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Bridgeburner
Not spiritual at all.




Registered: 09/16/06
Posts: 20,010
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Teenage wasteland
#7491922 - 10/06/07 04:17 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/magazine/article/89947
For Wade Cory, it started with a glass of vodka, swiped from a bottle hidden away in his best friend's kitchen.
"I started drinking when I was in Grade 6 or 7," says Cory, now 21 and a counsellor at the Alberta Adolescent Recovery Centre in Calgary.
"It was pretty social at the beginning and then around Grade 9, I found marijuana. That was my favourite drug of all time, and started using that. It started out just on weekends and at parties."
High school life was good. His marks were fine and he was captain of the football team.
But then his grades started to slip, he failed Grade 10 science and everything started to revolve around his "obsession" with drugs and alcohol.
"Ever since Grade 10 when I really started using weed, and then I went on to (magic) mushrooms and stuff like that, and Dexedrine, like prescription pills - it was just I thought about that more than anything else I'd ever thought about. I really loved sports, I really loved school, I loved friends, but all that became secondary to marijuana and drinking."
Cory's story is a familiar one to doctors who work with teen users and abusers.
Dr. Karen Leslie, a staff pediatrician at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, said the top two problematic drugs for this demographic are alcohol and cannabis.
"Particularly kids who are using marijuana on a regular basis because that really seems to interfere a lot with their schooling, with all kinds of things in their life," she said.
"We see lots and lots of kids with sleep problems, and then they end up using cannabis to try to get to sleep, and then it becomes something that they're dependent on."
People who are dependent might be using several times a day, she noted. "And that definitely affects both things like reaction time, if they're driving; it can affect motivation. We know there's a link between psychosis and cannabis. There are lung concerns in terms of respiratory effect. So certainly, cannabis use is quite concerning."
The federal government has expressed concerns, too. It plans to announce an anti-drug strategy this week that is expected to combine treatment and prevention programs with stiffer penalties for illicit drug use.
Dr. Mark Norris, a pediatrician and adolescent health consultant at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, said he often sees substance abusers who engage in higher-risk activities.
"One patient I'm thinking of in particular was under the influence of both alcohol and cannabis and dove into a shallow pond and ended up sustaining soft tissue injuries," he said from Ottawa.
"The potential there is quite significant . . . she could have sustained a much more serious injury. And I've personally over the last year seen lots of different instances where people show up with different types of injuries, whether it's falling out of trees, people that are riding motor vehicles or ATVs that have accidents, et cetera. So the range is quite wide."
In Cory's case, he stole his parents' vehicle on a school day and went joy riding with friends. He got a speeding ticket, a suspension from school and was in and out of treatment programs for the next while. "I was fully in chaos in my life and I never thought that drugs and alcohol was the problem," he said. "I always thought something else was the problem: my parents were too controlling or the teacher was wrong."
A "six-day bender" that involved prescription pills, booze and marijuana brought everything to a head. He broke into his parents' house, nabbing items that he pawned off for money.
But on his next trip home, his parents weren't there, he had nowhere to go, no friends left, no drugs, no money, no job, he said.
"I came home and there were bars on the window, keeping me out."
Later, his mother managed to get him to a hospital. "Emergency said I shouldn't be alive just because of how many drugs I had in my system," he said. "They put me in the psych ward and that's where I stayed for a week."
"That's where it came to me: 'What am I doing with my life?'"
Now that he's had his "moment of clarity" and intensive treatment at the centre where he now works as a counsellor, he said parents need to realize that drug addicts and alcoholics "can lie pretty good."
"I fought my parents tooth and nail that it wasn't alcohol and drugs, and it was everything else. I lied to them. I would do anything to keep my drugs and alcohol around me, even if it was ruining my life."
Besides alcohol and marijuana, Leslie said she's concerned about the amount of cocaine use she's been seeing.
"Cocaine is a really, really powerful drug and certainly the young people I've seen who have been using cocaine on a regular basis have really needed very intensive treatment," she said. "When they stop using it, or if they just use it on a weekend, then they get this kind of post-use depression, similar to what you see in kids who use ecstasy."
She said there's a risk of serious medical problems: "Heart complications, high blood pressure complications, there are potential brain complications from having high blood pressure, abnormal heart rhythms from using cocaine."
There are various signs of substance abuse that parents can watch for, experts agree.
Leslie said changes in behaviour and school performance - truancy, a drop in marks or changes in hygiene - could signal a problem.
"Weight loss is a big one in kids who start using a lot of cocaine because it's a stimulant and it's an appetite suppressant, so we've certainly seen kids who've lost large, large amounts of weight as a result of using cannabis and methamphetamine and the other stimulant drugs," she added.
Cory, meanwhile, has finished school, plays hockey with his co-workers at the recovery centre, goes on vacations with other "sober" friends and hasn't had a drink or taken drugs in four years.
"I know there's a solution out there, and I think a lot of people have no idea, absolutely no idea what's going on in a kid's mind when he's a drug addict," he said.
"It's pretty much unbelievable how much my life has done a 180, and just totally went the other way, I think, around family. What it's made me be able to do is just be a normal person in society, no better or less than anybody else, but I can be part of the society now."
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Visionary Tools



