. During adolescence, the engine that drives desire and motivation grows stronger. But unfortunately, only in the mid-to-late 20s are we able to exert more control. This is why adolescence is the highest risk period for developing addiction — and simple maturation may be what helped me get better.
At the time, nearly all treatment was based on 12-step groups like Alcoholics Anonymous, which help only a minority of addicted people. Even today, most treatment available in rehab facilities involves instruction in the prayer, surrender to a higher power, confession and restitution prescribed by the steps.
We treat no other medical condition with such moralizing — people with other learning disorders aren’t pushed to apologize for their past behavior, nor are those affected by schizophrenia or depression.
Once we understand that addiction is neither a sin nor a progressive disease, just different brain wiring, we can stop persisting in policies that don’t work, and start teaching recovery.
Indeed, if the compulsive drive that sustains addiction is directed into healthier channels, this type of wiring can be a benefit, not just a disability. After all, persisting despite rejection didn’t only lead to addiction for me — it has also been indispensable to my survival as a writer. The ability to persevere is an asset: People with addiction just need to learn how to redirect it.
Maia Szalavitz is the author of “Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/26/opini ... inion&_r=0
Social Evils
Pakistani social media star strangled in apparent "honor killing" - police
Pakistani social media celebrity Qandeel Baloch was strangled in what appeared to be an "honor killing," police said on Saturday, shocking the South Asian nation where she was viewed as a controversial figure.
Baloch's raunchy social media photos challenged social norms in Pakistan, a deeply conservative Muslim country where women are often repressed by their family members or the community.
Punjab Police spokeswoman Nabeela Ghazanfar told Reuters Baloch, whose real name is Fauzia Azeem, was killed in her family home in Multan, a large city in the Punjab province.
"Her father Azeem informed the police that his son Waseem has strangled Qandeel," Ghazanfar said. "Apparently, it is honor killing but further investigations would reveal the real motives behind this murder."
Police were now looking for Waseem, who had disappeared, she added.
Reuters was not immediately able to reach the family.
Local media reported Baloch had struggled to reconcile her family's conservative values with her social media stunts and received frequent threats from the public.
More than 500 people are killed in Pakistan each year in so-called "honor killings," usually carried out by members of the victim's family meting out punishment for bringing "shame" on the community.
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/pak ... li=AAggNb9
Pakistani Social Media Celebrity Dead in Apparent Honor Killing
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/17/world ... d=71987722
Extract:
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has vowed to strengthen laws intended to prevent such killings, but critics say no concrete steps have been taken yet.
In most cases, the honor killings take place within the family, said Syeda Sughra Imam, a former senator from Punjab who has pushed for legislation against the practice.
“The accused and the complainant are from the same family and they forgive each other,” Ms Imam said. “No one is ever prosecuted.”
Ms. Imam’s proposed legislation calls for eliminating a “forgiveness clause” in Pakistani law that allows families to reach a financial settlement or to forgive the killer.
“This killing with impunity has to stop,” Ms. Imam said.
Pakistani social media celebrity Qandeel Baloch was strangled in what appeared to be an "honor killing," police said on Saturday, shocking the South Asian nation where she was viewed as a controversial figure.
Baloch's raunchy social media photos challenged social norms in Pakistan, a deeply conservative Muslim country where women are often repressed by their family members or the community.
Punjab Police spokeswoman Nabeela Ghazanfar told Reuters Baloch, whose real name is Fauzia Azeem, was killed in her family home in Multan, a large city in the Punjab province.
"Her father Azeem informed the police that his son Waseem has strangled Qandeel," Ghazanfar said. "Apparently, it is honor killing but further investigations would reveal the real motives behind this murder."
Police were now looking for Waseem, who had disappeared, she added.
Reuters was not immediately able to reach the family.
Local media reported Baloch had struggled to reconcile her family's conservative values with her social media stunts and received frequent threats from the public.
More than 500 people are killed in Pakistan each year in so-called "honor killings," usually carried out by members of the victim's family meting out punishment for bringing "shame" on the community.
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/pak ... li=AAggNb9
Pakistani Social Media Celebrity Dead in Apparent Honor Killing
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/17/world ... d=71987722
Extract:
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has vowed to strengthen laws intended to prevent such killings, but critics say no concrete steps have been taken yet.
In most cases, the honor killings take place within the family, said Syeda Sughra Imam, a former senator from Punjab who has pushed for legislation against the practice.
“The accused and the complainant are from the same family and they forgive each other,” Ms Imam said. “No one is ever prosecuted.”
Ms. Imam’s proposed legislation calls for eliminating a “forgiveness clause” in Pakistani law that allows families to reach a financial settlement or to forgive the killer.
“This killing with impunity has to stop,” Ms. Imam said.
Qandeel Baloch's family barred from 'forgiving' son
Pakistani authorities barred the family of murdered social media celebrity Qandeel Baloch from legally "forgiving" their son, who is accused of strangling his sister, sources said.
A police source told the Reuters news agency on Monday that the government in Punjab, in a rare decision, has barred the family forgiving their son after he confessed to murdering 26-year-old Baloch on Friday.
"It was done on the instructions of the government. But it happens rarely," a Punjab police official told Reuters.
The practice of 'forgiving' is a common legal loophole that sees many honour killings go unpunished in Pakistan.
Baloch was found dead in her family home, having been strangled by her brother, Waseem Azeem, who later said he had "no regrets" and confessed to killing his famous sister for violating the family's honour by her provocative social media posts.
It was not immediately clear if the Punjab government's decision would lead to any meaningful reforms.
More...
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/qan ... lsignoutmd
Pakistani authorities barred the family of murdered social media celebrity Qandeel Baloch from legally "forgiving" their son, who is accused of strangling his sister, sources said.
A police source told the Reuters news agency on Monday that the government in Punjab, in a rare decision, has barred the family forgiving their son after he confessed to murdering 26-year-old Baloch on Friday.
"It was done on the instructions of the government. But it happens rarely," a Punjab police official told Reuters.
The practice of 'forgiving' is a common legal loophole that sees many honour killings go unpunished in Pakistan.
Baloch was found dead in her family home, having been strangled by her brother, Waseem Azeem, who later said he had "no regrets" and confessed to killing his famous sister for violating the family's honour by her provocative social media posts.
It was not immediately clear if the Punjab government's decision would lead to any meaningful reforms.
More...
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/qan ... lsignoutmd
These 37 Celebrities Never Drink Alcohol
When most people think about the lives of celebrities, champagne-soaked parties usually come to mind. What, with all of the parties, after-parties, and hotel lobbies, it’s not crazy to think that all celebrities get their drank on most days of the week. However, a surprising amount of celebrities don’t drink, which is actually pretty cool.
I gathered as much publicly available information as I could from the web to compile this comprehensive rundown of celebrity teetotalers in one place. From Jennifer Hudson to James Franco, here are 37 celebrities who never drink.
Slide show:
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/health/wellnes ... Nb9#page=1
When most people think about the lives of celebrities, champagne-soaked parties usually come to mind. What, with all of the parties, after-parties, and hotel lobbies, it’s not crazy to think that all celebrities get their drank on most days of the week. However, a surprising amount of celebrities don’t drink, which is actually pretty cool.
I gathered as much publicly available information as I could from the web to compile this comprehensive rundown of celebrity teetotalers in one place. From Jennifer Hudson to James Franco, here are 37 celebrities who never drink.
