Every corner of Canada has been impacted by the opioid crisis. The scourge has hit big cities and rural communities. Illicit drugs like fentanyl — unknown to most Canadians a few years ago — now cause overdose deaths on a daily basis. But some people addicted to opioids were originally prescribed drugs by their doctors to offer short-term relief for acute pain.

It is this paradox that has led to a call for a National Pain Strategy, says Andrea Furlan, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Toronto.

“Pain is at the heart of Canada’s escalating opioid crisis,” writes Dr. Furlan, who is also a scientist at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute. “And so is the physician’s prescription pad.”

This is just one of several good reads today from The Conversation Canada.

Jan Stewart, professor of education at the University of Winnipeg, writes about the challenges facing refugee children in our school system.

“Schools in Canada urgently need to become trauma-informed — to respond to the growing number of children who have experienced war, terrorism, crime and maltreatment,” says Dr. Stewart.

Do you remember the Twitter controversy a few weeks ago about the “Cultural Appropriation Prize”? Sociologist Clayton Childress looks deeper into the issue and reports “the notion of white people being under threat in publishing crumbles in the face of evidence.”

And there’s more: Canada’s hidden advantage when we will be farming in space … and we reveal that Gordon Gekko was wrong — Greed is NOT good!

Interesting factoid: our newsletter subscription rate has jumped 60 per cent since our launch day. Do us a favour and share this with a friend. We would love to further expand The Conversation Canada.

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