NB Telegraph-Journal | News - As published on page A8 on September 11, 2006
Saving New Brunswick's 'throw-away people'
As addictions in province rise, pressure is on politicians to respond
David Shipley
Telegraph-Journal
Addicts, junkies, users and alcoholics - it's easy for society to write off people with substance abuse problems.
"We've sort of think of them now as throw away people," says Julie Dingwell, head of AID Saint John.
Dingwell has worked with the Port City's addicts for years, passionately arguing for increased aid to help them clean up.
The riot earlier this summer on Grand Manan during which a suspected crack house was burned down by local residents has cast a renewed spotlight on substance abuse in New Brunswick.
For Dingwell and others on the front lines of addictions in New Brunswick, the renewed attention is welcome news.
"If politicians are willing to make this an issue in the election campaign, that's the very best thing we could have hoped for."
Liberal leader Shawn Graham was the first to promise a province-wide addictions strategy that combines increased access to methadone clinics in the province, establishing specialized drug treatment courts and establishing a prescription drug registry.
It was the Progressive Conservatives who introduced methadone clinics to the province in 2004. The Tories have also committed to a prescription drug registry in June. That pledge came than two years after a coroner's inquest in the death of a 20 year-old Rothesay from a prescription drug overdose, recommended such a system.
Crime statistics, economic impact assessments, wait lists at methadone clinics, needle exchange usage all shed light on the extent of addictions in New Brunswick.
Substance abuse, which includes tobacco and alcohol as well as illicit drugs, cost the province $1.2 billion last year in health care, policing and addictions treatment costs. Illicit drugs made up $264 million of those costs, according to a recent study by the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse.
The share of the $1.2 billion in that prescription drug abuse is responsible for remains to be studied.
While alcohol and tobacco make up the largest costs to date, experts say the province is seeing increasing amounts of illicit and prescription drug abuse.
Bonnie Lambert, regional director of Ridgewood Addictions Services in Saint John, has witnessed the evolution of addictions in the province first hand.
"When I started here in early 1980, we were mainly seeing alcohol, some benzodiazepine (mild tranquilizers), some prescription drugs, but the main drug of choice was alcohol," she said.
"I would say the demographics have changed as well because at that time it was mostly 50 year old male alcoholics that we were seeing."
That's since changed.
In the early 1990s the centre began to see more cocaine and since 1999 more prescription painkiller addictions as opiate drugs such as Oxycontin and Dilaudid became popular. "That has really changed the way we do business."
The centre's methadone program now deals with men and women between the ages of 20 and 30, people who should be at the prime of their lives and careers who instead are fighting for their lives.
The methadone program deals with about 140 people. Another 140 are on a waiting list for treatment.
Addictions to prescription drugs are on the rise, said Lambert, particularly in rural communities. Cocaine remains a factor with more youth trying the drug.
"It has certainly impacted families, the crime rate, communities are really suffering because of this and not only urban communities but rural communities."
But communities are fighting back.
Community groups involving police, addiction services, education and others have sprung up in St. Stephen and Doaktown, said Lambert.
In Moncton, Jean Daigle, the director of Addiction and Community Mental Health Services, said the Hub City's growing population is also grappling with a rise in illicit drug and prescription drug abuse.
"I think we're seeing a bigger demand for services, not only for alcohol and typical street drugs, but we've definitely seen an increase in opiate addiction here in the region."
The Moncton methadone program was the first one established in the province and treats 160 individuals. A further 160 are on the wait list.
There are similar programs in Fredericton and Miramichi, which also have long wait lists for service.
Daigle said he supports the idea of broad-based community approaches to dealing with addictions. He's also interested in seeing the province set up specialized drug treatment courts.
"Definitely in terms of looking at people from the perspective of needing help, as opposed to punishment, putting them in the penal system, is definitely a plus," he said. "Often they're being re-victimized by those court appearances and don't get the help they need."
Lianne Calvert, director of Workforce Development with the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, said community-based approaches to dealing with addictions in the province are working well.
They've also helped coordinate different community-based groups within the province, allowing groups to share expertise and advice.
But a province-wide strategy would help coordinate efforts even more, said Calvert.
"New Brunswick is one of the few provinces that does not have an integrated drug strategy at the provincial level," she said. "But there's a very solid infrastructure in place within New Brunswick to support a provincial drug strategy.
While hopeful the province will develop such a drug strategy, what Julie Dingwell wants to see now is action, particularly with regards to intravenous drug use.
AIDS Saint John has seen a dramatic increase in usage of its needle exchange service, up from 700 needles in 1999 when the program started to an expected 100,000 needles this year.
"We can't wait for another report to sit on a dry, dusty shelf. We need to immediately begin going a lot more preventative work with schools and with young people," she said.
"At the same time for the people who are already addicted, we have drastically increase availability of addiction services."
While a prescription drug monitoring program might help curb prescription drug abuse, it may drive addicts towards other drugs such as heroin, she said.
"We need to make sure we're ready in terms of addictions treatment or we'll just be inundated with heroin," she said. "These drug addicts won't go away because they can't get Dilaudid."
If the province fails to help deal with the growing illicit drug problem, it will be left to cope with the fallout, including rising crime and health care costs, said Dingwell.
"When we're looking at some of these harder drugs and we're talking about how people share needles, dealing with one case of HIV would pay for a methadone clinic for a year."
