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….
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When I attend meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous, I speak of my “experience, strength and hope.” As an alcoholic in recovery, I carry that message to others as part of the 12-step program I work in AA. This week, I listened to other voices, both younger and older, carry the message, too, from as near as….
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Addiction is a term that is used to describe a recurring compulsion by the person that engages him in a particular activity, inspite of the harmful consequences to their health and social life. It is accepted all over that addiction is a disease and a state of psychological dependence on something that can have damaging….
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The Rev. Joseph C. Martin, a recovering alcoholic and an international leader in the fight against alcoholism and substance abuse who was a co-founder of Father Martin’s Ashley, a Harford County treatment center, died early today of heart disease at his Havre de Grace home. He was 84. Father Martin’s “Chalk Talk on Alcohol” and….
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There is little doubt that compulsive shopping can cause severe impairment and distress, two key criteria for formal recognition as a mental disorder. But the rest remains up for grabs: Is compulsive shopping a biologically driven disease of the brain, a learned habit run amok, an addiction in its own right or a symptom of….
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