Drug Addiction in Canada: An Analysis of Types, Effects, and Treatment

This essay delves into the critical issue of drug abuse in Canada, exploring various facets of the problem. It begins with an introduction highlighting the growing concern of drug and alcohol addiction within Canadian society, citing statistics from the Canadian Alcohol and Drug Use Monitoring Association. The essay then categorizes different types of drug addiction, including alcohol, prescription drugs, synthetic drugs, and experimental drugs, providing details on the prevalence and nature of each. It examines the social and economic effects of drug abuse, such as increased healthcare costs, internal security concerns, and the impact on families and individuals. Furthermore, the essay discusses available treatments, including rehabilitation centers and counseling, offering insights into potential solutions. Overall, the essay presents a comprehensive overview of drug abuse in Canada, emphasizing its impact on society and the importance of finding effective treatments.

Running head: DRUG ABUSE IN CANADA
DRUG ABUSE IN CANADA
Name of the student
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Types of Drugs and Addiction...................................................................................................2
Alcohol Abuse and Addiction in Canada...................................................................................3
Prescription Drug Addiction in Canada.....................................................................................3
Synthetic Drug Addiction in Canada.........................................................................................4
Experimental Drug Abuse in Canada.........................................................................................4
Effects of Drug Abuse................................................................................................................5
Finding Treatments....................................................................................................................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................8
References................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
Addiction to drug and alcohols are the growing problem of all over the world
population. The Canadian society is not an expectation in this. The statistics of the drug
addicts in the country is continuously growing. In the year 2012, a survey by Canadian
Alcohol and Drug Use Monitoring Association reported that about 21.6 % of the Canadian
population comes under the criteria of substance disorder (ccsa.ca, 2020). This number is
shocking and most of the additions started in the school or colleges. The teens and young
people are mostly affected by the drug abuse and addictions. This is the scenario of all over
the world population. The main issue is that, most of the addicts have an idea that they are
only harming themselves, and not anyone else in the country. This is not the right thing to say
as the country economy, society and entire population are partially or hugely impacted by the
drug abuse and disorders. This study will explore various aspects of drug addiction in Canada
and comment upon the social impact of the drug abuse as well.
Types of Drugs and Addiction
Addictions in Canada are mainly divided into alcohol addiction, prescription drugs
addictions, injecting drugs addiction, experimental drug addiction, and illegal drugs addiction
and so on (Spanagel et al., 2016). These kind of drugs are not easily available but the addicts
make their way to reach out the dealers. The alcohol, meth abuse and opioid abuse are main
drug addictions for the Canadian drug addicts. The drug trafficking for illegal meth are a
huge problems for the government of Canada. As opined by Fabre (2016), the elements that
are needed to produce meth or methamphetamine are trafficked from China. The large coast
lines of Canada makes the work easy for the drug suppliers and the coast line security cannot
monitor it properly.

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Alcohol Abuse and Addiction in Canada
Alcohol is the most abused substance in Canada like most other countries in the
world. The availability of this substance is much easier that the other one and that makes the
path of abuse and addiction. According to a report by Canadian Government, total 18% of the
Canadian population were under alcohol dependence or abuse in the same year or the past
years. The number of the alcohol addicts increased by 2016 and became 19% of the whole
population (canadiancentreforaddictions.org, 2019). The problem is that other parts of the
world are becoming alerts of this addiction nd consuming less amount of it recently, the case
of Canada is completely different. Here, alcohol consumption rate is increasing insanely
every year. The diseases and heart attacks related to elevated alcohol consumptions are
alarming in the country.
The alcohol addictions can influence the entire system of the country. The number of
patients who were admitted to the hospitals because of their alcoholic reactions, were more
than 77,000 in 2015- 2016 (ccsa.ca, 2017). This number is threatening as the resources
wasted for alcoholics can be used for the patients who needed the hospital beds and
medicines more. Alcohol abuse can cast huge impact in individual as well as family lives of
the country. Canadians are continuously increasing their habits of irresponsible alcohol
drinking. The nu8mber of accident in drunk and drive cases are also elevated in recent years
(Csiernik & Rowe, 2017). All these shows that alcohol is one of the most harmful substance
addiction for the Canadian population.
Prescription Drug Addiction in Canada
This kind of drug addiction is hard to track as there are no official statistics available
for them. In spite of that, the Canadian Centre for Substance Abuse has confirmed Canada as
2nd highest abuser of the sedative-hypnotic prescription drugs and 4th highest in per-capita
user of prescription narcotics, in the whole world (ccsa.ca, 2020). The position of the country

