What If My Child Isn’t Motivated to Get Treatment for Addiction?
Suggesting Treatment to a Loved One
Intervention – a Starting Point
Drug Use, Stigma, and the Proactive Contagions to Reduce Both
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"British Columbia's prison system has become a health and addiction system of last resort, according to a new study from SFU , which found that three-quarters of people admitted to B.C. prisons in 2017 suffered from addiction or mental health issues — up from 61 per cent in 2009. Complex care cases — people with a combination of addiction and mental health needs — more than doubled in the same time period, from 15 to 32 per cent. That’s approximately 10 times the national average, estimated at between two and four per cent."
“This is a multiple systems failure that we’re seeing,” said Amanda Butler, lead author of the study. “I think a lot of these folks have been failed by every other service system before they come into contact with the criminal justice system.”
Damning indictments indeed, but it’s the Why, and the Wherefore that must be investigated, if we are going to attempt to remedy this growing, and seemingly, uncontrollable mess.
Many interpretations will be gleaned from this very concerning emergence, and depending on one’s confirmation bias metric, finger pointing will go in many directions.
One perspective we'd like to bring to this, is one that is all too often quickly buried by the pro-drug hijackers of 'Harm Reduction' models.
As we have written time and time again on this issue, Harm Reduction (an important pillar in drug policy) is supposed to be about minimising short- and long-term harms to the drug user, WHILST enabling, equipping, and empowering them to EXIT drug use! Hmmmm? Since the sector charged with reducing the harms of drug use (including not just the 'harms' to the drug user) have stopped focusing on drug use exiting, the harms have only increased.
One of the foundational causes of this ever burgeoning chaos, is of course, DRUG USE. If one doesn’t use drugs, the harms do NOT occur!
Ah, but I hear the vociferous objections of the stakeholders in this failing misuse of policy; 'That's over simplifying the situation, the reasons behind drug use are complex'.
Now, we start the 'spelunking' of the social determinants. Social Determinants 19-08-21b.pdf (dalgarnoinstitute.org.au) this malaise.
There is no argument from us that there may be many catalysts for initial uptake, but once drug using starts, the substance then becomes one of the key drivers to drug seeking behaviour, if not the sole one, once dependency presents.
A ‘circuit breaker’ in the drug use/seeking behaviour is an imperative. If ‘Harm Reduction’ mechanisms, do not have a ‘circuit breaker’ in its arsenal in the fight against this individual and community destroying behaviour, then it continues to fight this insidious foe with one hand tied behind it’s back.
‘Liquid handcuffs’ (substance substitute options) https://nobrainer.org.au/index.php/search-our-site?q=liquid+handcuffs&Search= can be part of a ‘circuit breaker’, if and ONLY if, the clear and scheduled cessation of drug use is the immovable goal. Yet, all too often, we see this potential vehicle for exiting drug use only become another individual undermining chemical dependence.
So, when all the syringes have been handed out. All the drug consumption rooms have been engaged. All the free chemical substitutes have been administered… and drug use continues, and grows, then where does a community go in the longing to free these slaves to substances, and the heart broken casualties that are their family, friends, and colleagues?
The failed misused policy ends up where British Columbia finds itself. The only ‘circuit breaker’ remaining is ‘secure welfare’ – which in almost all cases is interpreted as the prison system.
Sadly, the incarceration is not just the exasperated last resort for the recalcitrant drug user, it’s also what the drug use has led to, that so often facilitates criminal proceedings. Everything from acquisitional crime to violence, public nuisance or other society impacting ripple effects from this distressing behaviour.
When you’re dealing with a (more often than not) intractable life controlling issue, coercive vehicles are needed to start the change process. To quote the now famous recovering addict, Actor Robert Downy Jnr, “It’s not that difficult to overcome these seemingly ghastly problems [drug addiction]… what’s hard is to decide to do it.”
Pity, it is said looks at a problem superficially and throws a token ‘kindness’ at the issue and walks away. Compassion, however, insists on restoration, not just ‘recalibration’, and therefore cannot condone a ‘kindness’ that doesn’t only not end the grief, but adds to it.
