From Nov. 18 to 24 the Canadian government holds National Addictions Awareness Week (NAAW). This is a time to consider the impact of addictions on Canadians across the nation.

Substance abuse whether it be alcohol, tobacco or drugs causes devastating affects on health problems and impacts individuals, families, communities and Canadian society.

“It is important that we provide stable and addiction free communities for ourselves and most importantly our children in the future,” said Tony Clement, Minister of Health for the Government of Canada, in a letter to the public about NAAW.

According to Clement the cost to society for smoking is $17 billion, alcohol $14.6 billion and illicit drugs $8.2 billion per year.

“I’m a family support worker, and I have found that overall in our work that addictions do play a part in most of the social issues that we face in our community,” said Judy Dumont, Family Community Support Services (FCSS) Leduc support worker. “It is good to recognize that more education, more resources and the possibility of intervention is available to people.”

The FCSS has resources such as addiction councillors, and they also collaborate with the police in educating young people in schools with programs like D.A.R.E and the Party Program. “What we do in our department for the youth is we try to encourage greater self-esteem, volunteerism, mentorship and leadership and we do a lot of that through the youth and through the schools,” added Dumont.

Alcohol

Canada ranks among the top 50 drinking nations, drinking slightly less then the U.S. but twice as much as Cuba. Alcohol abuse is another public health concern that the government wants to address. According to a report from the CBC, the provinces that spent the most on alcohol is the Yukon Territory and the least is Manitoba. Sales of beer and spirits is growing slowly, but wine sales are rising drastically.

Researchers, psychologists, physicians and social workers are claiming that alcohol abuse causes more damage then any other substance abuse in Canada. Although there is some evidence that alcohol can be good for your health, a recent report by Ontario’s Center for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) concludes that “the net health consequences are overwhelmingly detrimental. “

Years ago, tobacco companies began to put warning labels and graphic pictures on cigarette cartons of the consequence of smoking. A pediatric geneticist who specializes in FASD wants to put warning labels on alcohol containers with the message that alcohol and pregnancy do not mix, but this is not being considered by any alcohol companies or the industry.

According to the Journals of Studies on Alcohol and report on Alcohol Facts You’ll Never Hear from Big Booze, when the government is approached they do nothing because many government organizations and funding come largely from alcohol revenue

The future

It is estimated that one in 100 babies in Canada have Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Disorder (FASD), which causes a range of mild to severe mental deficiencies. (See more in side bar ‘Not worth the risk’)

Health problems

Alcohol is considered a carcinogen. It’s known to cause liver damage, cancer, ulcers and reproductive problems. Heavy drinkers are also at risk for coronary heart disease, high blood pressure and stroke. There is conflicting research about light drinking, such as protecting some people from cardiovascular disease.

But many studies say that light drinking causes reduction of brain volume and leads to memory problems. If women drink lightly, it increases their chances of contracting breast cancer by 40 per cent.

Hope for the future

Smoking used to be a popular social norm just as alcohol is today. People understand the negative health and social impacts of smoking and it is slowly becoming a thing of the past. Alcohol, like smoking, is highly addictive and the most unwatched harmful, social drug out there.

Giving up old habits

Scientists from the UK have done rigorous assessments on social and individual harm caused by 20 different substances.

They concluded that alcohol and tobacco are rated as more dangerous then cannibas, LSD and ecstasy.

“The point we are making is that all drugs are dangerous, even the ones that people know and love and use regularly, like alcohol,” said David Nutt, psychopharmacologist at Bristol University, UK in a medical report.

“This is a revolutionary way of thinking that will hopefully catch on before the world is completely submerged in alcohol and it needs to sober up before it is too late.”

If you think that you may have a drinking problem or would like to know more about the risk of alcohol consumption you can visit AADAC at www.aadac.com or contact the FCSS of Leduc at 780.955.6424.

