Posted on Business Insider – March 7, 2016 by Harrison Jacobs

It’s no secret that heroin use is hitting record numbers in the US.

Erin Marie Daly and her brother, Pat.

For journalist Erin Marie Daly, that fact became disturbingly real in 2009 when her 20-year-old brother, Pat, died of a heroin overdose.

In the intervening years, the problem has become only worse, with heroin-related overdose deaths nearly quadrupling between 2002 and 2013, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Since Pat’s overdose, Daly has tried to understand her brother’s death by investigating the causes and effects of his and hundreds of thousands of others’ addictions to heroin and prescription opioids. In 2014, she collected her findings into a book: “Generation Rx: A Story of Dope, Death, and America’s Opiate Crisis.”

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Posted on CBC-TV – January 21, 2016

Maureen Palmer with Mike Pond in Vancouver

Filmmaker Maureen Palmer set out to make a documentary following her partner Mike Pond — a psychotherapist and an alcoholic five years sober — as he searched for the best new evidence-based addiction treatments. The intent was to help others battling substance use disorders

But to the couple’s shock and dismay, shortly after filming began, Mike drank again. In Wasted, Mike and Maureen’s attitudes and assumptions about addiction are tested in real time as the couple search for a treatment that will work for Mike.  A theoretical journey becomes very real and deeply personal.

Click Here to Watch

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Posted on CBC-TV – February 25

Girls’ Night Out tackles the prevalent and often dangerous culture of binge drinking and young women, with the eye of a reporter, the curiosity of an anthropologist, and the sometimes-wounded heart of a teenage girl. A deeply personal point-of-view film embedded in the stories of young women engaged in, and in ‘recovery’ from, this toxic epidemic, Girls’ Night Out offers an intimate conversation around this very serious issue and explores the all-too-ubiquitous story of what’s happening to 80% of the young women at university campuses across North America with often damaging consequences.

Click Here to Watch – Canada Only

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Posted on CBC News – March 2, 2016 by Jean Laroche

Dr. Warren Fieldus, an emergency room physician, is worried about the growing number of young people who need help for serious alcohol abuse. (CBC)

At Nova Scotia’s largest hospital, treating people who are drunk or suffering from alcohol-related injuries is commonplace.

But what really worries Dr. Warren Fieldus, an emergency room physician at the QEII Health Sciences Centre, is the growing number of young people who need help for serious alcohol abuse.

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Posted on The Telegraph – February 1, 2016 by Jonathan Wells

Credit: OneYearNoBeer

For those who managed to drag themselves, kicking and screaming, through the dreary days of January without a drink, February the first must have seemed like the glittering light at the end of the tunnel.

But now, a new and considerably more ambitious campaign is looking to stretch the sobriety over an entire year. Capitalising on the success of ‘Dry January’, a group of like-minded triathletes and mud racers have teamed up with the Professional Footballers’ Association and have created ‘OneYearNoBeer‘.

Co-creator and ex-professional footballer Andy Ramage tells me why sobriety is a tough, but worthy, pursuit.

“OneYearNoBeer started out of frustration,” says Ramage. “Frustration that there was nothing available for someone who is not an alcoholic – but who is fed up with hangovers and regret – to stop drinking.

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