Slide show:
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/health/wellnes ... Nb9#page=1
The 4 Traits That Put Kids at Risk for Addiction
Drug education is the only part of the middle school curriculum I remember — perhaps because it backfired so spectacularly. Before reaching today’s legal drinking age, I was shooting cocaine and heroin.
I’ve since recovered from my addiction, and researchers now are trying to develop innovative prevention programs to help children at risk take a different road than I did.
Developing a public antidrug program that really works has not been easy. Many of us grew up with antidrug programs like D.A.R.E. or the Nancy Reagan-inspired antidrug campaign “Just Say No.” But research shows those programs and others like them that depend on education and scare tactics were largely ineffective and did little to curb drug use by children at highest risk.
But now a new antidrug program tested in Europe, Australia and Canada is showing promise. Called Preventure, the program, developed by Patricia Conrod, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Montreal, recognizes how a child’s temperament drives his or her risk for drug use — and that different traits create different pathways to addiction. Early trials show that personality testing can identify 90 percent of the highest risk children, targeting risky traits before they cause problems.
Recognizing that most teenagers who try alcohol, cocaine, opioids or methamphetamine do not become addicted, they focus on what’s different about the minority who do.
More....
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/04/well/ ... 87722&_r=0
Drug education is the only part of the middle school curriculum I remember — perhaps because it backfired so spectacularly. Before reaching today’s legal drinking age, I was shooting cocaine and heroin.
I’ve since recovered from my addiction, and researchers now are trying to develop innovative prevention programs to help children at risk take a different road than I did.
Developing a public antidrug program that really works has not been easy. Many of us grew up with antidrug programs like D.A.R.E. or the Nancy Reagan-inspired antidrug campaign “Just Say No.” But research shows those programs and others like them that depend on education and scare tactics were largely ineffective and did little to curb drug use by children at highest risk.
But now a new antidrug program tested in Europe, Australia and Canada is showing promise. Called Preventure, the program, developed by Patricia Conrod, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Montreal, recognizes how a child’s temperament drives his or her risk for drug use — and that different traits create different pathways to addiction. Early trials show that personality testing can identify 90 percent of the highest risk children, targeting risky traits before they cause problems.
Recognizing that most teenagers who try alcohol, cocaine, opioids or methamphetamine do not become addicted, they focus on what’s different about the minority who do.
More....
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/04/well/ ... 87722&_r=0
‘A cancer in our society’: Pakistan stiffens penalty for ‘honour’ killers
ISLAMABAD — Pakistani lawmakers on Thursday passed a law that stiffens the penalty for convicted “honour” killers and closed a loophole that often allowed them to go free, in a move aimed at stemming the growing number of such killings.
The bill was passed after a raucous debate that lasted nearly four hours, with some of the loudest opposition coming from hard-line Islamist lawmakers. They wanted the Islamic Ideology Council, a body of conservative Muslim clerics, to weigh in on it before becoming law.
Supporters of the bill flatly refused, saying the council, which once ruled it was permissible for a man to “lightly” beat his wife, routinely vetoes legislation aimed at protecting women.
“Honour killings are a cancer in our society. This law is being presented against this cancer,” said Naveed Qamar, a member of the opposition Pakistan People’s Party, a left-of-centre party once led by Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated in 2007, some say by Islamic militants.
More than 1,000 women were killed last year in so-called honour killings in Pakistan, often by fathers, brothers or husbands. Such killings are bound up with longtime traditions by which a woman’s chastity is vital to the family’s honour — so acts like a woman marrying the man of her choice, meeting a man or even being seen sitting with a man could lead to slayings.
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/world ... ur-killers
ISLAMABAD — Pakistani lawmakers on Thursday passed a law that stiffens the penalty for convicted “honour” killers and closed a loophole that often allowed them to go free, in a move aimed at stemming the growing number of such killings.
The bill was passed after a raucous debate that lasted nearly four hours, with some of the loudest opposition coming from hard-line Islamist lawmakers. They wanted the Islamic Ideology Council, a body of conservative Muslim clerics, to weigh in on it before becoming law.
Supporters of the bill flatly refused, saying the council, which once ruled it was permissible for a man to “lightly” beat his wife, routinely vetoes legislation aimed at protecting women.
“Honour killings are a cancer in our society. This law is being presented against this cancer,” said Naveed Qamar, a member of the opposition Pakistan People’s Party, a left-of-centre party once led by Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated in 2007, some say by Islamic militants.
More than 1,000 women were killed last year in so-called honour killings in Pakistan, often by fathers, brothers or husbands. Such killings are bound up with longtime traditions by which a woman’s chastity is vital to the family’s honour — so acts like a woman marrying the man of her choice, meeting a man or even being seen sitting with a man could lead to slayings.
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/world ... ur-killers
Women 'nearing equality with men - in alcohol consumption'
Extract:
The team at the University of New South Wales, in Australia, analysed data from people all over the world - although it was massively skewed towards North America and Europe.
They concluded: "Alcohol use and alcohol-use disorders have historically been viewed as a male phenomenon.
"The present study calls this assumption into question and suggests that young women, in particular, should be the target of concerted efforts to reduce the impact of substance use and related harms."
Prof Mark Petticrew, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: "Men's and women's roles have been changing over the decades, this is likely to account for some of these trends - but not all.
"The increasing availability of alcohol also plays an important part, as does the way that alcohol marketing is often targeted specifically at women and particularly young women.
More....
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-37751132
Extract:
The team at the University of New South Wales, in Australia, analysed data from people all over the world - although it was massively skewed towards North America and Europe.
They concluded: "Alcohol use and alcohol-use disorders have historically been viewed as a male phenomenon.
"The present study calls this assumption into question and suggests that young women, in particular, should be the target of concerted efforts to reduce the impact of substance use and related harms."
Prof Mark Petticrew, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: "Men's and women's roles have been changing over the decades, this is likely to account for some of these trends - but not all.
"The increasing availability of alcohol also plays an important part, as does the way that alcohol marketing is often targeted specifically at women and particularly young women.
More....
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-37751132
Pakistan’s Honor-Killing Law Isn’t Enough
KARACHI, Pakistan — In Pakistan today, it’s a sad reality that regressive societal attitudes toward women label us as commodities, second-class citizens and financial liabilities to our families. This leaves us open to abusive and violent traditions, dictated by tribal codes and enforced by social and religious conservatism: child marriages, forced marriages, bartering of women to appease feuds and the most egregious gender crime, honor killings.
So when Parliament revised its laws this month to stiffen the punishment for honor killings, as well as for rape, it was a bold move away from a patriarchal system that has traditionally left the protection of women up to the arbitrary wishes of men who act as their guardians.
But unless the regressive mind-set of those men undergoes a revolutionary transformation as well, the new laws will be ineffectual eyewash in the face of the misogyny that Pakistani women encounter every day.
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/28/opini ... &te=1&_r=0
KARACHI, Pakistan — In Pakistan today, it’s a sad reality that regressive societal attitudes toward women label us as commodities, second-class citizens and financial liabilities to our families. This leaves us open to abusive and violent traditions, dictated by tribal codes and enforced by social and religious conservatism: child marriages, forced marriages, bartering of women to appease feuds and the most egregious gender crime, honor killings.
So when Parliament revised its laws this month to stiffen the punishment for honor killings, as well as for rape, it was a bold move away from a patriarchal system that has traditionally left the protection of women up to the arbitrary wishes of men who act as their guardians.
