5. Canadian journal provides important insights into addictions

By Tom O'Connell

The Journal of the Addiction Research Foundation in Toronto includes addiction-related information from North America and other places, providing food for thought:

Internet users 'addicted'--Many Internet users show addiction-like behavior, according to preliminary research from the University of Buffalo. Seventeen percent of 185 respondents to an on-line survey spent more than 40 hours a week on their machines.

Airlines launch gambling--Passengers on some British Airways and Singapore Airline flights will be able to play video blackjack, poker, and roulette with their credit cards.

Kids' presence helps parents quit smoking--Researchers from Great Britain found that adults with dependent children were more likely to quit smoking than those without children.

Cannabis accounts for most drug offenses--Cannabis offenses accounted for 71 per cent of Canadian drug charges laid in 1995, reports the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics.

Young women use (drugs) more than mothers did--Fifteen-year-old females are 15 times more likely to use drugs than their mothers were at the same age, according to a study by Columbia University's Centre of Addiction and Substance Abuse....12- to 18-year-old females were just as likely to use alcohol, tobacco and other drugs as their male counterparts....female college students were more likely to smoke than males.

Psychiatric male alcoholics have high crime rates--A Swiss study found that alcoholic male psychiatric patients were almost twice as likely to have a criminal record as a control group matched for age, sex and occupational status from the general public....Almost seven in 10 (68 percent) of the study group had a criminal record, compared with 37 percent of the control group.

Smoking linked to blindness among elderly--Heavy smoking doubles the risk of severe vision impairment in the elderly....Harvard Medical School researchers tracked 120,000 registered nurses for 16 years....women who smoked more than a pack a day were more than twice as likely as non-smokers to develop macular degeneration, a condition that causes vision impairment and blindness in the elderly. Similarly, another Boston study of 20,000 men also found smoking doubled the risk of vision impairment.

Greater controls proposed for 'brew-your-own' shops--The proliferation of vint-your-own and brew-your-own shops over the past few years has prompted calls for greater regulation of the industry.

Link between cocaine use and attention deficit disorder studied--In 1993, researchers at the Harvard Medical School reported that adults diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) abused alcohol and other drugs at rates three times higher than those without the disorder....A Yale University study of 298 adults in treatment for cocaine use found that 35 percent had a history of childhood ADHD....cocaine use may have begun as a form of "self-medication."

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