But Mom It's Only Pot...by Dr. Jim Mastrich

As the title of this article suggests, many students and adults tend to minimize the significance of marijuana use and see it as a rite of passage; a kids will be kids thing. But the fact remains that the use of pot, alcohol or other substances has an impact on the social, emotional, and physiological development of young people. It is a fact that the brains of high school kids are not finished growing until they are about 20 years old and the use, no less the regular use of any substance has a real impact.

Over time, the substances that are in fashion among young people ebb and flow, but one constant is the impact on the emotional and physical well-being of the kids who use them. For example, although alcohol use among teenagers has dropped to historically low levels, 28% of high school seniors still reported that they had gotten drunk within the past month. That’s a lot of kids making poor and dangerous decisions.

While alcohol remains the perennial go-to substance for high school kids, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) has shown a significant upswing in marijuana use among high school students that over the past few years. In recent survey they found that 17% of 10th graders and 23% of 12th graders reported using marijuana in the past month. These figures represent a significant increase since 2007 when 14% of 10 graders and 19% of 12^th graders reported use in the past month. The survey also revealed an increase among high school seniors who use marijuana on a daily basis from 5% in 2007 to 6.5% in 2012. But as I’ve heard some high school kids say, “Don’t worry Mom, it’s only pot”. However, I think there is plenty to be concerned about.

A unique on-going research program is being conducted at the University of Mississippi through their Potency Monitoring Project. The study measures the concentration of the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis (THC) in thousands of samples of marijuana (and hashish and hash oil) seized each year since the mid 1980’s. One thing is abundantly clear; the potency of marijuana has increased steadily over the past three decades. The average potency of marijuana has now exceeded 10%, with some samples having THC levels as high as 37%. Average THC potency levels are expected to rise to 15% within the next five years. As a point of reference, the average THC potency in the early 1980’s was only about 4%.

But Mom It's Only Pot! Continued..... 

Revisiting a great piece of writing on addiction by Russell Brand...

Russell Brand: Philip Seymour Hoffman is another victim of extremely stupid drug laws   

The Guardian, Thursday 6 February, 2014

In Hoffman's domestic or sex life there is no undiscovered riddle 

– the man was a drug addict and, thanks to our drug laws, 

his death inevitable. 

• 
  

.....But Philip Seymour Hoffman? A middle-aged man, a credible and decorated actor, the industrious and unglamorous artisan of Broadway and serious cinema? The disease of addiction recognises none of these distinctions. Whilst routinely described as tragic, Hoffman's death is insufficiently sad to be left un-supplemented in the mandatory posthumous scramble for salacious garnish; we will now be subjected to mourn-ography posing as analysis. I can assure you that there is no as yet undiscovered riddle in his domestic life or sex life, the man was a drug addict and his death inevitable.

....In spite of his life seeming superficially great, in spite of all the praise and accolades, in spite of all the loving friends and family, there is a predominant voice in the mind of an addict that supersedes all reason and that voice wants you dead. This voice is the unrelenting echo of an unfulfillable void.

LINK TO ARTICLE HERE....

Great radio show on parenting in today's world...

Why you make excuses for your kids

www.cbc.ca

What Does It Feel Like to Have Bipolar Disorder?

I have bipolar disorder, as does my mother and as did her mother. I am the sort of person who "seems" bipolar to people—that is my energy, creativity, instability, mercuriality, and easy gregariousness confirm many of the popularly imagined stereotypes about bipolar people.

That said, I think only in their extremes are mania and depression actually unintelligible to ordinary folks. That is: At their utmost intensity, they are unlike anything a normal person ever experiences (mania is, in particular, qualitatively different at the end than any healthy mood state), but at most times, they are not at all different from the maximally intense moods everyone knows—just more so, longer-lasting, and disconnected from normative causes.

To understand what having bipolar disorder "feels like," keep in mind the following:

First, bipolar is less about short-term mood instability than about long-term mood cycles, which can last months, years, or in rare cases even decades. (See F.M. Mondimore for more on cycles and durations.) Instability is part of it, but not the only part.

Second, the cumulative effect of these cycles on the formation of a personality is significant. After a childhood of radically changing interests and attitudes on such a timeline, one develops a certain excitability, flightiness, distractibility, or perhaps that's just me. But this is a major part of bipolar: the personality that is shaped by a lifetime of intense, fluctuating moods.

What it's like to have Bipolar disorder...

Rising youth homelessness a crisis we mustn't ignore

A new survey confirms that youth homelessness is on the rise. It's a complex problem that requires a concerted solution.

If you wanted to find me in the summer of 2000, I was most likely at a service for street youth — like the now-shuttered Street Outreach Services (SOS) and Youthlink Innercity in Toronto, or Covenant House in Vancouver. I was doing research on street youth suicide for my PhD.

During that summer, I met a young woman who was only 18, but had already been working in the sex trade for years. She was tack sharp.

Through the skilful persistence of the staff at SOS, and her own tough mindedness, she had left the sex trade, crack addiction and had a job and boyfriend who wasn’t involved in the streets. She was able to imagine a different life for herself. She was tough, funny and made light of a past that was nothing but violence and disappointment — at the hands of parents, through holes in the various so-called safety nets, until she hit the streets and entered a new landscape of violence and exploitation. I had interviewed her as a research participant, learned a lot about her life and hung with her and others in the SOS waiting area cracking jokes and talking nonsense for hours.

Then came a moment I will never forget. I was sitting in the staff area chatting with the employment counsellor when one of the outreach staff came in and told us that this girl who had dug herself out of hell had died of a drug overdose in the bathtub of a crack house.  READ MORE HERE.....

Young Ones Gala pics! Oh what a night....

Kristen & Mhairi

Darka & Susan 

Mhari, Dennis & Brooke

Mhairi, YO Educator and Peer Facilitator 

Kristen, YO Peer Facilitator 

Sarah

Today is National Child and Youth Mental Health Day...

..and while two million young Canadians struggle with mental health issues, only 20 per cent get the help they need. At Sunnybrook we are trying to change these odds, and hope we can continue to count on your support to make this a reality.
In today’s issue of the Globe & Mail, a special full page article highlights Sunnybrook’s leadership in youth mental health. To read the article online, click here.

Warning Signs of Substance Abuse Webinar

Mon. May 12th

12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.  

Online only

Do you use food, alcohol, or drugs to cope with your MS?  Does your partner? Learn the warning signs of substance abuse from the privacy of your home or workplace. Submit your question anonymously ahead of time and hear the answer during the webinar.

Presenter: Susan Raphael, an addiction and recovery specialist working in private practice.

CLICK TO REGISTER