Week 4 - Alcohol and Other Drugs

What were the estimated impaired driving deaths on Canada's roadways in 2009 according to MADD?

1,052 deaths, of which 956 involved alcohol impairment.

How many alcohol-related driving injuries were there in Canada in 2009?

56,539.

What are the four specific types of driving offences under the Canadian Criminal Code related to impairment?

1. Operating a motor vehicle while ability to drive is impaired by alcohol or a drug, 2. Impaired driving causing death or bodily harm, 3. Operating a motor vehicle with blood alcohol concentration (BAC) over 0.08 percent, 4. Failing to provide breath or blood samples for analysis without a reasonable excuse.

What is the maximum penalty for impaired driving causing bodily harm?

10 years' imprisonment and 10 years' driving prohibition.

What is the maximum penalty for impaired driving causing death?

14 years' imprisonment and 10 years' driving prohibition.

Since May 2009 in Ontario, what BAC level is considered the "warn" range?

BAC level over 0.05 percent.

How many times does driving ability become more likely to raise the likelihood of an accident at BAC over 0.05?

More than sevenfold.

What is the pharmacological definition of a drug?

Any substance other than food that alters the structure or functioning of a living organism when it enters the bloodstream.

What are the three characteristics of the sociological definition of a drug?

1. Has a direct effect on the user's physical, psychological, and/or intellectual functioning, 2. Has the potential to be abused, 3. Has adverse consequences for the individual and/or society.

According to the UNODC, how many people worldwide used illicit drugs in 2009?

Between 172 million and 250 million people.

According to the UNODC, what percentage of the risk for developing alcoholism is genetic?

50 to 60 percent.

According to the UNODC, what key principle has been successful in reducing drug use prevalence?

Avoiding treating drug use primarily as a criminal matter; focusing on treatment and prevention instead.

What is the CFDP?

The Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy, formed in the early 1990s by health-care professionals and academic researchers concerned that drug laws were unnecessarily punitive.

What was cocaine originally used in before 1906?

Cocaine was an active ingredient in Coca-Cola until 1906, when it was replaced with caffeine.

What are psychoactive drugs?

Drugs that alter the functioning of the brain, affecting the moods, emotions, and perceptions of the user (e.g., alcohol, cocaine, heroin, marijuana).

What is drug abuse?

When acceptable social standards of drug use are violated, resulting in adverse physiological, psychological, and social consequences, or some combination.

What is drug addiction (chemical dependency)?

A condition in which drug use is compulsive; users are unable to stop because of their dependency (psychological or physical).

According to functionalists, what causes drug abuse?

A response to the weakening of norms in society (anomie). As society becomes more complex and rapid social change occurs, norms and values become unclear.

What percentage of youth with substance dependencies in a U.S. study reported drug use to cope with dysfunctional, often abusive families?

73 percent.

What unique feature of substance use facing women do feminist perspectives highlight?

1. Misuse of prescription drugs (women are more likely to be prescribed tranquillizers and psychoactive drugs), 2. Drug use during pregnancy (women face institutional scrutiny and social blaming that men do not face).

What do feminists criticize about the criminalization of mothers who use drugs during pregnancy?

It subordinates women's rights and needs to those of the fetus, treats women as vehicles for breeding purposes rather than persons with legal rights, and ignores that drug use is a response to overwhelmingly negative social situations (poverty, racism, victimization).

According to conflict theorists, what is ironic about alcohol being legal while street drugs are illegal?

Alcohol, the production and sale of which benefits those with power, privilege, and influence, is legal, even though legal drugs account for the most significant costs ($17 billion for tobacco, $14.6 billion for alcohol vs. $8.2 billion for illicit drugs).

According to conflict theorists, the criminalization of drugs such as cocaine, heroin, and marijuana exercises social control over whom?

The powerless, political opponents, and minorities.

What historical example do conflict theorists use to show racism in drug laws?

The criminalization of opium use by Chinese immigrants in the 1800s, which emerged after a labour surplus following railway construction completion, not based on pharmacological evidence.

