Another question arises revolving around modern societies that are bombarded with various forms of personal addiction. Although these addicts may not be invaders, they are still a huge intrusion into the general functions of a working, viable community.
IN CANADA
Aboriginals currently account for 4.3% of the Canadian population, and the figure is expect to grow to 5.3% of all Canadians by 2030. The aboriginal population increased by 20.1% between 2006 and 2011, compared with 5.2% for the rest of Canada.
By every measure of social welfare, from rates of infant mortality to literacy to suicide, this fast-growing group remains on the margins of Canadian society. According to government data, the aboriginal unemployment was 22% on reserves in 2011 when compared to 7.5% in the wider population, and they earned around half the average wage. Aboriginals make up close to a quarter of Canada’s prison population. Aboriginal growth is particularly concentrated in Canada’s resource-rich, fast-growing prairie provinces.
Canada’s aboriginal population is young, with 28% aged 14 and under compared with 16.5% in the rest of the population. Statistics paint a bleak picture of Aboriginals in Canada. Young Aboriginal males with five times the national youth suicide rate; prison population eight times the national average; diabetes and tuberculosis levels at epidemic proportions; thirty percent of the children in welfare care in Canada are Aboriginal. WHO IS TO BLAME?
A) THE NORTHERN GATEWAY PIPELINE
The opposition to the Northern Gateway Pipeline has been extensive by Aboriginal groups. It prompted Enbridge CEO Al Monaco to recognize last summer that it was unlikely it would be ready to move oil from Alberta to the West Coast in 2018, as previously expected.
The First Nations groups over the route of the pipeline are insisting on proper attention to aboriginal rights, an appropriate level of consultation, adequate and substantial participation, and a fair return to First Nations from the project, should it proceed. Enbridge and the Canadian Government are taking steps to address these concerns and progress is being made.
B) ABDUCTION / MURDER OF ABORIGINAL WOMEN
The highway of tears:
A section of Highway 16, which runs between Prince George and Prince Rupert in British Columbia, where many women have disappeared.
Many of the women, who have gone missing along the highway, live in aboriginal communities and use hitchhiking as a mode of transport. Local women have been urged to avoid hitchhiking, though many in poorer communities cannot afford an alternative method of travelling.
Who is responsible for this? Many believe there needs to be a more concerted effort in investigating these crimes. Some say that it is aboriginal men who are the perpetrators. Do isolated reserves, sub-standard schools or harsh climate conditions contribute to the problem?
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| SAM QUINONES; AUTHOR AND JOURNALIST |
DREAMLAND
This is contrasted with the reality of Purdue Pharma in Stamford, Connecticut.They're determined to corner the market on pain with a new and expensive miracle drug, Oxycontin; extremely addictive in its own right.
Quinones shows just how these two stories fit together as cause and effect. Hooked on costly Oxycontin, American addicts were lured to much cheaper black tar heroin and its powerful and dangerous long-lasting high.
STATISTICS AND DETAILS FROM QUINONES' REPORT
"FATAL heroin overdoses in America have almost tripled in three years. More than 8,250 people a year now die from heroin. At the same time, roughly double that number are dying from prescription opioid painkillers, which are molecularly similar. Heroin has become the fallback dope when an addict can’t afford, or find, pills. Total overdose deaths, most often from pills and heroin, now surpass traffic fatalities."What facilitates the distribution of black-tar heroin?
> there is little violence associated with its usage and distribution.
> the victims mostly young, white and wealthy are able to avoid embarrassing public exposure.
> Pharmaceuticals like 'oxycontin' are overprescribed, more expensive and abused.
Xalisco, is a county in Mexico of 49,000 people near the Pacific Coast. They have devised a system for selling heroin across the United States much simpler and more difficult to control than cartel or gang related distribution.
The Xalisco Dealers circulate a phone number in an area of town with its own facilities. The addict calls, and is directed to a rendezvous. A driver is dispatched with a mouthful of tiny balloons of heroin and a nearby bottle of water to help swallow the balloons if police or other problems arise. The driver meets the addict, spits out the required balloons and collects the cash.
Xalisco dealers keep a low profile engaging in legal enterprises that allow them to avoid scrutiny. They pay drivers $300 to $500 a week. In the United States, these drivers use old cars and dress in normal work day clothing. The heroin delivery system appeals to them mainly because there is no cartel kingpin. These are individuals who are acting on their own in places with no competition. For them, hard work, dilligence and common sense pay off.
They are nonviolent and refuse to become involved in battles for territory with armed gangs. They are unarmed and wary. The Xalisco Boys started out on the fringes of the drug world in West Coast cities. In the late 1990s, they moved east in search of virgin territory. They avoided big cities like New York and Philadelphia the country’s traditional centres of heroin, because the market was already run by entrenched gangs. 
The Xalisco Boys migrated instead to prosperous midsize cities. that were predominantly white, but with large Mexican populations
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| USA Eastern Counties with high Mexican populations |
There chosen sites include cities such as Nashville, Columbus, Salt Lake City, Portland and Denver.
"In the ’90s, some doctors came to believe that opioid painkillers were virtually nonaddictive when used for pain, and they prescribed them freely — not just for terminal cancer patients, but for chronic pain sufferers, too. Many patients were in pain. But instead of pursuing more complicated pain solutions, which might include eating better, exercising more and, thus, feeling better, too many saw doctors as car mechanics endowed with powers to fix everything quickly. Too often, opioid painkillers were prescribed to excess. Opioids such as Percocet, Vicodin and OxyContin saw an explosion in the sales of these drugs. Sales quadrupled between 1999 and 2010.
Higher addiction rates followed and this has given new life to heroin, which had been declining in popularity since the early 1980s. Prescription pain pills have created a new home for heroin in rural and suburban Middle America. Thanks to them, the Xalisco Boys built what the justice department called the first coast-to-coast distribution networks, which also included Hawaii and, for a time, Alaska."
"In places like Columbus, the Xalisco Boys stumbled onto multitudes of new addicts, many of whom were already hooked on opioid pills that doctors had prescribed. Their heroin was cheaper than the pills, yet provided a similar high.
And their delivery system made heroin conveniently available to suburban white kids who possessed the trinity of American prosperity, essential to the Xalisco system: their own cellphones (to call the dealer), cars (in which to meet the dealer) and private bedrooms (in which to shoot up and hide the dope)."
WHAT PART DOES SOCIAL MEDIA PLAY IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF ADDICTION?
THE QUOTE:
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| TWEET TWEET |
"PEOPLE DON'T DIE FROM A HEROIN OVERDOSE, THEY DIE FROM HEROIN..." PHILLIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN
THE LAUREL:
TO SAM QUINONES FOR HIS STANCE ON PRESCRIPTION DRUGS.
THE CLIP:
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