In past issues, I have covered the extensive harm to Canadians and the excessive costs to the economy from our legal recreational drug industries, alcohol, and tobacco. That has prompted some people to question the wisdom of legalizing yet another drug industry, and a recreational one at that. My frequent criticism of the legalization of cannabis might lead you to believe that I am one of them. I am not. I believe that…
Ideally, drug use and problems would not be addressed in isolation, but within a broader framework of healthy and responsible living. This must include coordinated approaches of prevention, treatment, harm reduction and relentless advocacy on the social, commercial, and political determinants of health.
A few issues ago, I introduced the idea that drug use and drug harms occur on a dynamic spectrum. It is not realistic to think that…
The immediately previous issues of this newsletter addressed the harms from drug use: personal and social disruption, physical injury, illness, and sometimes death. This issue addresses some similarities between legal and illegal drug trades as an introduction to consideration of the costs of drug use to the Canadian economy. First, we must acknowledge that…
In 1978, when I joined the Hamilton Centre of The Addiction Research Foundation of Ontario, I had three responsibilities. One was to provide assessment and counselling for people with drug problems. Another was to organize and provide education programs on drugs and drug problems for the public and staff of various health and social services. The third was to work with…
In the previous issue I described methods that social scientists use to describe the extent and nature of drug use and related harm. In this issue, I’ll report some data on some of those harms related to four separate settings: the general population, the health care system, the workplace, and …
In the previous issue, I discussed ways in which we identify and define a drug problem – sometimes it’s obvious; sometimes it’s not. The grey area poses challenges – not only for clinicians but also for …