But unless the regressive mind-set of those men undergoes a revolutionary transformation as well, the new laws will be ineffectual eyewash in the face of the misogyny that Pakistani women encounter every day.
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/28/opini ... &te=1&_r=0
The world’s drunkest countries
Many countries drink comparatively little alcohol, usually because of religious or cultural beliefs, but to other nations boozing is not only a recreational activity, it’s a way of life. Here are the top 20 drunkest nations, according to the most recent figures from 2012 and 2013 from the World Health Organization (WHO), based on alcohol consumed per person per country.
Slide show:
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/foodanddrink/f ... b9#image=1
Many countries drink comparatively little alcohol, usually because of religious or cultural beliefs, but to other nations boozing is not only a recreational activity, it’s a way of life. Here are the top 20 drunkest nations, according to the most recent figures from 2012 and 2013 from the World Health Organization (WHO), based on alcohol consumed per person per country.
Slide show:
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/foodanddrink/f ... b9#image=1
Pakistan Has a Drinking Problem
KARACHI, Pakistan — Pakistan was recently mesmerized by a bottle of Scotch whisky. On Oct. 30, as hundreds of supporters of the opposition party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (P.T.I.) were making their way to the capital Islamabad, with the declared intent of shutting down the city, the police searched the car of a P.T.I. politician and discovered a bottle of Johnny Walker Double Black.
Most Pakistanis had not seen a bottle of whisky in the news in a long time. Although there’s no ban on showing alcohol in the media, the subject rarely comes up in TV news. But this one bottle of whisky, waved around by a policeman, was broadcast on a loop. It became an emblem of the opposition’s immorality.
The politician claimed it contained honey. Yet later that evening, on a current affairs TV show, he put a sobering question to the other guests, “Which one of you doesn’t drink?” Complete silence.
If they said yes, they’d be implicating themselves. If they said no, nobody would believe them. For Muslims in Pakistan, drinking alcohol is prohibited and talking about it is taboo. Drinking and denying it is the oldest cocktail in the country.
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/02/opini ... inion&_r=0
KARACHI, Pakistan — Pakistan was recently mesmerized by a bottle of Scotch whisky. On Oct. 30, as hundreds of supporters of the opposition party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (P.T.I.) were making their way to the capital Islamabad, with the declared intent of shutting down the city, the police searched the car of a P.T.I. politician and discovered a bottle of Johnny Walker Double Black.
Most Pakistanis had not seen a bottle of whisky in the news in a long time. Although there’s no ban on showing alcohol in the media, the subject rarely comes up in TV news. But this one bottle of whisky, waved around by a policeman, was broadcast on a loop. It became an emblem of the opposition’s immorality.
The politician claimed it contained honey. Yet later that evening, on a current affairs TV show, he put a sobering question to the other guests, “Which one of you doesn’t drink?” Complete silence.
If they said yes, they’d be implicating themselves. If they said no, nobody would believe them. For Muslims in Pakistan, drinking alcohol is prohibited and talking about it is taboo. Drinking and denying it is the oldest cocktail in the country.
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/02/opini ... inion&_r=0
Inside a Killer Drug Epidemic: A Look at America’s Opioid Crisis
The opioid epidemic killed more than 33,000 people in 2015. What follows are stories of a national affliction that has swept the country, from cities on the West Coast to bedroom communities in the Northeast.
Opioid addiction is America’s 50-state epidemic. It courses along Interstate highways in the form of cheap smuggled heroin, and flows out of “pill mill” clinics where pain medicine is handed out like candy. It has ripped through New England towns, where people overdose in the aisles of dollar stores, and it has ravaged coal country, where addicts speed-dial the sole doctor in town licensed to prescribe a medication.
Public health officials have called the current opioid epidemic the worst drug crisis in American history, killing more than 33,000 people in 2015. Overdose deaths were nearly equal to the number of deaths from car crashes. In 2015, for the first time, deaths from heroin alone surpassed gun homicides.
And there’s no sign it’s letting up, a team of New York Times reporters found as they examined the epidemic on the ground in states across the country. From New England to “safe injection” areas in the Pacific Northwest, communities are searching for a way out of a problem that can feel inescapable.
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/06/us/op ... 05309&_r=0
The opioid epidemic killed more than 33,000 people in 2015. What follows are stories of a national affliction that has swept the country, from cities on the West Coast to bedroom communities in the Northeast.
Opioid addiction is America’s 50-state epidemic. It courses along Interstate highways in the form of cheap smuggled heroin, and flows out of “pill mill” clinics where pain medicine is handed out like candy. It has ripped through New England towns, where people overdose in the aisles of dollar stores, and it has ravaged coal country, where addicts speed-dial the sole doctor in town licensed to prescribe a medication.
Public health officials have called the current opioid epidemic the worst drug crisis in American history, killing more than 33,000 people in 2015. Overdose deaths were nearly equal to the number of deaths from car crashes. In 2015, for the first time, deaths from heroin alone surpassed gun homicides.
And there’s no sign it’s letting up, a team of New York Times reporters found as they examined the epidemic on the ground in states across the country. From New England to “safe injection” areas in the Pacific Northwest, communities are searching for a way out of a problem that can feel inescapable.
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/06/us/op ... 05309&_r=0
Female genital mutilation
Cultural evolution and the mutilation of women
The consequences of FGM for a woman’s reproductive output
http://www.economist.com/news/science-a ... n/NA/email
GENES that increase an individual’s reproductive output will be preserved and spread from generation to generation. That is the process of evolution by natural selection. More subtly, though, in species that have the sorts of learnable, and thus transmissible, behaviour patterns known as culture, cultural changes that promote successful reproduction are also likely to spread. This sort of cultural evolution is less studied than the genetic variety, but perhaps that should change, for a paper published this week in Nature Ecology and Evolution, by Janet Howard and Mhairi Gibson of the University of Bristol, in England, suggests understanding it better may help to wipe out a particularly unpleasant practice, that of female genital mutilation.
FGM, as it is known for short, involves cutting or removing part or all of a female’s external genitalia—usually when she is a girl or just entering puberty. Unlike male circumcision, which at least curbs the transmission of HIV, the AIDS-causing virus, FGM brings no medical benefit whatsoever. Indeed, it often does harm. Besides psychological damage and the inevitable risk that is associated with any sort of surgery (especially when not conducted in clinical conditions), FGM can cause subsequent obstetric complications and put a woman at risk of future infections. All these seem like good reasons why it would harm reproductive output and thus be disfavoured by evolution, whether biological or cultural. Yet the practice persists, particularly in parts of Africa and among migrant populations originating in these places. Ms Howard and Dr Gibson wanted to understand why.
To do so they drew on data from five national health surveys carried out in west Africa (specifically, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Mali and Senegal) over the past ten years. These provided data on the FGM-status—mutilated or otherwise—of more than 60,000 women from 47 ethnic groups. That enabled Ms Howard and Dr Gibson to establish the prevalence rates of mutilation in each of these groups, and to search for explanations of any variation.
They first established formally what common sense would suggest is true—that the daughters of a mother belonging to an ethnic group where the practice is widespread are, themselves, more likely to have undergone mutilation than those of a mother not belonging to such a group. But there was more to the pattern of those results than mere correlation. The average rates of mutilation in the groups the researchers looked at tended to cluster towards the ends of the distribution, near either 0% or 100%, rather than being spread evenly along it.
In the argot of statistics, then, the distribution is U-shaped. This suggests something is pushing behaviour patterns away from the middle and towards the extremes. What that something might be is in turn suggested by the two researchers’ second finding: the consequences of mutilation for a woman’s reproductive output.