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in the prescribed drug addiction group shows the appalling picture of the psychotropic
medications abuses in the country. Most commonly used medications are the opioid drugs.
Oxycodone, the pain-killer are heavily used opioid drug in Canada (Bruneau et al., 2019).
Synthetic Drug Addiction in Canada
The report of United Nations states that Canada is the highest producer of
methamphetamines and ecstasy. The demands for other drugs like cocaine, cannabis and
heroine are also in the scene. But ecstasy and meth demand are all over the world increasing.
As the prime supplier of these two, Canada is producing the drugs and distributing it
worldwide. In the countries like US and Australia, Canadian suppliers supply about 85% of
these drugs (Alaggia & Csiernik, 2017). In Canada, addiction of meth is more dangerous than
ecstasy. The meth addiction afflicts danger on both the addicts and the non-addicts in
different levels.
The use of cocaine are mostly done with injections. World Drug Report states that
about 50% of total injected drugs are morphine (Peacock et al.,2018 ). Other than that, the
addicts also use heroin, hydro-morphine, and cocaine and crack cocaine. The injected drugs,
there is a huge risk of transmitted diseases and health issues. Use of the same syringe can be
the reason of contracted infections, ulcers, hepatitis, and others. 13.4% of Canadians using
injected drugs are reported to be infected by HIV (teenchallenge.ca, 2018).
Experimental Drug Abuse in Canada
A part of the young Canadians are addicted to the experimental drugs. These are
dangerous research chemicals that are readily available in the head shop or online. As these
are used in different scientific experiments, these are sold in the market openly. According to
MacKillop (2019), this poses a harm to the safety, health and mental stability of the addicts.

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These drugs mainly sold as research chemicals, herbal highs or legal highs. These drugs can
be the reason of psychiatric disturbance when taken with prescribed medications or alcohol.
Frist experimental drugs are the research chemicals. These types of drugs are
designed to produce mimic effects of amphetamines, ecstasy, psychoactive drugs and
cannabis. The young drug addicts would include these drugs with their regular drugs or
alcohol to get the elevated effect of it (Prangnell et al., 2016). They unknowingly damage
their health in this process. Another popular drug is Salvia Divinorum that is famous among
the young Canadians between the age of 15 and 24 years (statista.com, 2020). This drug is
known for the numbing effects, changes in behaviour, creating dream-like state, shifting of
perceptions. About 1.6 % of the Canadians take the Salvia Divinorum substance as their drug
addictions (teenchallenge.ca, 2018).
Other than these two, there are synthetic cannabis which Canadians use for addiction
as well. The effect of this drug is same like the marijuana. This drug is smoked and is made
of the mix of herbs. Intoxication and mild euphoria is caused by the effect of this drug
substance. Researches shows that synthetic cannabis are stronger substance than the real
cannabis (Scoffin et al., 2019). The negative reactions of synthetic cannabis might include
increased heart rate, nausea, paranoia and sometimes aggressive behaviour. The problems is
that synthetic cannabis are actually legal in Canada. Hence, the government has continuously
warned the public about the misuse of the drug and its strong side effects.
Effects of Drug Abuse
Drug addiction are not an individual problems, rather it affects the society and the
economy of a country. The basic misconception associated with drug addicts are that they are
incurable. The drug addicts often claim that the harm through drug addiction are only
affecting them and not others. This nowhere close to the truth if we consider its side effects.

