Robinson & Berridge 1993: The neural basis of drug craving: an incentive-sensitization theory of addiction http://66.199.228.237/boundary/SA/craving.pdf
.
Robinson & Berridge 2000 The psychology and neurobiology of addiction:
an incentive–sensitization view
http://dionysus.psych.wisc.edu/lit/articles/RobinsonT2000a.pdf
.
Koob & Le Moal 2001 Drug addiction, dysregulation of reward, and allostasishttp://dionysus.psych.wisc.edu/coursewebsites/PSY411/Articles/KoobG2001a.pdf
.
Koob et al., 1998 Neuroscience of addiction. Reviewhttp://66.199.228.237/boundary/addiction/neuroscience_of_addiction.pdf
.
Koob 2008 Neurocircuitry of addiction
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2805560/
.
Everitt & Robbins 2005 Neural systems of reinforcement for drug
addiction: from actions to habits to compulsionhttp://66.199.228.237/boundary/addiction/conditionedresponse.pdf

First Vinnie in September, then Len in October. In November, Larry. Beginning of January, Dave.

Two weeks ago, Joe almost joined them. It was only because his brother firefighters were on the ice playing hockey with him that he survived.

Each was a Hamilton firefighter on active duty. Each was a nonsmoker and extremely fit. The oldest was only 52.

Yet Vincent D’Onofrio, Lenard Martin and David Begley all died of massive heart failures. Larry Power died of a rare aggressive cancer once found almost exclusively among Victorian-era chimney sweeps.

Joe Elliott nearly died of a heart failure, too, but instant action by his colleagues saved his life. Joe is only 47.

There is another common tie that binds most of them — Len, Larry, Dave and Joe all fought one of North America’s worst-ever industrial fires.

Plastimet.

“Our people are in shock,” said Henry Watson, president of the Hamilton Professional Fire Fighters Association.

“To have four and nearly five active firefighters succumb or nearly succumb to heart-related illnesses and cancer is of grave concern.”

The burning question is: Why?

Are all four heart events unrelated? Is there a correlation between the rare chimney sweep cancer and the job? Are the heart failures the result of a firefighter’s increased exposure to harmful combustibles? Did repeated physical overexertion in stressful situations play a role?

Or is this the result of fighting a four-day fire 14 years ago where the levels of hydrochloric acid were so high near the fire that the metal on the fire trucks melted?

In the aftermath of the 1997 Plastimet fire, Hamilton set up a long-term health monitoring program known as the Occupational Health Evaluation Program (OHEP), based on recommendations from Dr. James Melius, one of the top experts in the world on firefighter occupational health problems.

Melius is the chief medical adviser for the International Association of Fire Fighters, a member of the U.S. president’s advisory board on radiation and worker health, and chair of the steering committee for the World Trade Center medical monitoring and treatment program.

The occupational physician and epidemiologist knew firefighters faced higher odds of developing diseases, especially in highly toxic chemical fires like Plastimet, where 400 tonnes of recycled plastic burned for four days. As well, the building on Wellington Street North was the former Usarco, an old foundry. Plastimet pushed exposures to toxic materials to a whole new level.

He told the firefighters’ union and the city that health impacts would likely begin showing up within 10 to 15 years of Plastimet. What he didn’t expect was a sudden spike in heart-related fatalities.

“This is an unusual cluster of a relatively small group,” Melius said Thursday. “Yes, it could have occurred by chance, but it is out of the ordinary and given their common exposure to an unusual fire event, one might expect to see some of the delayed effects of that exposure.”

The main problem with heart attacks in firefighters is the combination of exposures to carbon monoxide and other gases that occur during a fire with the high physical requirements of being a firefighter, he said.

A firefighter working with all his or her heavy equipment has to work at maximum physical output, and that puts a strain on the heart. Along with individual physical changes, firefighters are at a much higher risk of developing acute heart problems.

But this “may be very specific to Plastimet,” said Melius, who is based in Washington, D.C.

The epidemiologist is heading for Hamilton in the next several weeks to try to figure out what’s happening. A key priority, he said, is to expand the OHEP monitoring to include cardiovascular screening.

