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The opioid crisis has claimed the lives of more than 10,000 Canadians over the last three years and governments and policy-makers are working on new strategies to combat the abuse of pain killers. But today in The Conversation Canada, David Walton of Western University warns about the unintended consequences of the opioid crackdown: people who live with daily pain and depend on opioid-based medications to live bearable lives.
That’s just one of several great reads we have to start your week:
And finally, this Wednesday is World Hemophilia Day and Paula James of Queen’s University is marking the day by highlighting a treatable bleeding disorder that affects many women but goes undiagnosed because there is a lack of accurate information about normal versus abnormal menstrual periods.
Regards,
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A man walks in a back alley in Vancouver’s downtown eastside, February 2019. More people fatally overdosed in British Columbia last year compared with 2017 despite efforts to combat the province’s public health emergency.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward
David Walton, Western University
A policy response focused on reducing prescription opioids will not resolve North America's opioid crisis. And it is hurting many adults who live with otherwise unbearable chronic pain.
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A U.S.-backed Syrian soldier reacts as an airstrike hits territory held by Islamic State militants outside Baghouz, Syria, in February 2019. The Islamic State group has been reduced from its self-proclaimed caliphate that once spread across much of Syria and Iraq at its height in 2014 to a speck of land on the countries’ shared border.
(AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
Kyle Matthews, Concordia University
Only by prosecuting extremists will the world be able to marginalize those who carry out violent acts and those who give credence to their ideas.
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Faith Goldy is shown outside Wilfrid Laurier University in March 2018. Facebook may have banned Goldy and other ‘alt-right’ figures, but their influence is greater than social media.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Hannah Yoon
Brian Budd, University of Guelph
It's all well and good for Facebook to shut down people like Faith Goldy, but it's critical we recognize that the far right’s culture war is diffusing more broadly within Canadian politics.
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As machine learning progresses, its applications include faster, more accurate medical diagnoses.
Shutterstock
Seokbum Ko, University of Saskatchewan
A research lab at the University of Saskatchewan is pursuing the applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning to healthcare diagnoses.
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Women with bleeding disorders can wait up to 15 years to get appropriate testing and treatment.
(Shutterstock)
Paula James, Queen's University, Ontario
In the run up to World Hemophilia Day, a clinician scientists shares what women need to know about heavy menstruation and bleeding disorders.
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Politics
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Mattia Cacciatori, University of Bath
The fact that al-Bashir has been deposed will again raise questions about the former Sudanese president facing trial at the ICC.
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Culture + Society
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Adam Schembri, University of Birmingham
This explains why some aspects of English can be so hard to learn for speakers of other languages.
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Environment + Energy
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Alf Hornborg, Lund University
Human civilisation is threatened by long-dead organisms, whether as White Walkers or petrol.
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