Description: Think about how you would answer this question. Why do we arrest people found in possession of personal use amounts of addictive drugs and often send them to jail? Is it because we think that the threat of arrest will be a deterrent to becoming addicted? How is that working out for us? What… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Substance-Related Disorders
Dealing with Problematic Drinking in High School: A Developmental Approach
Description: There are many issues and problems that can benefit from a developmental perspective. We can try and find ways to address reduce or fix problems when they arise. For example, we can address the problems associated with some risk-seeking young drivers by suspending their licenses after fewer demerit points than would be true for… Read more »
What DO You Know About the Effects of Cannabis (Marijuana) on Human Behavior and Performance?
Description: Marijuana is going to become legal in Canada in a few days (October 17, 2018). Here is a timley question. What do you know about the affects of marijuana on human behavior and performance? Well, linked below is a review article from the journal Forensic Science with that exact title and it contains, I… Read more »
New Canadian Cannabis Laws and Teenage Brains
Description: This next Wednesday the use of cannabis or marijuana will become legal in Canada. If you live in Canada you cannot have missed the torrent of media on things like the formation and marketing of companies to produce, market and sell marijuana or the public service ads pointing out that toking/ingesting and driving are… Read more »
The Opioid Crisis: Is a Broader Perspective Needed?
Description: There is an opioid overdose epidemic in North America. In 2017, 4,000 people in Canada and 72,000 people in the United States died of opioid overdoses. I don’t know what you have been hearing or reading about what is behind these astonishing and terrifying numbers, but there is a lot to consider and a… Read more »
Vaping and Smoking: What should we think, what should we do?
Description: I was at a hockey game the other day and watched the usual video announcement asking fans to refrain from foul language, fighting, drunken behavior or smoking including the use of e-cigarettes. I have occasionally wondered about the equating of cigarettes and e-cigarettes in sporting venues or elsewhere in public places. After all, the… Read more »
How Biological and Neuro-chemically Driven are Addictions to Heroin and other Opioids? Welcome to Rat Park!
Description: What do you think you know about the addictive nature of opioid drugs like heroin or morphine? Have you heard that they can be addictive on first use? Have you heard that they work on the brain chemistry of all users to create a need for the drug or a dependency that is purely… Read more »
Unexpected Issues Faced by First Year Post-Secondary Students
Description: As students head off to university and college campuses next week (you may be one of them) think for a minute about what might be a BIG but unexpected issue that new first year students might have to (perhaps unexpectedly) deal with? A hint might be to think more closely about students who are… Read more »
Does Rehab Work?
Description: One of the most common treatments for drug and alcohol issues is rehab. It is likely you heard of one celebrity or another checking themselves into rehab in order to try and deal with substance issues. Rehab typically involves residential treatment in which the person goes and stays somewhere for a potentially extended period… Read more »
What is the Relationship between Using E Cigarettes and “Real” Cigarettes
Description: The pitch about e- cigarettes seems to be that they both help people quit smoking can provide people with a safer alternative to smoking if they’re so inclined. But just what is the relationship between smoking E cigarettes and smoking real cigarettes? Source: PsychCentral, Do E–Cigarettes Lead to Smoking Tobacco? Rick Nauert. Date: October 3,… Read more »
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