For convenience, Ms Howard and Dr Gibson defined a woman’s reproductive output as the number of her children still living when she reached the age of 40. Just over 10,000 women in the five pooled surveys were over this age, and it was from these that the researchers drew their data. Their analysis showed that in ethnic groups where mutilation was common, mothers who were themselves mutilated had more children over their reproductive lifetimes than did the unmutilated. In groups where mutilation was rare, by contrast, it was the other way around. At the extremes, in groups where mutilation was almost ubiquitous or almost unheard of, the average difference amounted to a third or more of an extra child per lifetime. That is a strong evolutionary pressure to conform to the prevailing social norm, whatever it is.
What causes this difference Ms Howard and Dr Gibson cannot say for sure, but they suggest that conforming to whichever norm prevails might let a woman make a more advantageous marriage, and also give her better access to support networks, particularly of members of her own sex. Cultural evolution, in other words, is generating conformity in the same sort of way that biological evolution does when, say, the plumage of a male bird has to conform to female expectations of what a male looks like if that male is to mate successfully, even though the particular pattern of his plumage brings no other benefit.
All this does, though, offer a lever to those who are trying to eradicate female genital mutilation, for unlike genetic norms, cultural ones can be manipulated. The distribution’s shape suggests that, if mutilation rates in societies where FGM is now the norm could somehow be pushed below 50%, then positive feedback might continue to reduce them without further effort (though such effort could well speed things up).
One thing that is known to push in the right direction is more and better education—and not just for girls. That is desirable for reasons far wider than just the elimination of FGM, however. In a companion piece to Ms Howard’s and Dr Gibson’s paper, Katherine Wander of Binghamton University, in New York state, offers a thought inspired directly by the new research. She wonders if fostering social connections between “cut” and “uncut” women in a community might reorganise support networks specifically in a way that reduces the advantages of mutilation.
More widely, the method Ms Howard and Dr Gibson have pioneered, of looking for unanticipated reproductive advantages that help explain the persistence of other undesirable behaviours, might be applied elsewhere. So-called “honour killings” would be a candidate for such a study, as would the related phenomena of daughter neglect, and the selective infanticide and selective abortion of females. On the face of things these might be expected to be bad for total reproductive output. But perhaps, as with FGM, that is not always the case. And, if it is not, such knowledge would surely help in the fight against them.
Cultural evolution and the mutilation of women
The consequences of FGM for a woman’s reproductive output
http://www.economist.com/news/science-a ... n/NA/email
GENES that increase an individual’s reproductive output will be preserved and spread from generation to generation. That is the process of evolution by natural selection. More subtly, though, in species that have the sorts of learnable, and thus transmissible, behaviour patterns known as culture, cultural changes that promote successful reproduction are also likely to spread. This sort of cultural evolution is less studied than the genetic variety, but perhaps that should change, for a paper published this week in Nature Ecology and Evolution, by Janet Howard and Mhairi Gibson of the University of Bristol, in England, suggests understanding it better may help to wipe out a particularly unpleasant practice, that of female genital mutilation.
FGM, as it is known for short, involves cutting or removing part or all of a female’s external genitalia—usually when she is a girl or just entering puberty. Unlike male circumcision, which at least curbs the transmission of HIV, the AIDS-causing virus, FGM brings no medical benefit whatsoever. Indeed, it often does harm. Besides psychological damage and the inevitable risk that is associated with any sort of surgery (especially when not conducted in clinical conditions), FGM can cause subsequent obstetric complications and put a woman at risk of future infections. All these seem like good reasons why it would harm reproductive output and thus be disfavoured by evolution, whether biological or cultural. Yet the practice persists, particularly in parts of Africa and among migrant populations originating in these places. Ms Howard and Dr Gibson wanted to understand why.
To do so they drew on data from five national health surveys carried out in west Africa (specifically, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Mali and Senegal) over the past ten years. These provided data on the FGM-status—mutilated or otherwise—of more than 60,000 women from 47 ethnic groups. That enabled Ms Howard and Dr Gibson to establish the prevalence rates of mutilation in each of these groups, and to search for explanations of any variation.
They first established formally what common sense would suggest is true—that the daughters of a mother belonging to an ethnic group where the practice is widespread are, themselves, more likely to have undergone mutilation than those of a mother not belonging to such a group. But there was more to the pattern of those results than mere correlation. The average rates of mutilation in the groups the researchers looked at tended to cluster towards the ends of the distribution, near either 0% or 100%, rather than being spread evenly along it.
In the argot of statistics, then, the distribution is U-shaped. This suggests something is pushing behaviour patterns away from the middle and towards the extremes. What that something might be is in turn suggested by the two researchers’ second finding: the consequences of mutilation for a woman’s reproductive output.
For convenience, Ms Howard and Dr Gibson defined a woman’s reproductive output as the number of her children still living when she reached the age of 40. Just over 10,000 women in the five pooled surveys were over this age, and it was from these that the researchers drew their data. Their analysis showed that in ethnic groups where mutilation was common, mothers who were themselves mutilated had more children over their reproductive lifetimes than did the unmutilated. In groups where mutilation was rare, by contrast, it was the other way around. At the extremes, in groups where mutilation was almost ubiquitous or almost unheard of, the average difference amounted to a third or more of an extra child per lifetime. That is a strong evolutionary pressure to conform to the prevailing social norm, whatever it is.
What causes this difference Ms Howard and Dr Gibson cannot say for sure, but they suggest that conforming to whichever norm prevails might let a woman make a more advantageous marriage, and also give her better access to support networks, particularly of members of her own sex. Cultural evolution, in other words, is generating conformity in the same sort of way that biological evolution does when, say, the plumage of a male bird has to conform to female expectations of what a male looks like if that male is to mate successfully, even though the particular pattern of his plumage brings no other benefit.
All this does, though, offer a lever to those who are trying to eradicate female genital mutilation, for unlike genetic norms, cultural ones can be manipulated. The distribution’s shape suggests that, if mutilation rates in societies where FGM is now the norm could somehow be pushed below 50%, then positive feedback might continue to reduce them without further effort (though such effort could well speed things up).
One thing that is known to push in the right direction is more and better education—and not just for girls. That is desirable for reasons far wider than just the elimination of FGM, however. In a companion piece to Ms Howard’s and Dr Gibson’s paper, Katherine Wander of Binghamton University, in New York state, offers a thought inspired directly by the new research. She wonders if fostering social connections between “cut” and “uncut” women in a community might reorganise support networks specifically in a way that reduces the advantages of mutilation.
More widely, the method Ms Howard and Dr Gibson have pioneered, of looking for unanticipated reproductive advantages that help explain the persistence of other undesirable behaviours, might be applied elsewhere. So-called “honour killings” would be a candidate for such a study, as would the related phenomena of daughter neglect, and the selective infanticide and selective abortion of females. On the face of things these might be expected to be bad for total reproductive output. But perhaps, as with FGM, that is not always the case. And, if it is not, such knowledge would surely help in the fight against them.
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Kateeeeeeeeee
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Hello everyone, My name is Katiya. I am a Ukrainian who has been retained to launch an Ismaili website. I need some help with content. Therefore i decided to search an Ismaili website to find someone who is an Ismaili and can help with this Project. Once the site has been launched, we will be looking for full time staff in maintaining this world wide website. Please contact me on my email [email protected] if you are able too assist. Thank you very much Katiya.
