Among the major challenges we face, as a society, is the widespread lack of resilience of many young people. Resilience is the capacity to overcome adversity, to let go of what doesn’t work, to adapt and to mature. Growing evidence of its absence among the young is as ominous for our future as the threat […]
Why Can’t Johnny Adapt? Read More »
Dear Rona Ambrose, As a member of the federal government, you are currently titled Canada’s Health Minister. I question the accuracy of that nomenclature. You have recently taken it upon yourself to void a decision by Health Canada, the public agency granted the task of supervising health practices in this country.
A Letter to Canada’s Minister of Disease? Read More »
“I never get angry,” says a Woody Allen character in one of the director’s movies, “I grow a tumour instead.” Much more scientific truth is encapsulated in that droll remark than many doctors would recognize. For all its triumphs and technical progress, mainstream Western medical practice militantly dismisses the role of emotions in the physiological
The Healing Force Within Read More »
It is always big news when a celebrity is stricken dead by a substance overdose. What never makes the news is why such tragedies surrounding addiction happen. The roster of drug- and alcohol-related show-business deaths is ever expanding: Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Elvis Presley, Keith Moon, Kurt Cobain; in the recent past, Heath Ledger, Michael
A Celebrity Death, Addiction, and the Media Read More »
The official U.S. response to the free heroin trial about to begin in Vancouver is predictably negative. A spokesman for John Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, calls it “an inhumane medical experiment.” “I would bet any amount of money the U.S. has exerted extreme pressure on Canada to
The Naomi Project – It’s No Fix, But It’s The Best We Can Do For Addicts Read More »
During my years in family practice, I often noticed that the death or illness of a person, especially among the elderly, was rapidly followed by the illness or even death of the spouse. Such “coincidences,” noted by many physicians, have now been documented by a large-scale medical study. The report, published in the New England
You Can’t Care For Your Spouse Unless You Look After Yourself Read More »
Researchers have deciphered the full DNA makeup of a single human being, a remarkable achievement which has, unfortunately, driven the crescendo of misplaced genomic enthusiasm to new heights. “This human’s life, decoded” was the front page headline in the Globe two days ago. Predictions of individualized gene-based therapies for a host of diseases are again
The Trouble With Our DNA Rat Race Read More »
Marlene, a 46-year old native woman, sat in my office last week, slumped on her chair, blinking away her tears. I’d just shared the news that her most recent blood test confirmed she had “seroconverted” to HIV, become infected with the AIDS virus. Although an injection drug user, Marlene had always been careful to use
Our Strange Indifference To Aboriginal Addiction Read More »
The U.S.-style law-and-order drug policies that the Conservative cabinet appears poised to embrace are doomed to fail in this country, as they have everywhere. What’s worse, they make impossible the rational and humane treatment of hard-core drug addiction. It is not feasible to rehabilitate large numbers of substance-dependent people in the context of the so-called
Stop Treating Drug Users As Criminals Read More »
Canada’s Health Minister urgently needs an education in harm reduction. Announcing his intention to shut down Insite, the supervised injection facility serving drug addicts in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, Tony Clement told the House of Commons health committee that “supervised injection is not medicine; it does not heal the person addicted to drugs.” Mr. Clement got
To Help Or At Least Do No Harm Read More »
