I was a strong proponent of the Harm Reduction strategy until more data has come out about its effectiveness and benefits for society versus other methods. There might be a case for Harm Reduction, but as currently implemented in BC it is a like a 4 legged stool that is
Continue readingTag: addiction
Things Are Good: Transit Hub Addiction Clinics Benefit Everyone
When social services are difficult to get to then their services are used less, it sounds obvious but in too many places social services are very difficult to get to. Car centric urban designs further exacerbate inequality by limiting mobility options, or to put it another way: cars limit freedom
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Health and homelessness
I’m writing an open access textbook on homelessness, with a focus on high-income countries. Each chapter gets uploaded to my website as it is completed. The latest chapter, on health, is now available. A ‘top 10’ overview of the chapter can be found here:https://nickfalvo.ca/health-and-homelessness/ All information pertaining to the book
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: On Crime Waves and Policy
Much ink (most of it virtual) is being spilled these days about how “dangerous” our cities have become. Shootings, assaults and so on seem to take place on our transit systems on a nearly daily basis. I’m not here to say that there is no problem – there clearly is
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: On Drug Deaths, Harm Reduction and Addiction Treatment
Of late, CPC leader Pierre Poilievre has been making a lot of noise about drug addiction, deaths resulting from overdoses, and so on. So far, much of his rhetoric and “solutions” are basically boiling down to pushing people into treatment. Which misses the point entirely. One of many problems with
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Mass Digital Addiction vs Reading
Remember, as Thoreau said, “Read the best books first, otherwise you might never read them at all.” And in this age of pandemic digital addiction, media overload and mass information glut, when most people’s lives are far too “busy” – meaning, they have lost all sense of priorities and spend
Continue readingThings Are Good: Malaysia Stops Jailing Addicts, Helps Them Recover Instead
Addiction is tough and it can happen to anyone. In Malaysia they are changing their drug laws to reflect this reality by providing rehab for users instead of locking them up in prison. Malaysia has tried the now-classic and irrefutably irrational “war on drugs” approach and found that it didn’t
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: The Psychology and Therapeutic Benefits of D&D
Or, Why D&D Kicks Butt There is a mounting body of evidence and experience that shows that D&D, the original role playing strategy game (like chess, but with improv theatre, and no great powers of concentration required), has very positive psychological and therapeutic effects on children, youth and adults. The
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: My review of Robert Clark’s book on Canada’s prisons
Robert Clark has written a very good book about Canada’s prison system. Mr. Clark worked from 1980 until 2009 in seven different federal prisons, all located in Ontario. The book is a compilation of personal accounts based on the author’s various assignments. Since prisons can be a pipeline into homelessness,
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Assessing progress on St. John’s Plan to End Homelessness
I’ve written an assessment of the 2014-2019 St. John’s Community Plan to End Homelessness. The full assessment can be found here. Points raised in the assessment include the following: -Newfoundland and Labrador has the highest unemployment rate of any Canadian province. This pulls people into homelessness, while also making it
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: My review of Eric Weissman’s book on intentional homeless communities
I’ve just reviewed Eric Weissman’s book on intentional homeless communities. Points made in the review include the following: -Intentional communities in general are communities built around specific goals. But in the case of this book, I mean small communities of housing sometimes made from discarded, donated and recycled material, and
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Homelessness, harm reduction and Housing First
I was recently invited to give a presentation at a two-day event discussing the overdose crisis and First Nations, with a focus on southern Alberta. My presentation focused on homelessness, substance use, harm reduction and Housing First. To read the blog post synthesizing my presentation’s key points, click on this
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Homelessness and employment: The case of Calgary
I’ve just written a blog post about homelessness and employment, with a focus on Calgary (where I live and work). Points raised in the blog post include the following: -Persons experiencing homelessness usually have poor health outcomes, making it especially challenging to find and sustain employment. -There are several non-profits
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: TREVOR’S STORY: FROM ADDICTION TO CAREGIVER
If you told me a decade ago that I’d be responsible for someone else’s life, I’d probably have laughed. Back then, I was barely able to take care of myself. I was a drug addict. Today, I’ve been sober for nearly a decade, and I have a new lease on
Continue readingThings Are Good: Helping Addicted Loved Ones
The opioid crisis in North America damages countless lives every year, and we may be making it worse in the way we talk about addiction. FiveThirtyEight decided to look into the best ways of helping addicts using a scientific approach, they conclude that love and compassion is the best approach.
Continue readingThings Are Good: An Online Forum is Saving Addicts from Bad Drugs
The opioid crisis in North America continues unabated. Local organizations are pushing for reform of policies and in Canada the call for safe injection sites is growing. The number of deaths from opiate addiction is too high and users have started to share information to curb the rising death count.
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Addiction – Now with Animation.
Here at DWR we’ve already talked about how our theories about addiction are quite flawed. However, this is such an important topic that we’ll cover it again, but now in an animated format that is quite appealing and easy to understand. Many social problems can be addressed by ‘changing the cage’, however, recognizing that […]
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Working in the Homeless-Serving Sector
Over at the web site of the Calgary Homeless Foundation, I’ve reviewed an excellent new book written by Professor Jeannette Waegemakers Schiff. The book is written for people who do ‘front line’ work with homeless persons. The link to the English version of my review is here, while the link to the French version of […]
Continue readingThings Are Good: Rethinking Addiction
Johann Hari wanted to find out why people get addicted to drugs and ended up making some startling conclusions. Yet, not surprisingly, all the war on drugs policies countries have implemented have only increased the addiction problem. Addiction is more complex to solve than just hurting the people who use
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Pot: Decriminalize or Legalize?
On the campaign trail, Prime Minister Harper repeated assertions that relaxing pot laws will lead to terrible, horrible things: ““When you go down that route, marijuana becomes more readily available to children, more people become addicted to it and the health outcomes become worse.” The Conservative response is to escalate
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