Who was Judge Emily Murphy and what did she do regarding marijuana?

She wrote The Black Candle (1920s), drawing attention to "Marihuana—A New Menace," suggesting that marijuana drove users insane and caused them to lose all moral sense; her analysis had a critical component of racism.

What is the significance of the 1908 Act to Prohibit the Importation, Manufacture and Sale of Opium for other than Medical Purpose?

It was Canada's first federal-level anti-opium regulation, established less than 100 years ago (from the time of the textbook's writing).

What is Bill C-65 (2013) and what criticism did it face?

A bill that ran counter to Canadian Medical Association data on the positive effect of harm reduction facilities. The Harper government sent out mass mailings urging recipients to "keep heroin out of our backyards," which critics called fear-mongering.

What is Insite?

North America's first safe injection site (SIS), opened in Vancouver in September 2003.

How many deaths did Vancouver's SIS prevent in each of its first two years of operation?

Close to 200 deaths by overdose.

What is the CCSA report on cannabis and driving?

Among drivers admitted to a regional trauma unit in Toronto, 13.9% tested positive for cannabis; 19.7% of drivers killed in road crashes in Quebec tested positive; 14.9% of fatally injured drivers in Canada between 2000-2006 tested positive.

What are club drugs?

Illicit, often synthetic drugs commonly used at nightclubs or rave parties, including MDMA (ecstasy), ketamine ("Special K"), LSD ("acid"), GHB ("liquid ecstasy"), and Rohypnol ("roofies").

What are date-rape drugs?

GHB (gamma hydroxybutyrate) and Rohypnol (flunitrazepam), which can render victims incapable of resisting sexual assaults. Rohypnol is tasteless and odorless; 1 mg can incapacitate a victim for up to 12 hours.

When did the first major seizure of Rohypnol occur in Canada?

January 1999 in North Vancouver, British Columbia (3500 doses seized).

According to the World Health Organization (2014), how many people worldwide are IV drug users, and how many live with HIV?

16 million IV drug users; 3 million live with HIV. IV drug use accounts for 80% of HIV infections in Asia and Eastern Europe.

What is Sudden Sniff Death Syndrome?

A condition that can result from using inhalants; death can occur from toxicity even with first-time use.

What is the relationship between alcohol abuse and divorce?

Alcoholics are seven times more likely to separate or divorce than nonalcoholics.

What percentage of family court problems are alcohol related?

As many as 40 percent.

According to Statistics Canada's Violence Against Women Survey (1993), how many times more likely are women married to heavy drinkers to be assaulted?

Five times more likely.

According to the same survey, what percentage of wife batterers were reported to have been drinking at the time of assault?

Half of all wife batterers.

According to the RCMP's Performance Report, what was the value of assets seized for proceeds of crime in 1999-2000?

$32 million, with 90% of seizures related to the drug trade.

What did the Auditor General's report (2001) note about the drug trade and violence?

More than 150 deaths since 1994 have been attributed to "biker" wars in Quebec over control of organized crime, including the illicit drug trade.

What were the estimated economic costs of substance abuse in Canada in 1996 according to CCSA?

More than $18.4 billion a year ($649 per capita). Alcohol: $7.5 billion; Tobacco: $9.6 billion; Illicit drugs: $1.4 billion.

What is the RCMP's estimate of the economic cost of illicit drugs alone?

$8.2 billion a year; 60% of all illicit drug users are between 15 and 24 years of age.

What do Wood and colleagues recommend instead of focusing on criminal regulation?

Harm reduction strategies, including supervised injection sites, treatment centres, and police efforts directing users to harm reduction programs rather than jail.

According to the Aboriginal Healing Association, what contributed to substance abuse in Indigenous communities?

The residential school system contributed to substance abuse, as well as child and adult physical, emotional and sexual abuse, mental health problems, and family dysfunction.

According to Dell and Lyons, substance abuse in Aboriginal communities is not the "problem" but rather what?

"The symptom of much broader ills faced by First Nations, Inuit and Metis in Canada" including systemic racism, forced relocation, and the historic impact of residential schooling.