The impacts of a single event can be seen in the health effects of 9/11 on firefighters and workers who spent days and weeks in the rumble of the fallen twin towers.

“Thirty per cent of the workers have become ill” as a result of their exposure to extremely small and highly alkaline particles from the concrete dust “that penetrated deep into their lungs” causing asthmas that are highly resistant to treatment and pulmonary fibroses, along with acute post-tramautic stress disorders.

The soot and particulate matter from the Plastimet inferno, in which hundreds of tonnes of recycled plastic burned, would have been much more toxic and irritating than other fires, Melius said.

“We know that from the reports people made at the time, plus they were exposed to long periods,” Melius said. “Firefighters never really got away from where the smoke was. For example, the relief station where they took a break from fighting the fire was within the smoke plume most of the time.”

Firefighters were exposed to unknown chemical cocktails that even today could not be detected because sophisticated chemical sniffers are set up to find individual hazardous byproducts, said Colin Grieve, a Hamilton firefighter and occupational health specialist for the Ontario Professional Fire Fighters Association.

The firefighters’ union is extremely worried, Grieve said.

“There were 294 guys at Plastimet, and about 200 are still on active duty. Since Plastimet, we’ve had 15 to 20 heart attacks.”

Joe Elliott admits he was lucky. At only 47, Elliott was in premier shape: “I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, my wife and I eat healthy and we work out at the gym all the time. We regularly do the Escarpment stairs.”

Late last month, Elliott was on the ice playing hockey in the little 11-team Hamilton firefighter league. “I just didn’t feel right. I’d come off the ice and feel dizzy. But I just kept shaking it off.”

The third time back to the bench, Elliott turned to tell a colleague something was wrong, and collapsed. He stopped breathing and his teammates started CPR. He made it to hospital where doctors performed open heart surgery to repair a malfunctioning aortic valve.

Elliott had spent four days at Plastimet. “It was chaos when we pulled up.” At times shifting smoke made a huge stack looming above him look like it was tumbling down onto him.

The union says firefighters don’t like talking about Plastimet because it makes them think about things they’d rather not think about. Some deal with it by fatalistically putting it out of their minds and getting on with the job.

“Some guys, though, it plays on their minds. Some just can’t shake it,” Elliott said.

Post-Plastimet, Elliott decided he was worried enough about its effects that he asked his family physician to do a full physical. A heart murmur was detected, but it was deemed not to impair him in any way.

Now, recovering from open heart surgery to repair the aortic valve, Elliott said his surgeon told him the valve’s deterioration happened much quicker than it should have.

“We need greater surveillance. I’ve always asked why we don’t get our heart monitored. This is very important to me, especially in my occupation.”

The fire department is already in discussions with the union about expanding OHEP to include heart monitoring.

“We’re certainly concerned,” said acting Fire Chief David Cunliffe. “Any time there’s a death, we’re all concerned. It hits home.

“We haven’t had any medical evidence provided at this point that links them to any specific event, but obviously we have concerns.”

pmorse@thespec.com

905-526-3434

YOUNG PEOPLE who drink to excess are much more likely to suffer from severe depression, anxiety or stress, according to a report published today. The survey of 14,000 teenagers and young adults found 38 per cent had problematic or harmful drinking behaviour and a further 7 per cent had signs of alcohol dependence. Of the latter group, a quarter showed symptoms of severe or very severe depression.

Some 6,000 school-going adolescents aged 12 to 19 and 8,000 young adults aged 17 to 25 were surveyed for the study by youth mental health organisation Headstrong and psychologists at University College Dublin.

“For young people we now see there is a link between excessive drinking and mental health,” said Dr Barbara Dooley, research director at Headstrong and lecturer at UCD School of Psychology. Among school-going adolescents the results show a steady rise in alcohol consumption from an early age. By sixth year almost half of students experienced problem drinking, hazardous drinking or possible dependence, the survey, based on a WHOscale, noted.

The study showed that increased drinking corresponded with an increase in the severity of mental health problems. There were severe or very severe depressive symptoms among 27 per cent of adolescents with possible alcohol dependency. This compared to 6 per cent of adolescents with no problem drinking.

