Recent Articles:
Below are past articles previously published in Drugs & Addiction Magazine. These are filled with current and relevant information and statistics and can be used as great conversation starters with youth.
It’s Bell Let’s Talk Day!
January 30, 2019Former Insys CEO pleads guilty to opioid kickback scheme
January 17, 2019Resolve to Detox Your Social Circle
January 16, 2019Easing test anxiety boosts low-income students’ biology grades
January 15, 2019Craving insight into addiction
January 14, 2019People with low self-esteem tend to seek support in ways that backfire, study finds
January 10, 2019Ban on cigarette sales in NYC pharmacies starts Jan. 1
January 9, 2019Too many problems? Maybe coping isn’t the answer
January 8, 2019Half of all mental illness begins by the age of 14
January 3, 2019Sexting Teens
December 19, 2018Screen Addiction: Today’s Biggest Threat to Schooling?
December 19, 2018Texting Etiquette & Safety: 5 Rules for Keeping Your Kids & Teens Secure & Drama-Free
December 17, 2018Amnesty International: Indigenous Peoples’ rights
December 17, 2018New Canadians sworn in as Winnipeg museum celebrates International Human Rights Day
December 13, 2018Statement by the Prime Minister on Human Rights Day
December 12, 2018Fentanyl is the deadliest drug in America, CDC confirms
December 12, 2018The Illustrated Version of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
December 11, 2018Homeless man with terminal cancer donates to holiday toy drive
December 10, 2018Boy gets Colorado town to overturn snowball fight ban
December 6, 2018Fortnite addiction is forcing kids into video game rehab
December 5, 2018Clarity on Cannabis
December 4, 2018Mental health education recommended for RCMP members following inquest
November 30, 2018Social Media – 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence
November 28, 2018Strategy to Prevent and Address Gender-Based Violence
November 27, 2018#GIVINGTUESDAY TODAY ONLY YOUR GIFT CAN BE MATCHED
November 27, 2018The 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence
November 26, 2018#ENDViolence in schools
November 23, 2018Statement by Minister MacLeod on National Child Day
November 22, 2018November 20th marks National Children’s Day across Canada
November 21, 2018National Child Day
November 20, 2018Facts & Figures
November 16, 2018The Push For Change®
November 15, 2018Winter Giving 101
November 14, 2018First came the stroke, then the inspiration…
November 13, 2018Canadian Youth Speakers Bureau: Scott Hammell
November 9, 2018John Connors’ brilliant IFTA Award speech
November 9, 2018Crisis Text Line powered by Kids Help Phone
November 8, 2018This teen pizzeria employee traveled 3 hours to deliver pizza to a man with terminal cancer
November 6, 2018Video captures joyful law student’s reaction to passing her bar exam
November 5, 2018MADD Canada launches annual red ribbon campaign in Halifax
November 2, 2018Nova Scotia’s Health Department says talks underway for province’s first overdose prevention site
October 31, 2018Crystal meth eclipsing opioids on the Prairies: ‘There’s no lack of meth on the street’
October 29, 2018Opioids Don’t Discriminate: An Interactive Experience.
October 26, 2018Guelph police warn drug users of spike in purple fentanyl
October 25, 2018What exactly are you inhaling when you vape?
October 23, 2018Study ADHD Medication Overdoses
June 14, 2018A Cry for Guidance
January 18, 2018Your Friend’s Substance Abuse
September 15, 2017Depression
September 15, 2017Methamphetamines
September 15, 2017Alcohol
September 15, 201725 Healthy Ways to Feel Better
September 15, 2017Crystal meth eclipsing opioids on the Prairies: ‘There’s no lack of meth on the street’
October 29, 2018By Bill Graveland The Canadian Press
Police are dealing with a prairie fire of methamphetamine use which is rapidly overtaking fentanyl as the drug of choice for many.
Opioid use continues to be a public-health crisis with just under 4,000 deaths across Canada in 2017 and over 3,000 in 2016.
But officers in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta say they’re worried about crystal meth as a narcotic of choice.
“The meth problem is happening across the Prairies. They’re seeing that opioid use is now being replaced with meth,” said Lethbridge police Chief Rob Davis.
Meth, followed by heroin and fentanyl, is the top drug consumed at the supervised consumption site in Lethbridge. Davis recently watched people coming out of the site.
“There were some who looked like the Time-Life commercials for songs of the ’60s, where everybody’s doing their interpretive dancing, and then I’m watching people who just had that walk of rage, just stomping down the street with all that anger.”
The situation in Saskatoon is no better.
“It is an epidemic. I think we’ve reached that point,” said Det.-Sgt. Robin Wintermute from the police drug enforcement team.
“When I talked to my cohorts up in Prince Albert and down in Regina, they have the same things going on in their city as we are. It’s relatively cheap compared to cocaine and so it correlates with our business and residential break-ins, our petty thefts, our mail frauds, stolen autos, all that stuff.”
Wintermute said a tenth of a gram of meth costs $5 to $10 while a single hit of fentanyl can run anywhere from $40 to $60.
Edmonton police have also seen a dramatic rise in meth use. Seizures of the drug surged to 33,112 grams in 2017 from 9,017 grams in 2013. Just under 30,000 grams has been seized so far this year.
“The trend is certainly going upwards,” said Sgt. Guy Pilon, clandestine lab co-ordinator in Edmonton’s organized crime division. “There’s no lack of meth on the street. What we are seeing though is kind of an anomaly in that there is some really inexpensive meth that’s being sold out there, almost half the price of the normal stuff.”
Pilon said there’s also been an increase in the use of speedballs – users take fentanyl until about the time they are going to nod off and then use meth as a stimulant.
Many dealers are offering a wide range of drugs for customers instead of focusing on just one kind of narcotic, he added.
“Now the drug traffickers are selling more of a cornucopia of drugs to serve a greater client base.”
Winnipeg’s police Chief Danny Smyth has said the skyrocketing use of methamphetamine is creating a crisis for police, health-care services and addictions treatment centres.
Numbers from Winnipeg’s health authority show there has been a 1,200 per cent rise in people going to hospitals because of methamphetamine — 218 meth-related visits in April 2018 from 12 in April 2013.
Officer safety is also a concern. Where opioid users tend to be docile, those high on meth are more unpredictable.
“That’s the problem with it, right? Some of them have been up for days. It’s a devastating drug on the body and typically they’re not easy to deal with when they’re on the drug,” said Wintermute.
“They’ll use it all day long or over a period of days just to keep that high … then it’s a crash.
“They’ve got to feed that addiction.”