Bankrupt Tobacco Firm Floats Whiskey-Flavored Cigs

Whiskey-flavored cigarettes and cigarette papers dosed with vanilla to disguise the stink of the smoke are among the "new technology" being marketed now in Quebec by JTI MacDonald, a Japan-based cigarette company that is in bankruptcy proceedings.

Public health advocates are up in arms. Read more here. Thanks, Michael W., for the item.

Marijuana smoke nastier than cigs

Dec. 14, 2007 -- New research from Canada shows that some toxins may be more abundant in marijuana cigarettes than tobacco cigarettes.

The researchers burned 30 marijuana cigarettes and 30 tobacco cigarettes on a machine in their lab, measuring levels of chemicals in the smoke.

Ammonia levels were up to 20 times higher in marijuana smoke than in tobacco smoke. Levels of hydrogen cyanide and nitrogen-related chemicals were three to five times higher in marijuana smoke than in tobacco smoke. Read more.

Canada prof surprised by 12-step religious content

Prof. Larry Moran in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Toronto (photo) wrote in his blog that he read the articles about Alcoholics Anonymous in the March issue of Readers Digest (Canada) and then read the text of the twelve steps, and was "surprised at how religious AA must be. They must think that most alcoholics are Christians." This led to a lively exchange of comments, which see.

Canada Readers Digest publishes "12 Steps to Nowhere"

The Canada edition of Readers Digest has published an abbreviated version of award-winning journalist J. Timothy Hunt's article "Twelve Steps to Nowhere," which originally appeared in Toronto's Saturday Night magazine (offprint here). The piece is the author's personal story of recovery from severe alcoholism -- a recovery in which the author thoroughly investigated but strongly rejected the 12-step approach. Although some 60 per cent of successful recoveries from alcoholism occur outside of and without AA (Source), few and far between are the published personal narratives of non-AA recoveries. Readers Digest's publication of Hunt's compelling autobiographical essay hopefully signals a more evenhanded attitude toward all recovery pathways (at least north of the border). Read the piece in Readers Digest.

Girl sets drunk woman on fire

Saskatchewan, Canada: A 12-year old girl, part of a group of kids of similar age, set fire to a woman who had passed out drunk outside a bar. The victim required several weeks of treatment in a burn unit. The girl was found guilty of aggravated assault. At sentencing, she expressed regret. Source

Captain Al Cohol: Arctic superhero

A 1973 comic featuring Captain Al Cohol, a superhero of the Arctic north who had one fatal weakness -- guess -- has been republished, complete, on the web. Source. The comic shows alcoholism as something that even the strongest men can fall into, and it makes an effort to localize its message to the Inuit culture.

Father shoots daughter's boyfriend over her addiction

Yorkton, Sask. A father distraught over his daughter's drug addiction allegedly shot and killed her boyfriend, jurors in this northern Canada city were told. According to testimony, the father went to the boyfriend's apartment where the daughter was living and ordered her to leave. When she would not, he shot the boyfriend dead. Witnesses said the boyfriend was a known drug user.

Canada: Don't follow U.S. drug strategy

Victoria BC: Canada's drug strategy should not follow the failed example of the U.S., says an editorial in today's Times-Colonist. U.S. drug strategy has emphasized punishment over treatment, resulting in a huge prison population while addiction problems only escalate, the paper points out.

Nicotine: One puff may be enough

MONTREAL - Sometimes all it takes is one lousy puff, warns a Montreal researcher after mapping the pattern of tobacco addiction in youth.

Certain novice smokers are far more susceptible to nicotine addiction and a life-long smoking habit than previously believed, said McGill University epidemiologist Jennifer O'Loughlin.

Her novel study charted key points of nicotine dependence from the first puff to full-blown addiction.

``With nicotine there's the mistaken belief that you need long-term exposure. The reality is that after one exposure you have some kind of impact. And in those (who are) predisposed, it could be quite powerful,'' said O'Loughlin, whose study was published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Source.

Cop promoted after driving drunk

A police officer in West Vancouver (British Columbia, Canada) is being promoted, not fired, despite drinking three times the legal limit at her place of work. At an after-work party, she got drunk, drove her car and rear-ended another vehicle. She was convicted of impaired driving and received a 14-month driving suspension. Her boss insists she’s paying the consequences for her actions. Read an op-ed piece in the Langley Times about this and similar incidents in Canada.

Step 13: Invade someplace with oil

Seymour Hersh, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who helped expose the My Lai massacre in Vietnam in 1969, told a McGill University audience Oct. 30 that Bush's war in Iraq had led to a series of atrocities.

“In Washington, you can’t expect any rationality. I don’t know if he’s in Iraq because God told him to, because his father didn’t do it, or because it’s the next step in his 12-step Alcoholics Anonymous program,” he said. Source.

Stand-up comedy as recovery tool

“The best thing about living with 15 other addicts is you can tell stories about the time you sold some guy baking soda that he thought was cocaine. The worst thing about living with 15 other addicts is having to room with the guy you sold it to.”

Recovering from a drug addiction is nothing to laugh about. Or is it?

Stand up to drugs is a program being offered in New Westminster [B.C. Canada] this fall where the treatment is for recovering youth to tell jokes about using and recovering from drug addictions. The course will have them write their own jokes and routine and then perform it as a stand up comedian.

Counsellor and stand-up comic David Granirer is conducting the course through the Pacific Community Resources Society for youth aged 16 to 24 in New West and Abbotsford.

Comedy and laughter are great healers, said Granirer. More.

Acid and Alcohol Don't Mix

Nick Johnstone speaks for me on this topic:

"It should be obvious: giving LSD to an alcoholic in the hope of curing them is a very, very bad idea. But various newspapers this week appear not to agree. For instance, we've got the Independent claiming "LSD helps alcoholics put down the bottle" and Metro stating, "LSD can help alcoholics quit drink".

"They're alluding to the just-released findings of Erika Dyck, a professor of the history of medicine at the University of Alberta, who recently revisited the subject (and subjects) of a four decades old research study by British psychiatrist Humphrey Osmond, who experimented with giving alcoholics a single dose of LSD in a bid to cure their illness.

"Although Osmond's study was dismissed with skepticism, Dyck has now presented her findings in an academic journal, Social History of Medicine, claiming that "the LSD experience appeared to allow the patients to go through a spiritual journey that ultimately empowered them to heal themselves".

"On the eve of being twelve years sober, reading this dangerous drivel makes me shake my head in disbelief. ... " Read Nick's whole article.

LSD treatment had AA support

A set of experiments in which alcoholics were treated with LSD in the 1950s "gained support from the provincial government, local chapters of Alcoholics Anonymous and the Bureau of alcoholism," according to Dr Erika Dyck, professor of the history of medicine at the University of Alberta, Canada. Source. And not only local groups. Bill Wilson, co-founder of AA, experimented with LSD himself. (So did Chuck Dederich, founder of Synanon). See Wm. White, Slaying the Dragon, p. 229. ABC News quotes sources saying that Wilson and other AA members felt that LSD was useful in getting people to accept the "higher power" concept. Source.