Trudeau Unveils Bill Legalizing Recreational Marijuana in Canada
OTTAWA — Fulfilling a campaign pledge, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau introduced legislation on Thursday to legalize the recreational use of marijuana in Canada.
Many nations have either decriminalized marijuana, allowed it to be prescribed medically or effectively stopped enforcing laws against it. But when Mr. Trudeau’s bill passes as expected, Canada will become only the second nation, after Uruguay, to completely legalize marijuana as a consumer product.
“Criminal prohibition has failed to protect our kids and our communities,” said Bill Blair, a lawmaker and former Toronto police chief whom Mr. Trudeau appointed to manage the legislation.
Mr. Blair said at a news conference that the government hoped to begin allowing legal sales by the middle of 2018. While the government’s plan has been broadly shaped by a panel of experts, many issues still need to be ironed out.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/13/worl ... d=71987722
OTTAWA — Fulfilling a campaign pledge, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau introduced legislation on Thursday to legalize the recreational use of marijuana in Canada.
Many nations have either decriminalized marijuana, allowed it to be prescribed medically or effectively stopped enforcing laws against it. But when Mr. Trudeau’s bill passes as expected, Canada will become only the second nation, after Uruguay, to completely legalize marijuana as a consumer product.
“Criminal prohibition has failed to protect our kids and our communities,” said Bill Blair, a lawmaker and former Toronto police chief whom Mr. Trudeau appointed to manage the legislation.
Mr. Blair said at a news conference that the government hoped to begin allowing legal sales by the middle of 2018. While the government’s plan has been broadly shaped by a panel of experts, many issues still need to be ironed out.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/13/worl ... d=71987722
The Spiritual Consequences of Alcohol Consumption
http://gostica.com/spiritual-lifestile/ ... nsumption/
http://gostica.com/spiritual-lifestile/ ... nsumption/
Daily chart
Modern slavery is disturbingly common
Forced labour persists around the world, particularly for domestic workers
IN 1981 Mauritania became the last country in the world to abolish slavery. Yet although forced labour is now banned everywhere, a new report by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), International Organisation for Migration and the Walk Free Foundation finds that the practice remains widespread. Last year 25m people around the world were in some type of involuntary servitude; between 2012 and 2016, 83m were subjected to at least a brief period of such work. A quarter of such exploitation happened outside of the victim’s country of origin.
More...
https://www.economist.com/blogs/graphic ... lydispatch
Modern slavery is disturbingly common
Forced labour persists around the world, particularly for domestic workers
IN 1981 Mauritania became the last country in the world to abolish slavery. Yet although forced labour is now banned everywhere, a new report by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), International Organisation for Migration and the Walk Free Foundation finds that the practice remains widespread. Last year 25m people around the world were in some type of involuntary servitude; between 2012 and 2016, 83m were subjected to at least a brief period of such work. A quarter of such exploitation happened outside of the victim’s country of origin.
More...
https://www.economist.com/blogs/graphic ... lydispatch
Aga Khan University Hospital Pakistan
Published on Sep 18, 2017
The smoke from your cigarette can severely harm you and your family. Quit smoking before it is too late.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtFQ_E9QCAk
Published on Sep 18, 2017
The smoke from your cigarette can severely harm you and your family. Quit smoking before it is too late.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtFQ_E9QCAk
What marijuana really does to your body and brain
Marijuana's official designation as a Schedule 1 drug - something with "no currently accepted medical use" - means it's pretty tough to study.
Yet a growing body of research and numerous anecdotal reports link cannabis with several health benefits, including pain relief and the potential to help with certain forms of epilepsy. In addition, researchers say there are many other ways marijuana might affect health that they want to better understand.
Along with several other recent studies, a massive report released this year by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine helps sum up exactly what we know - and what we don't - about the science of weed.
Slide show:
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/health/medica ... ut#image=1
Marijuana's official designation as a Schedule 1 drug - something with "no currently accepted medical use" - means it's pretty tough to study.
Yet a growing body of research and numerous anecdotal reports link cannabis with several health benefits, including pain relief and the potential to help with certain forms of epilepsy. In addition, researchers say there are many other ways marijuana might affect health that they want to better understand.
Along with several other recent studies, a massive report released this year by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine helps sum up exactly what we know - and what we don't - about the science of weed.
Slide show:
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/health/medica ... ut#image=1
America, Can We Talk About Your Drinking?
More people are consuming alcohol in risky ways. That’s not a good trend.
After a season of indulgence, many Americans resolve to drink less in the new year. It’s a common pledge — many of us can recall cringe-worthy texts sent after a raucous night out or a regrettable comment uttered after that third glass of wine.
These intentions are rooted in a stark reality. For all the deserved attention the opioid crisis gets, alcohol overuse remains a persistent public health problem and is responsible for more deaths, as many as 88,000 per year. While light drinking has been shown to be helpful for overall health, since the beginning of this century there has been about a 50 percent uptick in emergency room visits related to heavy drinking. After declining for three decades, deaths from cirrhosis, often linked to alcohol consumption, have been on the rise since 2006.
The pattern has been years in the making. Rick Grucza, an epidemiologist who has been studying alcohol consumption patterns for more than a decade, says the numbers are incontrovertible. Since the early 2000s, according to five government surveys Dr. Grucza has analyzed, binge drinking — often defined as five per day for men and four per day for women — is on the rise among women, older Americans and minorities.
Behind those figures there’s the personal toll — measured in relationships strained or broken, career goals not met and the many nights that college students can’t remember. In researching my 2013 book on women and drinking, and many articles on the topic since, I’ve spoken with hundreds of problem drinkers of all races. Most of the people I’ve spoken to were college-educated; it’s a sad fact that many people learn to drink excessively in college. I found that a lot of people lack physical symptoms of alcohol dependence but they think they are overdoing it, and they are worried.
More..
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/29/opin ... d=45305309
More people are consuming alcohol in risky ways. That’s not a good trend.
After a season of indulgence, many Americans resolve to drink less in the new year. It’s a common pledge — many of us can recall cringe-worthy texts sent after a raucous night out or a regrettable comment uttered after that third glass of wine.
These intentions are rooted in a stark reality. For all the deserved attention the opioid crisis gets, alcohol overuse remains a persistent public health problem and is responsible for more deaths, as many as 88,000 per year. While light drinking has been shown to be helpful for overall health, since the beginning of this century there has been about a 50 percent uptick in emergency room visits related to heavy drinking. After declining for three decades, deaths from cirrhosis, often linked to alcohol consumption, have been on the rise since 2006.
The pattern has been years in the making. Rick Grucza, an epidemiologist who has been studying alcohol consumption patterns for more than a decade, says the numbers are incontrovertible. Since the early 2000s, according to five government surveys Dr. Grucza has analyzed, binge drinking — often defined as five per day for men and four per day for women — is on the rise among women, older Americans and minorities.
Behind those figures there’s the personal toll — measured in relationships strained or broken, career goals not met and the many nights that college students can’t remember. In researching my 2013 book on women and drinking, and many articles on the topic since, I’ve spoken with hundreds of problem drinkers of all races. Most of the people I’ve spoken to were college-educated; it’s a sad fact that many people learn to drink excessively in college. I found that a lot of people lack physical symptoms of alcohol dependence but they think they are overdoing it, and they are worried.
More..