A strong link between self-harm and depression, anxiety and stress was also identified in the report. A fifth of young adults reported self-harm without wanting to take their life. More than a quarter who self-harmed had severe or very severe depressive symptoms. Seven per cent of young adults reported they had attempted suicide. Less than half of these had accessed help after their attempt, the study noted. Of these a third found it difficult or very difficult to get the support they needed. Support from a trustworthy adult was found to have a strong impact on reducing the likelihood of self-harm and attempted suicide.

the fifth estate’s Gillian Findlay presents an extremely up-close and personal look inside the native secondary education program in Thunder Bay, Ont., where seven students have tragically died in the past ten years. Five of the victims died apparent alcohol related deaths — their bodies were pulled from local rivers amid swirling suspicions and rumours about what pushed them over the edge. Another two teens suffered troubling and unexpected deaths that have left lingering questions.

Filmed by a local crew with close connections to the community, with unprecedented access, the fifth estate takes viewers inside the school halls, the homes where the kids are billeted, the mall where they hang out, and onto the dark streets where their dedicated teachers and mentors run nightly patrols in a desperate bid to try and get them all home safe.

http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/2011-2012/storiesfromtheriversedge/

It goes further than this, the spiritually sick person is not connected with themselves. Often they live in thought with no connection to their feelings. They are cutoff from their own essence and end up feeling ashamed of themselves and resentful of everything and body else.

We all have a life force if it is absent there is just a void. The universe is designed for connection, the cutting of that connection can only lead one way to further disconnection. At the same time part of the self rebels against that, the isolated are needy looking for connection, and get into co-dependent relationships, the angry person craves agreement which if it doesn’t come he attacks and alienates the other, leading to more isolation, the food addict consumed by a sense of hopelessness feeds themselves for comfort, the alcoholic is lost and drinks to forget, the crack addict desperate for intimacy can only do it when getting high, the depressed person craves self esteem and approval because they don’t see anything of value in themselves.

Connecting with that spirit is essential for recovery, it is the disconnect that caused the sickness in the first place. Whatever it looks like: a warm touch, a smile, an acknowledgement of a sensation or feelings, a blunt comment followed a moment of clarity all equal connection and a route to wellness and turning away from sickness.

Nigel Turner, B.S. (Econ), H.S.C., Member OACCPP

Nigel works with men who have addiction, anger, emotional and relationship issues.

His style is compassionate and direct. With a background in addictions, he pursued an interest in men with addictions and relationship problems. He was trained in the Partner Abuse Response (PAR) Program and works extensively with the courts with mandated clients. Nigel understands the male psyche and what a man needs to hear to move forward with solutions to his own problems. He is conscious of the deep reluctance men have in dealing with these issues and the importance of a man discovering for himself what he needs to do. Nigel’s time limited work with the court mandated clients has given him clarity and efficiency in identifying clients’ issues, and in helping them not only find solutions to their problems but to begin to enact necessary changes. The focus is on brief rather than long term therapy.

Monday, April 30, 2012 2:56:57 EDT PM

 

• The end of oxy: chaos in drug world

• Top 10 cars stolen in Ontario
• Chingers say business run from reserve

It looks so easy in all the movies, TV shows and video games.

Gone in 60 Seconds, Grand Theft Auto and Need for Speed have indoctrinated kids, especially young men, with the impression that stealing, speeding and crashing cars is very cool.

And as a city that was dubbed the Stolen Car Capital of Canada in 2010, Brantford has a nasty reputation as the playground for these car thieves.

While improvements are being made notably with a joint policing effort called Team Shutdown, two area teens have died as a result of car chases in the past five years and there have been numerous injuries, not to mention millions of dollars in damages to cars and costs in insurance.

Some say it’s non-natives who are stealing cars from outside the county and dumping them on Six Nations for natives to take the blame.

Others believe that, at the heart of this, is a gang of outside influences who are directing native kids to steal cars. The kids are young and have a grid of back roads on the reserve where cars can be hidden and chopped, and where police can be evaded.