5 comments:
From an article;
By the end of the 1970s of the last century, practical experience had demonstrated that use of methadone as substitution therapy for heroin addicts led to quick creation of a new group of addicts, now with methadone addiction. The CND started getting data about severe complications of methadone use, based on long practical experience and multiple scientific researches. While symptoms of heroin withdrawal lasted from five to seven days in duration, methadone withdrawal continued for as long as forty. Characteristic features of methadone addiction, not observed in heroin addiction, included body mass increase, development of edemain arms and legs, cardiomyopathy, hepatitis, hepatic cirrhosis, changes in respiratory system with apnea, sleep problems, and nightmares. As noted by American scientists Kpeinbor and Baden, a serious problem, especially in young drug addicts who used methadone, was lethal comas provoked by occasional overdoses. During a conference held in Washington it was pointed out that the number of mortal cases due to methadone use exceeded the number of those due to heroin. On the seminar in Helsinki, sponsored by the United Nations, several examples were given that in the first two weeks of methadone program in Lithuania, which was initiated by socialmovement “Drug addicts and their parents for methadone”, two drug addicts died due to methadone overdose. On the 66thsession of INCB Nations in May 1999, while discussing the Swiss “experiment” on giving drug substances to drug addicts, the INCB member from Germany O. Schreder said that in some German regions they started to be more careful with the Swiss “experiment”, because serious complications had often been noted and mortality due to methadone use had doubled. In the newspaper “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” of May 4, 1999 it was suggested to use methadone more carefully and increase control over its use, because 100 patients with drug addiction died due to methadone in Germany in 1997, and 240 - in 1998
You think its going to be simple?
The studies have been done.
ADHD raises teens' accident risk
By AMBER CORRIN
WASHINGTON, Sept. 11 (UPI) -- Teenage drivers afflicted with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder face an even greater risk of car accidents, already the leading cause of death among adolescents in the United States, according to a new study at the University of Virginia Health System.
Driving collisions account for 15 teenage deaths every day in the United States, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Coupled with the estimated 5 percent to 8 percent of American teens with ADHD, the danger increases, and experts at the university are stressing the importance of proper treatment for the condition.
"Those with ADHD, who have inattentive or impulsive tendencies, can be between two and eight times more likely to be involved in a collision," said Daniel Cox, professor of psychiatric medicine at the University of Virginia and the lead researcher of the study recently published in the American Academy of Pediatrics Journal.
Adolescent drivers with ADHD were also found to be four times more likely to be at fault in a collision and more than three times more likely to incur injuries as a result. Teen driving fatalities saw significant increases with the presence of teenager passengers and were most likely to happen in the evenings, on weekends and during the summer months.
"Historically there's been this thinking that it's good to take a break (from the medications) on weekends or in the summer, kind of a 'drug holiday.' But those 'drug holidays' are the times when people end up in the emergency room," Cox said. "If you ask when teenagers are least likely to be medicated, and then you ask when they're most likely to be in accidents, it's the same answer."
Maintaining a regular dosing schedule can save a life, confirms Alison O'Brien, a 20-year-old Reston, Va., student. O'Brien was 16 when she was lucky to survive a head-on collision one Sunday morning when she forgot to take her daily ADHD treatment.
"I was just unable to focus; that's what happens when you forget your meds. I think I just kind of fell asleep, and I lost control of the vehicle. It all happened so fast; I didn't have much of an idea of what was going on," said O'Brien, who takes 36 mg of Concerta "every day, seven days a week, all year round."
"There are a lot of things other than school you have to focus on, and those who don't realize that are at a risk," she said. "The one time I didn't take my meds, I almost died."
Of course, there are other factors involved in the dangers of adolescent driving. "There are many conditions associated with greater risk in driving mishaps; it's not unique to this diagnostic group. Other conditions can have the same effect. But what's important is the treatment available," Cox said.
The UVA study, only the most recent findings in ongoing research of ADHD and driving safety, noted different results from different ADHD treatments. Adolescent drivers with ADHD participating in the study performed best when treated with OROS methylphenidate, a controlled-release stimulant, when compared with extended-release amphetamine salts and placebo controls. OROS MPH, generic for medications such as Concerta, and se-AMPH ER, also known as Adderall XR, are commonly prescribed for patients with ADHD.
After examining the driving techniques of 35 teen drivers with ADHD, researchers found that Concerta treatments improved performance behind the wheel by decreasing off-road swerving, speeding, impulsive errors and erratic brake and speed control.
"One benefit of Concerta is that it appears to work later, even until 11 p.m.," Cox said. And while it may be a good initial treatment choice for teen drivers, those who are already receiving other treatments don't necessarily need to change prescriptions if they are responding well to their therapy.
The risks associated with ADHD, which can be broken into different types including inattentive, hyperactive and combination types, aren't limited to driving. Kids with ADHD are also more likely to become pregnant, incarcerated, intoxicated, divorced or lose their jobs, according to Cox. "ADHD is not just relevant to the classroom, although that's often where it begins. It impacts every fiber of everyday life," he said.
Participants in the controlled study included 19 boys and 16 girls with an average age of 17.8 years. In laboratory testing, adolescents were assessed at different times throughout the day and evening after an 8 a.m. dose. The drivers were examined in simulation machines, and while a "robust predictor of online driving," the next step in the research calls for a longer-running study with long-term treatment and real-life driving situations.
Copyright 2006 by United Press International.
A stupid comment like this must come from a member of the P.C. Party???
This is New Brunswick!!!
duuhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!
If Ritalin keeps them quiet and Sedated, keep it going.
This is New Brunswick!!!
duuhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!
Is ADHD differnt here than elsewhere?
Or do you just want the ADHD topic as a political tool?
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