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/29/opin ... d=45305309
Bleak New Estimates in Drug Epidemic: A Record 72,000 Overdose Deaths in 2017
Drug overdoses killed about 72,000 Americans last year, a record number that reflects a rise of around 10 percent, according to new preliminary estimates from the Centers for Disease Control. The death toll is higher than the peak yearly death totals from H.I.V., car crashes or gun deaths.
Analysts pointed to two major reasons for the increase: A growing number of Americans are using opioids, and drugs are becoming more deadly. It is the second factor that most likely explains the bulk of the increased number of overdoses last year.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/15/upsh ... 3053090816
Drug overdoses killed about 72,000 Americans last year, a record number that reflects a rise of around 10 percent, according to new preliminary estimates from the Centers for Disease Control. The death toll is higher than the peak yearly death totals from H.I.V., car crashes or gun deaths.
Analysts pointed to two major reasons for the increase: A growing number of Americans are using opioids, and drugs are becoming more deadly. It is the second factor that most likely explains the bulk of the increased number of overdoses last year.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/15/upsh ... 3053090816
No healthy level of alcohol consumption, says major study
Governments should consider advising people to abstain entirely, say authors
Even the occasional drink is harmful to health, according to the largest and most detailed research carried out on the effects of alcohol, which suggests governments should think of advising people to abstain completely.
The uncompromising message comes from the authors of the Global Burden of Diseases study, a rolling project based at the University of Washington, in Seattle, which produces the most comprehensive data on the causes of illness and death in the world.
Alcohol firms would lose £13bn if drinkers in England stuck to limits
Alcohol, says their report published in the Lancet medical journal, led to 2.8 million deaths in 2016. It was the leading risk factor for premature mortality and disability in the 15 to 49 age group, accounting for 20% of deaths.
Current alcohol drinking habits pose “dire ramifications for future population health in the absence of policy action today”, says the paper. “Alcohol use contributes to health loss from many causes and exacts its toll across the lifespan, particularly among men.”
More...
https://www.theguardian.com/society/201 ... ajor-study
Governments should consider advising people to abstain entirely, say authors
Even the occasional drink is harmful to health, according to the largest and most detailed research carried out on the effects of alcohol, which suggests governments should think of advising people to abstain completely.
The uncompromising message comes from the authors of the Global Burden of Diseases study, a rolling project based at the University of Washington, in Seattle, which produces the most comprehensive data on the causes of illness and death in the world.
Alcohol firms would lose £13bn if drinkers in England stuck to limits
Alcohol, says their report published in the Lancet medical journal, led to 2.8 million deaths in 2016. It was the leading risk factor for premature mortality and disability in the 15 to 49 age group, accounting for 20% of deaths.
Current alcohol drinking habits pose “dire ramifications for future population health in the absence of policy action today”, says the paper. “Alcohol use contributes to health loss from many causes and exacts its toll across the lifespan, particularly among men.”
More...
https://www.theguardian.com/society/201 ... ajor-study
3 Things I Wish Parents – and Teens – Knew About Pot
Christine Carter 8 hrs ago
Many people believe that teen marijuana use is not harmful. Nothing could be further from the truth.
We live in California, where marijuana is legal for recreational use. My four teens report that pot is already very easy to come by and that “everyone” uses it. More concerning to me: Many of my friends – fellow parents – believe that teen marijuana use is not harmful.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
First, the good news: Most teens don’t smoke pot or ingest edibles. That said, 41 percent of American high school seniors report having used marijuana or synthetic cannabinoids in the past year, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. That’s a very large minority. Do they know what they are doing? Here is what I wish all kids – and their parents – knew about pot:
Marijuana slows brain development in adolescence.
Marijuana today is actually very addictive, especially for teens.
Pot today is a different drug than it was a generation or two ago.
More...
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/health/medica ... ailsignout
Christine Carter 8 hrs ago
Many people believe that teen marijuana use is not harmful. Nothing could be further from the truth.
We live in California, where marijuana is legal for recreational use. My four teens report that pot is already very easy to come by and that “everyone” uses it. More concerning to me: Many of my friends – fellow parents – believe that teen marijuana use is not harmful.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
First, the good news: Most teens don’t smoke pot or ingest edibles. That said, 41 percent of American high school seniors report having used marijuana or synthetic cannabinoids in the past year, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. That’s a very large minority. Do they know what they are doing? Here is what I wish all kids – and their parents – knew about pot:
Marijuana slows brain development in adolescence.
Marijuana today is actually very addictive, especially for teens.
Pot today is a different drug than it was a generation or two ago.
More...
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/health/medica ... ailsignout
Study Shows Big Rise in Teen Vaping This Year
Use of other drugs, including opioids, alcohol and tobacco cigarettes, was down and marijuana use was steady, the annual survey of American teenagers found.
A steep rise in nicotine vaping over the past year, accompanied by widespread minimizing of its potential harm, dominated the findings of a closely watched annual survey of American teenagers, released Monday.
The vaping increase was so precipitous, researchers said, that it was the largest annual jump in the use of any substance, including marijuana, they had seen in the project’s 44-year history.
In all, the researchers found, the rise amounted to 1.3 million more high school vapers in 2018 than in 2017.
“Vaping is reversing hard-fought declines in the number of adolescents who use nicotine,” said Richard Miech, the study’s lead author and a sociologist at the University of Michigan, in a statement. “These results suggest that vaping is leading youth into nicotine use and nicotine addiction, not away from it,”
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/17/heal ... ogin-email
Use of other drugs, including opioids, alcohol and tobacco cigarettes, was down and marijuana use was steady, the annual survey of American teenagers found.
A steep rise in nicotine vaping over the past year, accompanied by widespread minimizing of its potential harm, dominated the findings of a closely watched annual survey of American teenagers, released Monday.
The vaping increase was so precipitous, researchers said, that it was the largest annual jump in the use of any substance, including marijuana, they had seen in the project’s 44-year history.
In all, the researchers found, the rise amounted to 1.3 million more high school vapers in 2018 than in 2017.
“Vaping is reversing hard-fought declines in the number of adolescents who use nicotine,” said Richard Miech, the study’s lead author and a sociologist at the University of Michigan, in a statement. “These results suggest that vaping is leading youth into nicotine use and nicotine addiction, not away from it,”
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/17/heal ... ogin-email
THE OPIOID EPIDEMIC is devastating America. Overdoses have passed car crashes and gun violence to become the leading cause of death for Americans under 55. The epidemic has killed more people than H.I.V. at the peak of that disease, and its death toll exceeds those of the wars in Vietnam and Iraq combined. Funerals for young people have become common. Every 11 minutes, another life is lost.
So why do so many people start using these drugs? Why don’t they stop?
Some people are more susceptible to addiction than others. But nobody is immune. For many, opioids like heroin entice by bestowing an immediate sense of tranquility, only to trap the user in a vicious cycle that essentially rewires the brain.
Getting hooked is nobody’s plan. Some turn to heroin because prescription painkillers are tough to get. Fentanyl, which is 50 times more potent than heroin, has snaked its way into other drugs like cocaine, Xanax and MDMA, widening the epidemic.
To understand what goes through the minds and bodies of opioid users, The New York Times spent months interviewing users, family members and addiction experts. Using their insights, we created a visual representation of how the strong lure of these powerful drugs can hijack the brain.
Dr. Pedro Mateu-Gelabert, one of the nation’s top opioid researchers, said this work brings “an emotional understanding” to the epidemic but “without glamorizing or oversimplifying.”
We invite you to share your experiences at the end of the page.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/201 ... 3053091223
So why do so many people start using these drugs? Why don’t they stop?
