NewsCloud.com Addiction News

'This Is Me, Take It or Leave It'

In photos and words, citizens of a gritty community create a vibrant self-portrait.

Paul Levesque has spent 40 years in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, and he sees the neighbourhood as a sole reminder of the way this city used to be. "It's the last of an era, of Vancouver built in the 1950s, '60s, '70s," he says, standing in the pouring rain at Hastings and Dunlevy. "It's unique. It's not fictional; it's reality. The east end community is not like any other community, because it's not plastic. It's not like keeping up with the Joneses, because we can't afford to keep up with the Joneses. It's a poverty-stricken area. It's painful. But it's also reality."

A neighbourhood speaks - and hears its own voice

'I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn't photograph them," photographer Diane Arbus once wrote. It's a comment that came repeatedly to mind reading Hope in Shadows, a collection of photographs taken and stories told by residents of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. The book, which comes out next month, grew from a popular program run over the past five years by the Pivot Legal Society, a non-profit legal advocacy organization based in the neighbourhood. Since 2003, Pivot has been handing out cameras to residents and assembling pictures in a calendar. If you live or work in the downtown area, Gastown or Yaletown in particular, you've likely bought one of these from a street vendor at some point.

Expert Advisory Committee report: Insite works

Late Friday afternoon (PST) Health Canada tried to quietly release the Final report of the Expert Advisory Committee on Supervised Injection Site Research. (Since government reports public domain I've created a downloadable, easier to read PDF version that can be found here). Why quietly release such an upbeat report? Because the Health Minister is ideologically committed to closing INSITE. Unfortunately for him, the report confirms what researchers and scientists have been telling us all along: that INSITE works.

Hollywood's Leading Interventionist On Heath Ledger's Death

A&E's Interventionist Ken Seeley talks about Heath Ledger's recent death, the perils of sleeping pills, and addictive personalities.

Fighter for Addicts Ready to Quit

After spending the past 13 years trying to save Vancouver's poor from the filthy alleys of the Downtown Eastside, Ann Livingston doesn't have a pension plan or any significant savings, but she has decided to quit her job.

Pickton found guilty on 6 counts of 2nd-degree murder

A B.C. Supreme Court jury on Sunday found Robert William Pickton guilty on six counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of women who disappeared from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. He still faces murder charges in connection with the deaths of 20 other women, but no decision has been made on whether to hold a second trial, B.C. Attorney General Wally Oppal said.

B.C. capital wants safe injection sites established

Victoria will request federal permission to set up a safe injection site similar to the one operating in Vancouver in order to tackle the city's growing drug-addiction problem. A call for safe injection sites in the city is among the recommendations in a report released Wednesday by the Centre for Addictions Research of B.C.

Lived To Use And Used To Live: A Former Sex-Trade Worker Covering A Serial Killer's Trial

This week, Orato begins the coverage of the trial of Robert Pickton, the man accused of killing at least 26 sex trade workers from Vancouver s Downtown Eastside. I say at least, because there are more than 60 women missing from the area, and Pickton has been mentioned in connection with more disappearances.

The needle and the damage undone

Three years ago, Vancouver opened a bold new front in the eternal war on drugs. In a downtown neighborhood notorious for street addicts, healthcare workers began welcoming clients into a new "safe injection site," a legal facility for users of illegal narcotics such as heroin and cocaine. The Insite program has saved hundreds of lives. It has wiped away much of the drug use in the surrounding streets, while increasing the number of addicts seeking treatment and rehabilitation. Some local conservatives, once fierce opponents of the injection site, are now backing it. And supporters believe the site's success will prove a beachhead for a less punitive and more humane war on drugs extending across Canada -- and even to drug-troubled cities south of the Canadian border.

Internet addicts halfway house opens

Mainland China has opened its first halfway house for internet addicts, offering shell-shocked teenagers counselling, books - and the use of computers. The shelter can hold four minors for one-night stays and help bridge gaps between children and parents, the Shanghai Daily said. "None of the teenagers are forced to come here," the newspaper quoted Wang Hui, the house's chief social worker, as saying. "We wander around in nearby internet bars at night and bring them to the halfway house if the teen agrees." Computer and online gaming has exploded in China in recent years, with an estimated 14 million people taking part. Amid growing concern that more and more young people are getting hooked, China has issued a raft of regulations aimed at curbing excessive game playing at Internet cafes and heavily fining owners that admit minors.

Homeless Alcoholics Receive a Permanent Place to Live, and Drink

Rodney Littlebear was a homeless drunk who for 15 years ran up the public tab with trips to jail, homeless shelters and emergency rooms. He now has a brand-new, government-financed apartment where he can drink as much as he wants. It is part of a first-in-the-nation experiment to ease the torment of drug and alcohol addiction while saving taxpayers' money.

Women Get Drunk, High and Addicted Easier Than Men

More than 20 million girls and women in the United States abuse drugs and alcohol and 30 million more are addicted to cigarettes, according to a 10-year research effort from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University. The study documents how women, pound-for-pound, not only get more drunk or higher faster then men, but also become addicted more easily.

'Gene cause' of cocaine addiction

In a large study, a gene variation that makes cocaine more strongly inhibit a protein that controls removal of the key mood chemical dopamine in the brain has been identified. Two copies of the variant gene made people 50% more likely to be cocaine abusers.

The One Drug To Replace All Drugs

An international research team created a peptide that blocks the natural rewards that an addict experiences from an increase in serotonin a neurotransmitter associated with learning, sleep and mood when taking his or her substance of choice.

Hooked on the Web: Help Is on the Way

Is the Web a healthy or harmful addiction?