Registered: 06/23/07
Posts: 7,953
Last seen: 1 year, 7 months
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Quote:
People who are dependent might be using several times a day, she noted. "And that definitely affects both things like reaction time, if they're driving; it can affect motivation. We know there's a link between psychosis and cannabis. There are lung concerns in terms of respiratory effect. So certainly, cannabis use is quite concerning."
Because booze never makes people psychotic, ever.
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DrOli
Biochemist
Registered: 08/27/07
Posts: 216
Last seen: 13 years, 1 month
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Legalise and set age limit, would make it harder for kids to get hold of.
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moon_glue
Orwell's Post9/11 Era



Registered: 01/20/07
Posts: 2,264
Loc: Earth, today...
Last seen: 8 years, 10 months
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stealing from your parents to get high means you are a bad son and should be exhiled from the family. It has nothing to do with drugs.
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Nickio
Authority


Registered: 03/14/07
Posts: 321
Last seen: 13 years, 5 months
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Re: Teenage wasteland [Re: moon_glue]
#7492279 - 10/06/07 06:30 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
so we've certainly seen kids who've lost large, large amounts of weight as a result of using cannabis
I quit reading after this.
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today mylove



Registered: 12/04/04
Posts: 2,473
Last seen: 2 months, 4 days
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Quote:
b0red5tiff said: What it's made me be able to do is just be a normal person in society
people should be able to use drugs if they want to. if you can do that and still have control over your life there should be no problems. on the other hand if you end up completely strung out - you probably shouldn't have been using drugs in the first place. use your head people, be responsible with yourselves.
Edited by today mylove (10/06/07 09:40 PM)
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Drewwyann
Slayer of ticks



Registered: 10/30/06
Posts: 4,077
Loc: Atlantis
Last seen: 10 years, 3 months
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Re: Teenage wasteland [Re: Nickio]
#7492856 - 10/06/07 10:11 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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Nevermind. This post makes no sense, so i changed it completely to this one.
heres a cool smiley!
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 Anyone need a glass pipe? : http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002435158931 Love powerfully  
Edited by Drewwyann (10/06/07 10:12 PM)
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drugsaregoodmmk
Stranger


Registered: 08/14/06
Posts: 515
Last seen: 15 years, 11 months
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Re: Teenage wasteland [Re: moon_glue]
#7492872 - 10/06/07 10:15 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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O REALLY? is that how it goes? Or maybe the parents shud taake a step back and learn how to fucking parent!!! But i dont hate, they live in america... but sometimes i think, since im 18... and they are in their 40s... maybe i shud hate.
-------------------- "Guess who's back in the mutha fuckin house with a fat dick for ya mutha fuckin mouth"- Snoop Dogg
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pB0t


Registered: 04/25/03
Posts: 2,556
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Post deleted by pB0tReason for deletion: .
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drugsaregoodmmk
Stranger


Registered: 08/14/06
Posts: 515
Last seen: 15 years, 11 months
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Re: Teenage wasteland [Re: pB0t]
#7494918 - 10/07/07 03:37 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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Ya America or Cananda same thing America is just the winner in control.
-------------------- "Guess who's back in the mutha fuckin house with a fat dick for ya mutha fuckin mouth"- Snoop Dogg
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yellowshirt
Stranger

Registered: 08/25/07
Posts: 3
Last seen: 16 years, 19 days
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Quote:
b0red5tiff said: http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/magazine/article/89947
People who are dependent might be using several times a day, she noted. "And that definitely affects both things like reaction time, if they're driving; it can affect motivation. We know there's a link between psychosis and cannabis. There are lung concerns in terms of respiratory effect. So certainly, cannabis use is quite concerning."
Um, just being a psychology major and all, I know that a link just means that there was a correlation in numbers somewhere at one time. There is also a correlation between breathing and death, but no one points this out.
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b0red5tiff said: http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/magazine/article/89947
"One patient I'm thinking of in particular was under the influence of both alcohol and cannabis and dove into a shallow pond and ended up sustaining soft tissue injuries," he said from Ottawa.
Are you kidding me?! A soft tissue injury, we should ban cannabis and alcohol immediately! This person sprained their wrist because they were drunk...imagine that. A soft tissue injury is just a way to boost the numbers of "dangerous accidents because of cannabis" when in reality, the alcohol was probably the determining factor.
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b0red5tiff said: http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/magazine/article/89947
"Emergency said I shouldn't be alive just because of how many drugs I had in my system," he said. "They put me in the psych ward and that's where I stayed for a week."
Why if he was supposed to be dead from all the drugs, was he put in a psych ward instead of the Intensive Care Unit, where people who O/D are put? Does this not make any sense to anyone else?
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b0red5tiff said: http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/magazine/article/89947
Leslie said changes in behaviour and school performance - truancy, a drop in marks or changes in hygiene - could signal a problem.
I guess I'm an exception to this rule because I was a C average student back when I was 12 and then I started smoking pot. My grades went up to an A- average and have not dropped since. And hygiene? Mine has only gotten better because I shower after I toke, since I live with non-smokers who don't like the smell.
Quote:
b0red5tiff said: http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/magazine/article/89947
"we've certainly seen kids who've lost large, large amounts of weight as a result of using cannabis and methamphetamine and the other stimulant drugs," she added.
Well no shit people lose weight on meth and crack, they're uppers. They used amphetamines as weight loss supplements for the longest time for this exact reason! As to cannabis doing this, are you kidding me? That is why they have to phrase it with meth, so they are not telling a complete lie and there is a little validity to part of what they say.
Why can't we just let people do as they choose provided it does not harm others. Is that too much to ask?
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