'When Epidemics Converge: The Escalation of Drug Use During COVID-19' was an interesting online talk hosted by Ulysses Neuroscience of Trinity College and presented by Dr Christian Heidbreder. It focused on data from the US looking at how the use of illicit drugs had been changed by the pandemic, with the synthetic opioid crisis as a backdrop to this. Notwithstanding the separate impact of COVID-19, which has yet to be fully realized (although it looks like drug use has substantially increased during this period), there were several take-home messages from this talk. Firstly, there is a massive and long-recognized correlation between mental health issues and drug abuse, which is largely unaddressed. Secondly, there is a particular problem relating to the abuse of fentanyl and methamphetamine, which has been increasing rapidly since 2014 and is now a major public health concern. These drugs are often taken by the same individuals to balance their pharmacological and physiological effects (as fentanyl is a synthetic opioid it acts almost like a sedative while methamphetamine is classed as a psychostimulant, similar to cocaine - co-abuse allows the user to function on a day-to-day basis as each drug can counteract the effects of the other, to some extent at least) and this co-administration is massively responsible for the huge increase in drug-related fatalities in the US in recent years. It really is beyond tragic and represents such a failure of governance - how could this have been allowed to happen? The speaker here was excellent, and a real expert in the field - this is such an important topic and I feel it really doesn't get the attention it deserves, so I would definitely recommend checking it out (it can be accessed via the Ulysses Neuroscience Facebook page here).
'A Poem for Every Night of the Year' was a Christmas present from my middle sister, who also acquired copies for herself and our youngest sister. This is a lovely collection of poetry, with a specific poem for every night of 2021, and I'm so happy knowing that the three of us are reading the same words every night - what a wonderful idea! The poems are eclectic and seasonal, and I'm enjoying the collection thoroughly... I generally read the poems in the evening or just before I go to bed and I love the ritual of it all.
So, that's some of the stuff I've been up to lately! It's hard to believe that it's the end of January but for sure there's a little stretch in the days already and we won't feel it until it's Lent (February 17th, only a few weeks away). It's hard not being able to travel beyond 5km and to miss out on seeing our families, but hopefully these new vaccines will work sufficiently well to allow a more long-term easing of restrictions. As we begin to (slowly!) transition from winter into spring, we have to remain optimistic and look at all the ways we can improve our lives and help those around us - although our environment may have changed considerably over the last year, human beings still have the same needs and curiosities and the great success of the human race has been its ability to adapt and live within whatever context we find ourselves in. We are also social creatures, dependent on each other for emotional and psychological support, and each of us must figure out a way of maintaining these links with the people we care about and who sustain us. I think we're learning how to do this but we must also keep an eye out for each other and do what we can to help - as the Irish saying goes 'Ar scath a cheile a mhaireann na daoine' (rough translation, 'In the shelter of each other the people live'). Never has this been truer than right now.