Smoking

Our distant neighbors in the UK have activated a smokefree law much like our own law here in Alberta, where smokers are banned from smoking in public places. Since July 2007, researchers have discovered that 400,000 people have quit smoking and as a result they predict that 40,000 lives will be saved over the next 10 years.

An American study discovered that smoking is not only bad for your health but it also impacts your social life in major ways. Every working environment has them - smoking clusters, the group of people that socialize while smoking during the workday. After watching people for 32 years, Dr. Nicholas Christakis of Harvard Medical School and James Fowler of the University of California, San Diego, discovered that these clusters are disappearing.

The percentage of adult smokers in the United States fell to 21 per cent from 45 per cent. Some are hopeful this trend will follow here in Canada. According to Clement in the letter to the public addressing NAAW, the Canadian government hopes to reduce smoking from 19 per cent of Canadians to 12 per cent by 2011.

Not worth the risk

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) is an invisible disability and the most preventable form of brain damage. Fifty per cent of pregnancies are unplanned which means that women can go up to two months with out knowing they are pregnant. If a baby is exposed to alcohol in the womb, it causes them permanent brain damage for life. If you are pregnant and know that you suffer from a drug, alcohol or smoking addiction you can find help at the FCSS in Leduc by contacting Laurel Fitzsimods who is a FCSS representative for the Edmonton and Area Fetal Alcohol Network.

Often women who are caught in the cycle of addiction need help to stop harming their unborn child. No amount of alcohol is safe during pregnancy.

According to the Fetal Alcohol Support group, an individual’s place and success in society is almost entirely determined by neurological functioning. A child with a brain injury is unable to meet the expectations of parents, family, peers, school, and career and can endure a lifetime of failures. The largest cause of brain injury in children is prenatal exposure to alcohol. Often the neurological damage goes undiagnosed, but not unpunished. There are strategies that can work to help the child with an FASD compensate for some difficulties. Early diagnosis and intensive intervention and tutoring can do wonders, but the need for a supportive structure is permanent. About 50 per cent of pregnancies are unplanned.

If you drink, don’t have sex. If you have sex, don’t drink. This is the slogan for the Prevention of FASD.

FASD is not a threshold condition. It is a diverse continuum ranging from mild intellectual and behavioural issues to the extreme that often leads to profound disabilities or premature death. At the mild end, damage may be the loss of some intellectual functioning (IQ), visual problems and higher than normal pain tolerance. At the severe end, damage may be severe loss of intellectual potential, severe vision problems, dyslexia, serious maxilo-facial deformities, dental abnormalities, heart defects, immune system malfunctioning, behavioral problems, attention deficit disorders, hyper-activity, extreme impulsiveness, poor judgment, little or no retained memory, deafness, little or no capacity for moral judgment or interpersonal empathy, sociopathic behaviour, epilepsy, tremors, cerebral palsy, renal failure, heart failure or death.

“In Canada, the cost of FASD now exceeds that of the country’s national debt,” Bonnie Buxton, founder of FASworld based in Toronto said in a press release. “Just caring for people now alive with fetal alcohol syndrome and ARND (Alcohol-Related Neurodevelopmental Disorder), will cost us at least $600 billion, which is the approximate size of the national debt.”

For more about FASD, you can check out www.fasworld.com and www.faslink.org for much more information and Laurel Fitzsimods who is a Leduc FCSS representative for the Edmonton and Area Fetal Alcohol Network at 780.955.6424.

Calling it quits

Smoking is a battle between will and the highly addictive substances that are found in smoking products. Cutting back (gradually reducing on the amount and frequency) or quitting cold turkey is a common way people try to quit, but this is not always the best alternative.

There are options that smokers can consider that have a higher success rate than self-quit methods. The AADAC web site contains a list of alternatives that are: group support programs, individual counselling, nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), nicotine-free pill (zyban), resources such as books, videos, workbooks, web-based programs and alternative therapies. For more information on these ‘quit smoking tip’s you can contact the AADAC website at http://www.aadac.com.