But a series of interviews by The Expositor indicates the recent problems didn’t start with Mafia connections or Asian gangs.

The problem has been a little pain pill called Oxycontin.

***

“I got in a bad car accident where I was ejected out of the vehicle and broke all my ribs. I broke my arm and my shoulder. I started taking Tylenol 3 and Percoset prescribed by the doctor but pretty soon it wasn’t working.”

That’s how one young man, “Robert” became a ‘chinger’ on Six Nations.

Chinging is the local slang for the act of stealing cars, derived from the word ‘cha-ching!’, meaning easy money.

Robert’s dependence on narcotics for his pain lead him to the well-known, but highly addictive “hillbilly heroin” — Oxycontin.

“It’s an expensive habit and stealing vehicles is easy money. People getting Oxy can turn around and sell it for $50, $60 or $100 on the reserve and that’s a good chunk of change.”

Eventually, Robert was spending $1,000 each day on his Oxy habit and there are no jobs that can support that kind of expenditure.

He quickly got involved in chinging, learning the ropes from older friends and, eventually, setting up his own system of buyers.

“There were times when I didn’t sleep for three or four days. I would be out stealing every day, all day. I’d take at least five vehicles in a night. Sometimes more.”

He was shot at and chased by police more times than he can count. When he looks back at his escapades now, it’s terrifying.

“It’s easy money but in the long run, you get caught, addicted to Oxy and not caring about your family. You end up sitting in jail and are told when you can go to bed and when to get up.”

Robert is on probation now, trying hard to stay clean and away from Six Nations.

“I’m trying to take care of me right now.”

Robert’s lawyer, Sarah Dover, has become somewhat of an expert on chingers.

Dover says she represents a “significant number” of Six Nations residents who have been arrested after dangerous car chases or repeatedly stealing cars.

“I’ve had maybe one or two clients who are not addicted to Oxycontin and all the others are.”

Dover knows a lot about Oxy.

She’s researched it and has daily anecdotal evidence of what it does to a user. Oftentimes, Dover is the first one to talk to a chinger about his Oxy habit and where it’s heading.

“There’s been greater access to Oxy on the reserve than alcohol and you become addicted in a very short time — within a week of your first use. The symptoms of withdrawal are excruciating. It’s like having barbed wire pulled through your veins.”

And here’s the problem: the No. 1 course of treatment for Oxy addiction is methadone. There’s no methadone program available on Six Nations and no detox there. To get their daily methadone dose Dover’s clients have to get to Brantford. But most are on probation for driving crimes and aren’t allowed to drive. Unless a supportive family member or friend volunteers to drive them to Brantford every single day, a lot of chingers are faced with a choice of stealing a car or dropping methadone and going back to Oxy.

And there’s another problem: if you’re already on a methadone program when you go to jail, they make sure that you continue treatment. But if you’re not on the program, you can’t get on it in jail. Instead you face about a week of acute withdrawal and then a chemically induced depression for 12 to 18 months.

“In jail, (prisoners) have no education around their addiction, no access to counselling and when they come out of jail they’re no further ahead in accessing services for addictions. It’s a huge set-up for them to fail.”

The results are heavily tinged with irony: chingers sometimes steal cars to get to their methadone appointments or even take a car at the courthouse to get home after being released from jail; one of Dover’s addicted clients had her newborn taken from her at the hospital by Children’s Aid but walked out of the facility with an Oxy prescription in her hand; native boys are facing dozens of driving charges before they even get their licences.

And they all talk about the big bucks they generate from the chinging business. But Dover says it’s a sham.

“I ask them ‘Where’s the money?’ Where are the guys with the massive houses and gorgeous cars? They don’t exist because the money’s going into opiates.

“If people are really serious about ending car chases, do something about Oxy.”

That was Dover’s statement a few months ago when Oxy use was rampant on Six Nations.

Now, with the introduction of OxyNEO, a “tamper-proof” drug that can’t be crushed, ground or liquified for snorting or injecting she says the situation is in a muted chaos.