When the ‘Judicial Educator’ – the law – is employed for this compassionate end, then seemingly punitive responses, are transformed to restorative ones, and coercion is used not to bring retribution, rather restoration, we see a proactive outcome for all involved. (see https://www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au/advocacy/dalgarno-aod-policy/1597-prisoners-graduate-from-unique-addiction-breaking-program-at-casuarina.html )
Yet, there is perhaps still one more unfolding in this sad saga – and an arguably cynical one at that, but bear with us.
What if the agenda of the gatekeepers of the ‘harm reduction’ policy have little to no regard for the cessation of drug use? Instead, they seek only to sanitize and normalise drug use? Create a tsunami of substance use behaviour that simply can’t be ‘managed’ by criminal justice, or now even ‘health policy’. It can only be allowed to exist un-impugned, simply tolerated.
Sadly, we have dealt with such stakeholders and their well-masked agenda.
When a society becomes enamoured with the pursuit of pleasure, that it now perceives even ‘failed entitlements to ‘happiness’, normal vicissitudes of life, or even emotional inconveniences, as trauma that need to be ‘medicated away’ with the ‘buzz of the gear’, you know that public health and well-being policy is in trouble – as is the community and its families it is charged to serve.
Shane Varcoe
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(#RecoveryIsPossible from #liquidhandcuffs if effective chemical free rehabilitation is applied) The ‘damage management’ and short-sighted approach of Opiate Substitute Treatments, cares little for the rehabilitation of the addicted individual, if there is no ‘sunset clause’ on the process. Medically Assisted Treatments, may be useful only as an initial circuit-breaker to dependency, but is not a long-term health benefiting option. (Some people are now going to Narcotics Anonymous to get off Methadone, after being heroin free for 14 years)
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(Vaping linked to dysregulation of mitochondrial genes and immune response genes)
Nov 24 2021
Since they hit the market, e-cigarettes have been touted as a safe alternative to tobacco cigarettes for adult smokers. When research began to suggest otherwise, many questioned whether smoking was still to blame for adverse effects, since most vapers are either "dual users" who also smoke cigarettes or have a prior history of smoking.
Now, a team of researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of USC has demonstrated that - independent of the effects of prior smoking – using e-cigarettes is linked to adverse biological changes that can cause disease. The study, published in Scientific Reports, revealed that vapers experience a similar pattern of changes to gene regulation as smokers do, although the changes are more extensive in people who smoke.
Our study, for the first time, investigates the biological effects of vaping in adult e-cigarette users, while simultaneously accounting for their past smoking exposure. Our data indicate that vaping, much like smoking, is associated with dysregulation of mitochondrial genes and disruption of molecular pathways involved in immunity and the inflammatory response, which govern health versus disease state."
Ahmad Besaratinia, PhD, corresponding author and professor of research population and public health sciences at the Keck School of Medicine
"We found that more than 80% of gene dysregulation in vapers correlated with the intensity and duration of current vaping," said Besaratinia. "Whereas none of the detected gene dysregulation in vapers correlated to their prior smoking intensity or duration."
Effects of vaping mirror those of smoking
In previous research, Besaratinia and his team have shown that e-cigarette users develop some of the same cancer-related molecular changes in oral tissue as cigarette smokers. They also discovered vapers had the same kind of cancer-linked chemical changes to their genome as smokers.
In this study, they found that, in both vapers and smokers, mitochondrial genes are preferential targets of gene dysregulation. They also found that vapers and smokers had significant dysregulation of immune response genes.
Besaratinia says the findings are not only novel and significant, but they are also interrelated, since growing evidence shows that mitochondria play a critical role in immunity and inflammation.
"When mitochondria become dysfunctional, they release key molecules," said Besaratinia. "The released molecules can function as signals for the immune system, triggering an immune response that leads to inflammation, which is not only important for maintaining health but also plays a critical role in the development of various diseases, such as cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, metabolic diseases, and cancer."
"Given the popularity of e-cigarettes among young never-smokers, our findings will be of importance to the regulatory agencies," said Besaratinia. "To protect public health, these agencies are in urgent need of scientific evidence to inform the regulation of the manufacture, distribution, and marketing of e-cigarettes."
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