addiction
The key to a new life
By For the first time in more than a decade, Pat Bebonang has a key to his own place.
He had been living on the streets of Kamloops for the past four-and-a-half years, calling dumpsters and doorways home.
Before that, he spent his time couch surfing and living with friends.
For the first time in so many years, Bebonang is sober more often than not.
And the Henry Leland House, he says, helped him unlock his potential.
The Vancouver ProvinceMental illness problems common among homeless
By MICHAEL LIGHTSTONE, The Chronicle HeraldBundled up against a cold wind blowing under a grey, bare-tree sky, panhandler Gina clutched her cup of coins.
The troublesome path that led her to ask strangers for money on Spring Garden Road in Halifax was travelled with regret but resolve.
Gina said drug addiction is what led her downtown recently to beg for spare change.
Treatment for the affliction was helpful, before it was avoided. "I was on methadone for 7 ½ years," Gina, 48, said matter-of-factly. "I went off of it, which was the stupidest thing to do, and I got caught back up into it."
B.C. heroin addict returns to street after province seizes her home
By John Colebourn, Vancouver ProvinceVANCOUVER -- On a crisp March morning, Marianne Christine Sullivan sits on a dock in East Vancouver and talks about being homeless and broke after the government of British Columbia took her $562,000 home under civil-forfeiture legislation.
She says it has been days since she had her last fix of heroin. With a clear head, she now faces the fact she has lost her home because of legislation being used by B.C. police departments to get rid of troublesome households, and she lives and works on the streets.
Injection site safe: Director
By DHARM MAKWANA, QMI AGENCYContinued criticism from the U.S. government on Vancouver's supervised injection site is beyond a joke, said one of the program's directors.
The 2010 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report released this week by the U.S. Department of State recommends the government of Canada press Vancouver to eliminate Insite and drug paraphernalia distributions programs, such as clean-needle exchanges, to come in line with international protocols.
Battling prison disease
By Judith Lavoie, Times Colonist
Drugs find their way into prisons, despite all efforts to plug supply lines. And for many inmates, the most dangerous part of life inside is sharing jury-rigged needles.
Lack of knowledge, misery and addictions combine in a sometimes lethal mix, but Canadian prisons do not permit distribution of clean needles -- meaning health risks soar for an already at-risk population.
Harm-reduction advocates say need-exchange efforts have lost ground
A tearful Bernie Pauly acknowledged Victoria’s street community, including some who have died, as she described Victoria’s stalled harm-reduction efforts to a packed community forum Wednesday night.
Pauly, an assistant nursing professor and a research fellow at the University of Victoria’s Centre for Addictions Research, said Victoria’s harm-reduction plan had vision but has lost ground — and its fixed needle exchange.
“In 2002, I thought we were poised for change,” said Pauly. “In 2004, we had the four pillars of harm reduction — prevention, treatment, housing and enforcement.”
OxyContin more abused than crack: rehab centre
CBC NewsOxyContin, the widely prescribed painkiller, has overtaken crack cocaine as Ottawa's most commonly abused drug, a residential drug treatment centre says.
OxyContin is a slow-release form of oxycodone and similar to morphine in its effect and addictiveness. When the drug is chewed or crushed and inhaled, it produces a rapid "heroin-like effect euphoria," according to Health Canada.
"It's a whole warm sensation throughout your body," said Jamie Walsh, a recovered OxyContin addict. "All your troubles, all your worries fade away."
Clara Hughes says sports saved her life
Speed-skating champion, once a troubled youth, wants to help others overcome adversityBy Lindsay Kines, Canwest Olympic Team; Canwest News Service, The Vancouver Sun
It was last summer that Clara Hughes took a wrong turn and ended up in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.
The Canadian Olympic champion, who moved to Richmond two years ago to train at the speed-skating oval, was looking for the organic food stores and cool shops of downtown. Instead, she stumbled on a neighbourhood beset by drug addiction, poverty and despair.
Oxycodone boom hits Manitoba
By Chris Kitching, QMI AgencyWINNIPEG -- A few years ago people were worried crystal meth would invade Manitoba the way it did some U.S. states, which became ridden with addicts, fatal overdoses and clandestine labs.
It didn’t happen to that extent, thankfully.
But a different drug has creeped in without the hoopla and warnings, and is quickly becoming an abused drug of choice, especially for middle-class Manitobans.
The oxycodone boom is here.