What is an intersectional orientation?

An approach that accounts for the ways that multiple variables must be treated as co-existent features; understands "the simultaneity of oppression" (race, class, ethnicity, occupation, geography, gender, sexuality, age, etc.).

What is the "Cycle of Poverty"?

A phenomenon where people become entrenched into poverty due to family experience, lack of education, and limited access to employment and health care.

According to the CAMH 2015 survey, what percentage of Ontario students in grades 7-12 used cannabis in the past year?

21% (an estimated 203,900 students).

According to the CAMH 2015 survey, what percentage of Ontario students in grades 7-12 used a prescription opioid pain reliever nonmedically?

10% (an estimated 95,000 students), with 59% obtaining the drug from someone at home.

According to the CAMH 2015 survey, what percentage of students in grades 9-12 reported symptoms of a drug use problem?

16% (an estimated 114,600 students).

What was the opioid-related death rate in Windsor-Essex County in 2015 compared to the provincial rate?

10.7 per 100,000 in Windsor-Essex vs. 5.1 for Ontario (more than double).

Between 2007 and 2013, how many people died of opioid-related drug overdoses in Windsor-Essex?

159 people (about one death every three weeks).

What position does Canada hold globally as a per-capita consumer of opioids?

Second highest per-capita consumer of opioids in the world, after the United States.

What is the moral model of addiction?

Not defined in the slides, but listed as one of the four models of addiction (Moral, Disease, Social, Biopsychosocial).

What is the disease model of addiction?

Not defined in the slides, but listed as one of the four models of addiction.

What is the social model of addiction?

Not defined in the slides, but listed as one of the four models of addiction.

What is the biopsychosocial model of addiction?

A general model stating that biological, psychological (thoughts, emotions, behaviors), and social (socio-economical, socio-environmental, cultural) factors all play a significant role in human functioning in the context of disease or illness.

What is the Windsor Life Centre (WLC)?

A residential, faith-based treatment centre for women recovering from drug and alcohol addictions located in Windsor, Ontario.

What are the four phases of the Windsor Life Centre's program?

Stability, Restoration, Training, and Transition.

What is the stability phase of WLC's program?

Emphasizes the importance of safety and routine in the client's life.

What is the restoration phase of WLC's program?

The resident works on developing emotional regulation skills, conflict resolution, and assertive communication skills.

What is the training phase of WLC's program?

The resident continues in counselling, vocational training, family education, and relapse prevention.

What is the transition phase of WLC's program?

Residents begin to prepare and implement their exit strategy to successfully re-enter society.

According to Health Canada, how many Canadians die every day from illnesses caused by smoking?

100 people.

How many Canadians die yearly from tobacco smoke (including second-hand smoke)?

More than 45,000 (more than the combined total of all murders, alcohol-related deaths, car accidents, and suicides).

By what year are tobacco-related diseases expected to be the number-one cause of death worldwide?

2030 (killing one of every six people).

What is the prevalence of current smokers in grades 6-9 in Canada as of 2010-11?

2% (lowest rate since 1994 when it was 8%).

What percentage of 15- to 17-year-olds and 18- to 19-year-olds reported lifetime marijuana use?

39% of 15-17 year olds; 69.9% of 18-19 year olds.

What is the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA) 1997?

Legislation that outlines six federal criminal offences: possession, trafficking, possession for the purpose of trafficking, production, importing or exporting, and "prescription shopping."

What is the maximum penalty for trafficking Schedule I drugs (cocaine, heroin, opium) in Canada?

Life imprisonment.

What is the minimum legal drinking age across Canadian provinces and territories?

19 except in Quebec, Manitoba, and Alberta where it is 18.

What are the six federal criminal offences outlined in the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act?

Possession, trafficking, possession for the purpose of trafficking, production, importing or exporting, and "prescription shopping."

According to the CAMH, what are the 4 C's of addiction?

Craving, loss of control of amount or frequency of use, compulsion to use, and use despite consequences.