Some people are more susceptible to addiction than others. But nobody is immune. For many, opioids like heroin entice by bestowing an immediate sense of tranquility, only to trap the user in a vicious cycle that essentially rewires the brain.
Getting hooked is nobody’s plan. Some turn to heroin because prescription painkillers are tough to get. Fentanyl, which is 50 times more potent than heroin, has snaked its way into other drugs like cocaine, Xanax and MDMA, widening the epidemic.
To understand what goes through the minds and bodies of opioid users, The New York Times spent months interviewing users, family members and addiction experts. Using their insights, we created a visual representation of how the strong lure of these powerful drugs can hijack the brain.
Dr. Pedro Mateu-Gelabert, one of the nation’s top opioid researchers, said this work brings “an emotional understanding” to the epidemic but “without glamorizing or oversimplifying.”
We invite you to share your experiences at the end of the page.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/201 ... 3053091223
You must remember that some things legally right are not morally right.
Abraham Lincoln
https://www.azquotes.com/quote/730407
Abraham Lincoln
https://www.azquotes.com/quote/730407
Vaping Is Big Tobacco’s Bait and Switch
Cigarettes hooked generations of teenagers. Now e-cigarettes might do the same.
Excerpt:
In the late 1990s, Big Tobacco was finally brought to account for its practices, and a string of public health policies were put in place that over the past three decades have all but eliminated the scourge of teen smoking. But many of us who became tobacco consumers at 13, 14, 15 remain so at 39, 40, 41. And in recent years, we have watched history repeat itself.
The tobacco industry is pushing a new kind of smoking device — the e-cig or vape pen — that it says is far healthier than traditional cigarettes: no tobacco, no tar, just nicotine and flavored vapor. These devices, the industry says, will finally help us adult smokers quit or curb our habit. But here’s the rub: E-cigs have brought smoking back into vogue for teenagers. As a result, the cost of this new cure may be another generation exposed to the same addiction we are still fighting.
More....
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/08/opin ... 3053090311
Cigarettes hooked generations of teenagers. Now e-cigarettes might do the same.
Excerpt:
In the late 1990s, Big Tobacco was finally brought to account for its practices, and a string of public health policies were put in place that over the past three decades have all but eliminated the scourge of teen smoking. But many of us who became tobacco consumers at 13, 14, 15 remain so at 39, 40, 41. And in recent years, we have watched history repeat itself.
The tobacco industry is pushing a new kind of smoking device — the e-cig or vape pen — that it says is far healthier than traditional cigarettes: no tobacco, no tar, just nicotine and flavored vapor. These devices, the industry says, will finally help us adult smokers quit or curb our habit. But here’s the rub: E-cigs have brought smoking back into vogue for teenagers. As a result, the cost of this new cure may be another generation exposed to the same addiction we are still fighting.
More....
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/08/opin ... 3053090311
Earning Prizes for Fighting an Addiction
Clinics in Canada and the United States are trying a new way to urge drug abusers to get clean: give them tangible gifts when they test negative.
VANCOUVER, B.C. — David Oliver wins gift cards for staying away from drugs. At St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia — which treats more overdoses than any other hospital in Canada — a program rewards users of cocaine and other stimulants with prizes when they don’t use. It’s a new approach to help substance abusers, and it’s also being tried in Veterans Affairs hospitals across the United States.
“I was sober for 19 years from cocaine and 14 from alcohol,” said Mr. Oliver, who is 58. But then, he said, he started using cocaine again in 2013 after feeling overwhelmed by the responsibilities of two jobs, a marriage, and raising two boys.
Mr. Oliver started the eight-week prize programs after being treated at St. Paul’s for an overdose and a bloodstream infection that had spread to his heart. The program staff test his urine for drugs once a week. If it shows no traces of cocaine or crystal meth, he gets to pull chips out of a hat. Each chip has monetary value: 5, 20 or 100 Canadian dollars. The clinics then use the chips to determine the value of the prizes they distribute — gift cards for coffee shops or grocery stores. “Everyone loves the prize. You get a chance to walk out of there with some money,” Mr. Oliver said.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/12/opin ... ogin-email
Clinics in Canada and the United States are trying a new way to urge drug abusers to get clean: give them tangible gifts when they test negative.
VANCOUVER, B.C. — David Oliver wins gift cards for staying away from drugs. At St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia — which treats more overdoses than any other hospital in Canada — a program rewards users of cocaine and other stimulants with prizes when they don’t use. It’s a new approach to help substance abusers, and it’s also being tried in Veterans Affairs hospitals across the United States.
“I was sober for 19 years from cocaine and 14 from alcohol,” said Mr. Oliver, who is 58. But then, he said, he started using cocaine again in 2013 after feeling overwhelmed by the responsibilities of two jobs, a marriage, and raising two boys.
Mr. Oliver started the eight-week prize programs after being treated at St. Paul’s for an overdose and a bloodstream infection that had spread to his heart. The program staff test his urine for drugs once a week. If it shows no traces of cocaine or crystal meth, he gets to pull chips out of a hat. Each chip has monetary value: 5, 20 or 100 Canadian dollars. The clinics then use the chips to determine the value of the prizes they distribute — gift cards for coffee shops or grocery stores. “Everyone loves the prize. You get a chance to walk out of there with some money,” Mr. Oliver said.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/12/opin ... ogin-email
High-potency cannabis, or frequent use, raises the risk of psychosis
In London and Amsterdam, a third or more new psychoses are related
Royal gorilla, Girl Scout Cookies and Fat Banana are just a few of the improbably named strains of high-potency cannabis out there. In the former, levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (thc), the chemical behind the psychological effects of cannabis, are above 25%. Reviewers describe it as “overwhelming” for novices and a “beautiful euphoric couch-locking experience” for others.
However enticing that may sound, regular use of cannabis with a potency greater than 10% increases the risk of developing psychosis five-fold, according to a study published this week by the Lancet. It also found that using less potent strains daily increased the risk three-fold. Marta Di Forti, a clinical scientist at Kings College in London, and her colleagues looked at cannabis use among 901 European patients newly diagnosed with psychosis. A non-smoking control group was recruited from the general population.
The study adds substantial weight to the evidence linking cannabis to the onset of psychosis. It also suggests that differences between varieties and how often they are used could help explain why rates of psychosis among cannabis users vary across Europe.
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https://www.economist.com/science-and-t ... -psychosis
In London and Amsterdam, a third or more new psychoses are related
Royal gorilla, Girl Scout Cookies and Fat Banana are just a few of the improbably named strains of high-potency cannabis out there. In the former, levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (thc), the chemical behind the psychological effects of cannabis, are above 25%. Reviewers describe it as “overwhelming” for novices and a “beautiful euphoric couch-locking experience” for others.
However enticing that may sound, regular use of cannabis with a potency greater than 10% increases the risk of developing psychosis five-fold, according to a study published this week by the Lancet. It also found that using less potent strains daily increased the risk three-fold. Marta Di Forti, a clinical scientist at Kings College in London, and her colleagues looked at cannabis use among 901 European patients newly diagnosed with psychosis. A non-smoking control group was recruited from the general population.
The study adds substantial weight to the evidence linking cannabis to the onset of psychosis. It also suggests that differences between varieties and how often they are used could help explain why rates of psychosis among cannabis users vary across Europe.