Prices for Oxy have gone up and new suppliers are being sought outside of Ontario; addictions are switching drugs, some have overdosed; the drug world is hard at work trying to tamper with the new tamper-proof drug; and yes, some hard cases are turning to methadone as they try to drop their old habit.

MPP Dave Levac is pushing to get a new residential rehab-detox centre in the city and others are suggesting the methadone clinic at St. Andrew’s Church be moved to wherever that new location is.

Wherever it is, it won’t be on the reserve — so the problem for addicts will remain.

“We need to help those getting treatment to succeed,” said Levac.

“We want to stop people from reoffending and remove the obstacles, so that may (lead to) a transportation service or taxi chits – something so we can tackle this in a whole community way.”

Levac is one of those who believes Six Nations has been unfairly targeted because of the car theft industry.

“The idea it’s all natives doing this is a long-standing mythology. If we actually broke down the number of first nations people involved we’d see it’s not just them. It’s just a favourite dumping ground.”

Six Nations Chief Coun. Bill Montour agrees, saying it’s “outside influences” controlling many of the young people on the reserve.

“We’re getting more blacks, Asians and motorcycle gangs operating here and we’ve had four incidents involving Jamaican enforcers.”

The chief said he’s been a victim himself: his own car was stolen by thieves who used it to go to Mississauga in order to steal there.

“My son is a cop and they’re all over this.”

But lawyer Dover says it’s not gangs controlling the kids – it’s drugs.

Dover’s typical client has a Grade 8 education, is 20-something years old and has severe addiction issues.

“They come from pain. When they’re released the only thing they’re good at is stealing cars.”

Dover speaks often and passionately in court about the Oxy-car theft problem.

She’s hugely frustrated by what she considers a broken system.

“Jail is not effective in deterring my clients. I’ve had clients shot by police before being jailed and when they’re released, because the underlying dynamic hasn’t been addressed, they return to the behaviour despite a desire to have a normal life.”

Some have suggested to Dover that if her clients truly wanted to get better they’d be willing to go far afield to find help.

“The folks from Six Nations are deeply connected to their community, land and way of life. To say if you want to be sober, go to another community, you might as well say ‘be shot into space’.”

Native Horizons is the drug rehab program on Six Nations. Dover says that every year the agency puts in a proposal for a more comprehensive addictions service and every year they are denied.

It takes one to three months to get into the current rehab program and you have to qualify by being out of jail and sober for 30 days.

“If some of my clients could stay out of jail and sober for 30 days they wouldn’t need rehab,” says Dover.

There are two Alcoholics Anonymous meetings on the reserve, she adds, and people can go to counselling meetings at Native Horizons, but there are no regular Narcotic Anonymous meetings there.

“My clients are white-knuckling through withdrawal and they get out of jail and relapse.

Which, of course, leads to the theft of more cars, or worse, the rising suicide problem on this and other reserves.

What’s needed, says Dover, is a crisis approach to the Oxy problem that targets the underlying issues: too much Oxy availability; not enough rehab and methadone help; more counselling for family problems, including the residual angst of the residential schools issue.

“Robert” is glad to be done with his $1000-a-day Oxy habit.

“Looking back, I’m scared about what I was doing. I’ve been shot at and stuff. I was constantly looking over my shoulder for police and owners. Now a weight’s been lifted.”

susan.gamble@sunmedia.ca

ONTARIO, Canada (PRWEB) April 26, 2012

On his dedication page, poet Gary Rubie writes, “to every alcoholic and addict that suffered, recovered and still suffers, I hope for serenity, courage and wisdom.” The same serenity, courage and wisdom can be found in the interstices of Out On A Cliff, an intricately-weaved anthology of lyrical prose which takes readers into an intense journey into Rubie’s mind, providing a glimpse into his soul’s darkest hole.

Rubie’s journey to writing poetry began just over seven years ago as a method of journaling. With no formal training he found solace in rhyme. It was a therapeutic way of putting his feelings on paper about the struggles and challenges he faced during his policing career and in dealing with severe job related trauma (P.T.S.D.) and his addictions.

