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Treatment & Detox Guide
The new smoking ban battleground: detox clinics
Derek Laughlin, a 40-year-old former crack addict from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, found the cravings unbearable. Hours into treatment last year at a Surrey, B.C., short-term detox centre, on a staff-supervised walk around the block, he fell behind the group to search the pavement for discarded cigarette butts. Overcoming his crack habit was tough, but simultaneously….
The Business of Opium in Afghanistan: Drug Addiction
Afghanistan supplies virtually all of the world’s illegal opium. Last year, the country’s drug trade was a $4-billion business, half of which alone was produced in the south where the fighting against the Taliban insurgency is the fiercest. Getting Afghanistan to rid itself of poppy is a pillar of U.S. policy there, because the Taliban….
Starving for alcohol, bingeing on booze
A potentially new form of an eating disorder has people cutting calories to enjoy alcohol without the weight gain. Summer has arrived. As students diet and exercise to get into swimsuit shape, an extension of an eating disorder called drunkorexia makes headlines. Drunkorexia, a non-medical term, was coined by the media. It refers to “people….
Is 18 too young to drink a beer?
Is 18 too young to drink a beer? A group of college and university presidents and administrators have called for a public debate to rethink the legal drinking age in the United States. Some of them openly support lowering the age to 18 from 21; others are truly looking for help in dealing with a….
Getting drunk drivers off roads a costly, complex problem
Mark says he is learning how to “live life on life’s terms.” After two drunken driving convictions and two marijuana possession convictions, the 34-year-old father of four is learning that it is time to grow up and make better choices. He’s learning how in an intensive DWI/Drug Court under the close supervision of McLennan County….