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https://www.economist.com/science-and-t ... -psychosis
Hallucinogen Therapy Is Coming
Three years later Daniel Kreitman still chokes up when he talks about what he saw, and how it changed him. Kreitman, an upholsterer by trade, had taken psilocybin, a hallucinogen derived from mushrooms, in a trial at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine for nicotine addiction. He was 52, and he’d smoked between one and two packs a day for nearly 40 years. After his first psilocybin session, his urge to smoke was gone. During his third and final session, he had the vision that helped him quit for good.
He saw lakes, roads, and mountains, and a broad-shouldered man at the helm of a ship, lassoing birds. Was it his dead father? He wasn’t sure. But he remembers giggling and feeling good. Music was playing in his headphones. During Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring he had the sensation of physically touching the music, which was smooth and bright yellow in his mind’s eye. As the music progressed, he traveled, flowing outward toward an immense space that never ended. He may have wept for joy—he’s not sure—but the beauty of the vision overwhelmed him. “I was seeing forever,” he told me.
Kreitman was brought up Jewish, but doesn’t consider himself to be particularly religious. Yet he falls back on religious language to explain the experience. “I think I saw God at one point,” he said, his voice cracking with emotion. The day after the session, in his journal, he wrote: “The question is, if I saw God and infinity, what’s next? How does that change me and my life?”
When I spoke with him this August, Kreitman had an answer: He hadn’t had a cigarette for three years. He’d previously tried nicotine gum and patches, to no avail. He always returned to the habit, falling into the easy rhythms of smoking on the way to work and on the way home. It was taking a toll on his health, though. He was chronically short of breath and although they didn’t nag, his wife and children were concerned for his health. Since that session three years ago, however, cravings have barely registered. “It’s kind of crazy,” he told me. “I don’t feel like I’m fighting this addiction. It’s like it’s not even me.”
The trial was small, just 15 people, but it’s on the vanguard of resurgent research into the therapeutic potential of hallucinogens—a “psychedelic renaissance,” as one researcher described it. Work from the mid-20th century suggested that psychedelics held therapeutic promise. But those studies didn’t generally hew to modern scientific design.
Now, after decades of neglect, scientists are beginning to rigorously test hallucinogens as medicine. They’re trying to treat some of our most vexing afflictions, including addiction, depression, and the existential anxiety of having a terminal disease. The small studies so far conducted have yielded striking results. In one 10-person pilot study on alcoholics, participants more than halved their alcohol intake six months after taking psilocybin. In Kreitman’s study, 60 percent of smokers who took psilocybin hadn’t smoked two-and-a-half years later.
If hallucinogens prove effective in treating substance abuse, they would address a massive unmet need. They’d also possibly force a change in how we think about the dysfunction that underlies these conditions.
More....
http://nautil.us//issue/70/variables/ha ... -coming-rp
Three years later Daniel Kreitman still chokes up when he talks about what he saw, and how it changed him. Kreitman, an upholsterer by trade, had taken psilocybin, a hallucinogen derived from mushrooms, in a trial at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine for nicotine addiction. He was 52, and he’d smoked between one and two packs a day for nearly 40 years. After his first psilocybin session, his urge to smoke was gone. During his third and final session, he had the vision that helped him quit for good.
He saw lakes, roads, and mountains, and a broad-shouldered man at the helm of a ship, lassoing birds. Was it his dead father? He wasn’t sure. But he remembers giggling and feeling good. Music was playing in his headphones. During Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring he had the sensation of physically touching the music, which was smooth and bright yellow in his mind’s eye. As the music progressed, he traveled, flowing outward toward an immense space that never ended. He may have wept for joy—he’s not sure—but the beauty of the vision overwhelmed him. “I was seeing forever,” he told me.
Kreitman was brought up Jewish, but doesn’t consider himself to be particularly religious. Yet he falls back on religious language to explain the experience. “I think I saw God at one point,” he said, his voice cracking with emotion. The day after the session, in his journal, he wrote: “The question is, if I saw God and infinity, what’s next? How does that change me and my life?”
When I spoke with him this August, Kreitman had an answer: He hadn’t had a cigarette for three years. He’d previously tried nicotine gum and patches, to no avail. He always returned to the habit, falling into the easy rhythms of smoking on the way to work and on the way home. It was taking a toll on his health, though. He was chronically short of breath and although they didn’t nag, his wife and children were concerned for his health. Since that session three years ago, however, cravings have barely registered. “It’s kind of crazy,” he told me. “I don’t feel like I’m fighting this addiction. It’s like it’s not even me.”
The trial was small, just 15 people, but it’s on the vanguard of resurgent research into the therapeutic potential of hallucinogens—a “psychedelic renaissance,” as one researcher described it. Work from the mid-20th century suggested that psychedelics held therapeutic promise. But those studies didn’t generally hew to modern scientific design.
Now, after decades of neglect, scientists are beginning to rigorously test hallucinogens as medicine. They’re trying to treat some of our most vexing afflictions, including addiction, depression, and the existential anxiety of having a terminal disease. The small studies so far conducted have yielded striking results. In one 10-person pilot study on alcoholics, participants more than halved their alcohol intake six months after taking psilocybin. In Kreitman’s study, 60 percent of smokers who took psilocybin hadn’t smoked two-and-a-half years later.
If hallucinogens prove effective in treating substance abuse, they would address a massive unmet need. They’d also possibly force a change in how we think about the dysfunction that underlies these conditions.
More....
http://nautil.us//issue/70/variables/ha ... -coming-rp
Fighting Sex Trafficking at the Truck Stop
Truckers are urged to report sex trafficking on their routes. It’s not “the world’s oldest profession,” one says. “It’s the world’s oldest oppression. These are slaves.”
Excerpt:
Mr. Smith went back to sleep and thought no more about it — until six years later, when he visited a trailer fitted out like a mobile museum about sex trafficking and labeled the Freedom Drivers Project. The trailer travels the country going to trucking conventions and events like county fairs. It’s a project of the 10-year-old group Truckers Against Trafficking, which teaches truckers, their companies and the government agencies and law enforcement that intersect with commercial drivers how to spot sex trafficking and how to respond. T.A.T. has trained more than 700,000 truckers.
Now Mr. Smith knows that it is unlikely for a high school-age girl to voluntarily spend her nights in a truck stop parking lot, having sex with strange men. And he knows that it’s unlikely that she keeps any of the money she makes.
“Most people say it’s the world’s oldest profession,” he said. “I correct them: It’s the world’s oldest oppression. These are slaves.”
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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/02/opin ... dline&te=1
Truckers are urged to report sex trafficking on their routes. It’s not “the world’s oldest profession,” one says. “It’s the world’s oldest oppression. These are slaves.”
Excerpt:
Mr. Smith went back to sleep and thought no more about it — until six years later, when he visited a trailer fitted out like a mobile museum about sex trafficking and labeled the Freedom Drivers Project. The trailer travels the country going to trucking conventions and events like county fairs. It’s a project of the 10-year-old group Truckers Against Trafficking, which teaches truckers, their companies and the government agencies and law enforcement that intersect with commercial drivers how to spot sex trafficking and how to respond. T.A.T. has trained more than 700,000 truckers.
Now Mr. Smith knows that it is unlikely for a high school-age girl to voluntarily spend her nights in a truck stop parking lot, having sex with strange men. And he knows that it’s unlikely that she keeps any of the money she makes.
“Most people say it’s the world’s oldest profession,” he said. “I correct them: It’s the world’s oldest oppression. These are slaves.”
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/02/opin ... dline&te=1