Each metrical piece in Out On A Cliff are based on Rubie’s real life experiences –. From growing up, suffering abuse, to his 25-year career as a city cop, surviving deep depression, suicidal thoughts and attempts at his own life and then managing crippling job related Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. This all lead him through his own Dante’s Inferno, the darkest hole imaginable of addictions, his own incarceration and his eventual victorious recovery. Rubie asked his father two years ago if he would consider drawing images to go with each poem. Confident in his son’s adroitness in poetry, Henk Rubie agreed to do a collaboration between father and son.

Rubie further wrote, “If one poem touches one person and stops that one person from ending their life, or gives one person hope, or keeps one person sober for one day, then all the hard work, honesty, and hours of painful soul-searching that went into creating this book was worth it.”

As Cornwall Chief of Police Daniel C. Parkinson puts it, Rubie has taken the lid off the Pandora’s Box of policing and allows readers to peek into its harrowing side. Writing with complete transparency, Rubie has courageously walked through self-healing and by turns offers readers to do the same by reflecting through this candid volume.

For more information on this book, interested parties may log on to http://www.Xlibris.com.

About the Author
Gary Rubie was born in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada in 1962. He joined the Peel Regional Police Department in 1984 where he served for 25 years on a variety of front line and plain cloths units. He enjoyed many successes in his career being recognized 64 times with letters of appreciation from the public, police commendations and awards. He continued his studies taking 33 job related courses over his career. In 2008 in his 25th year of policing he was diagnosed with job related career ending Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and was placed on permanent disability.

Henk Rubie was born in the Netherlands in 1931 where he was educated and joined the air force for 2 years. He worked as a toolmaker until he married his wife of 53 years Antonia Rubie. Together they immigrated to Kitchener, Ontario, Canada in 1959 where they raised three children. Henk worked as a skilled machinist for years in the RMS Machinery Division, at the Uniroyal tire manufacturing facility in Kitchener. He retired in 1991. A hobby boat builder and artist he further honed his artistic skills and began oil painting, creating intarsia wood crafts and continued building scaled model sail boats.

Out On A Cliff* by Gary Rubie and Henk Rubie

Publication Date: April 17, 2012
Trade Paperback; $19.99; 314 pages; 978-1-4691-8114-1
Trade Hardback; $29.99; 314 pages; 978-1-4691-8115-8
eBook; $3.99; 978-1-4691-8116-5
To request a complimentary paperback review copy, contact the publisher at (888) 795-4274 x. 7879. To purchase copies of the book for resale, please fax Xlibris at (610) 915-0294 or call (888) 795-4274 x. 7879.
For more information, contact Xlibris at (888) 795-4274 or on the web at http://www.Xlibris.com.

It stated that in 1989 drug companies “collectively” spent 12 million dollars in advertisement…

In 2001 they spent 2.89 BILLION..( 200% increase)

In 2006 they spent 3.6 BILLION,
http://www.therubins.com/geninfo/advertise.htm

In 2008 as NY study said that the drug companies spent twice as much money on advertising than research and states that “The industry spent approximately US$61,000 in promotion per physician during 2004″ based on sales in 2004)http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080105140107.htm

Not sure what the numbers are for 2011.. it does state that Pharma spends 24 times as much vs Canada spending…..

” In addition, it takes about 7 to 10 years and only 3 out of every 20 approved drugs bring in sufficient revenue to cover their developmental costs, and only 1 out of every 3 approved drugs generates enough money to cover the development costs of previous failures. This means that for a drug company to survive, it needs to discover a blockbuster (billion-dollar drug) every few years.[5]” and “the pharmaceutical industry is — and has been for years — the most profitable of all businesses in the U.S. In the annual Fortune 500 survey, the pharmaceutical industry topped the list of the most profitable industries, with a return of 17% on revenue” (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharmaceutical_industry)

This same scrutiny came with the alcohol industry…http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/05/110531180936.htm andhttp://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091109194743.htm

I believe that this type of marketing is a huge challenge… as people see a quick fix to their symptoms and do not understand that health and wellness starts at the core…..

Education and awareness is the key.

Tammy Francoeur, Co-Founder, Turning Point Habitude Program

April 24, 2012 in Psychology & Psychiatry

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QqCygE0jwgg