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The drug addicts become huge problems for the public, family and healthcare system. Some
of the crucial effects are discussed below-
Driving Under Influence
The statistics of the road accident deaths in Canada can give an impression of how
critical the situation is in the country. Statistics of the road accidents says, every day, and
approximately 4 people are killed in the road accident that are caused by the drivers under
drug or alcohol influence. In some of the cases, the driver are influenced by both of the
substances. This kind of accidents are not only dangerous for the addicted persons, but this
can be cause of the deaths of the innocent people as well. According to the numbers of 2013,
59.1% of total car accidents involved one or more person who were under the influence of
some substance (alcoholrehab.com, 2019). This kind of accidents can be the cause of fatal
injuries for the other vehicles in the road who are not involved in any kind of addiction.
Impact on Society
Society are based on the families and individuals, therefore, impact of drug addictions
would fall on the bigger society as well. Drug addiction in the Canadian population are
increasing regularly. This is becoming the concern for the government and the society people.
Patients of drug addiction and their treatment is expensive. This is bore partly by the taxes
that people pay to government (Sattler et al., 2017). Again, the hospital beds are occupied by
the drug addicts who could have avoided the situation of getting admitted. These beds could
been available to the other patients with critical health issues and without any options left.
The government also spend a handsome amount of taxes for the treatment and rehabilitation
of drug addicts in the country.
Impact of Internal Security Issues

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The growing problems of drug addiction and trafficking is a headache for the
government. This is also a threat for the country’s internal security issues. Violence, drug
seizers and crimes are increasing in the country. Canada is a multicultural country and this is
actually increasing the problems as the demand of drugs within the country is also increasing
(McQuaid et al., 2017). The broad coastlines are hard to maintain by the coastal security
forces. The drug is being trafficked to other countries through these routes. Mostly in US and
Australia the drugs like Ecstasy and meth are trafficked. The possibility of intrusion through
these borderlines is another concern for country’s internal security. The only silver lining in
the situation is that, there is a gradual decrease in substance abuse within the country border.
People are being conscious of their health and reducing the use of abusive drug substances.
Finding Treatments
Assessing the negative side effects of the drug substances, finding the right type pf
treatments for the drug addicts seem to be important. Finding the solution to drug addiction is
quite hard. Some of the commonly used methods are discussed below-
Rehabs
Rehabilitation centres are deigned to treat the addicts through behavioural changes.
Addiction is considered to behavioural and mental. The rehab centres comes with the
innovative means to change the thinking process and divert it into something that would help
them to shift their concentration from drugs (alcoholrehab.com, 2019). These rehabs in
Canada are also well equipped with doctors and medical practitioners who prescribes
medication of some level to reduce the side effects in body post drug addiction. Rehabs are
for the drug addict patients who are at the verge of addiction and are fiercely harmful for
themselves and the society as well.
Counselling

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Counselling is used for the advanced patients who still have some of their cognitive
parts of brain intact. Through effective counselling, the patients are asked to do some
activities every time. These activities divert their attention from drug taking habits. Dedicated
treatment specialist cab be the counsellor and help the patients to get rid of the bad habits
(Bruneau et al., 2019). Counselling is quite common a procedure in drug addiction
treatments. This treatment works only if the patient is aware of his or her deteriorated health
condition and wants to get out of it.
Change in Environment
Another process is based on the family contribution and social help. This can be
practices along with the medication or counselling. Changing in the environment cab become
remedy for many drug addict patients. One can turn to someone near him to gain normalcy in
their life. The change in environment or place can also help the addict to reduce his drug
consumption habits (Fabre, 2016). The patients sometimes need a distinctive and clear
change in surroundings to get better results.
Drug addiction and finding the right treatment of it according to the situation is one of
the great challenge for Canadian government. These treatments can proved effective at times
for driving the lives of drug addicts towards a positive direction.
Conclusion
Canada is becoming the top name among the countries having drug abuse problems.
This is a great concern for the country regarding its economy and societal aspects. The
problems of a drug addict is not only limited to the person, it has its impact upon the lives of
the community and the governmental works formats as well. Huge amount of tax money are
being wasted for the drug addicts, the internal security of the country is also at stake as the
drug trafficking circles are active. In Canada, the increased drug addiction can be seen mainly

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in the teen and the young people. They are easily addicted towards the dreamy experience
and numb feelings in drug addiction. The drug production is increased for the ecstasy and
meth. Global demand of such substances are another reason that some of the region in
Canada are producing the drugs more than ever. Experimental drugs are another dangerous
source of drug addiction to the people of the country. People can go for treatments like
rehabs, counselling nd environmental change so that they can get back to normal life.

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References
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