Passionate about young people, whom she finds “so lit”, the DD Marie-Eve Morin, a family doctor working in addictions and mental health, believes, however, that they do not always have access to the right information. She is therefore publishing a book these days aimed at informing them about psychoactive substances and the dependencies they can cause.
Cocaine, GHB, cannabis and alcohol: the book Dose your lifewhich is aimed primarily at young people aged 12 to 25, deals in particular with the positive and negative effects of the different substances that exist. From a harm reduction perspective, the author also addresses, among other things, the risks of overdoses and the drug analysis services available.
“The goal is really to inform young people so that they can make free and informed decisions,” summarizes the DD Morin in interview with Duty. However, there is no question of lecturing teenagers, emphasizes the 46-year-old doctor, met in her office decorated with colorful skulls.
Throughout the pages, she recounts certain slices of life, such as the unpleasant experience she had while consuming hashish at a Pink Floyd show in 1994, at the age of 16. “I didn’t want young people to think that I was never young too and that I never had my own experiences. It was to better reach them,” she explains.
The drug world has changed, however, believes the DD Morin. “In the 1990s, in the schoolyard, there was hashish, there was acid (LSD) and there was PCP (phencyclidine). There was no ketamine, MDMA, GHB, opioids or benzodiazepines. Today, I find that the offer is greater than before and that it is easy to obtain it. »
Currently, the “heroin” circulating on the streets is replaced the vast majority of the time by fentanyl, an opioid forty times more powerful, she continues. As she speaks, she turns her gaze to one of the walls of her office, where there are photos of some of her patients who died from overdoses. “There are young people in there,” she said, her voice breaking with emotion. That’s a lot of fentanyl overdoses. It’s not forgiving. »
Fortunately, most of the people she follows eventually grow out of it, she hastens to add. “They go back to school, they get into relationships, they go back to work. »
Beware of mixtures and dependencies
No one is safe from developing an addiction, recalls the DD Marie-Eve Morin. “It’s all a question of context, dose and frequency of use,” she explains. And you also need to know that once a person is addicted, it can become a prison either physically or psychologically, or both. But addiction by definition has an impact on multiple spheres of the life of the person who suffers from it. »
The context of consumption also plays a big role in the relationship that a person will develop with a substance, underlines the family doctor. “If a person uses because their life is going poorly or they have chronic pain, there is a greater risk of developing an addiction. »
There is also often too little discussion of the risks associated with mixing different substances, believes the DD Morin. “Mixing several depressants together, such as GHB, benzodiazepines, alcohol and opioids, greatly increases the risk of respiratory depression and possibly death. »
“And I’m not saying that drugs are good taken individually,” she explains. But when you mix, there is a much greater risk of complications. »
In addition to substances, it is also possible to develop an addiction to a behavior such as sex, video games or food, explains the DD Morin.
According to her, there are, however, positive dependencies: passions. Throughout the pages, she praises, among other things, music, animals, travel and nature. “If you’re obsessed with your piano lesson, you won’t overdose because you play too much,” she says.
She also dedicates her book to all adolescents “in search of passions and dreams”. “I find that this is what many young people lack. But not all of them, of course,” she says, emphasizing how rewarding passions can be. “Personal pride is important. »