Drug Addiction

Lora Johnston-Corbett has a vivid recollection of the moment when she stepped off the road of drug addiction and took the first steps down the path of recovery. During her 30th or so stay at detox she asked to be sent to a Nanaimo recovery house. That was 17 years ago. Now she is a drug counsellor with the Vancouver Island Health Authority and a happy woman. She will accept the Courage to Come Back Award in the chemical-dependency category at Vancouver's Hyatt Hotel on April 28.

What do you bring to your work as a drug counsellor?

Drug treatment very stressful

Parents must realize that many teenagers try drugs. Good kids, from good families can become curious or succumb to peer pressure. Then, they may like the high it gives, or use it as an escape from their problems, and do it again and again. None of them think they're ``hooked'' but they also don't want to give it up.

Drug addiction is the result of spiritual dislocation

DRUG ADDICTION is not caused by drugs, but by physical and spiritual dislocation of people, a Canadian expert and author on addiction says.

'Everywhere and always, dislocated people are huge consumers of alcohol and whatever drug happens to be around,' said Dr. Bruce Alexander, a professor of psychology at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. He has spent 20 years researching addiction.

Drug rehab: Getting rid of drug addiction mainly addict's responsibility

Dear Readers: Remember the letter from Lincoln Warkocz, the drug addict who is now incarcerated in Bowling Green, Fla.? He wrote to say he has been trying without success for 15 years to get help for his addiction.

Lincoln went to jail at age 17 and has been in and out four times since then. He claims that although he has pleaded with prison authorities to be rehabilitated, he was never placed in a drug treatment program.

Improved harm-- reduction services for drug addicts could significantly reduce the costs associated with the treatment of HIV/AIDs, say researchers at St. Paul's Hospital.

Lifetime medical costs for an HIV-infected injection drug user are estimated at about $150,000, they said. Health problems related to addiction account for approximately 15% of admissions to St. Paul's.