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Owen Sound event shines light on urgent need to tackle opioid epidemic

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The We Will Remember Them opioid overdose awareness event was held at the Owen Sound Farmers' Market in Owen Sound on Saturday, March 26, 2022. From left are Grey Bruce Health Unit Public Health Nurse Heidi Lucas, Michelle Parkes of Safe 'n Sound, GBHU Public Health Nurse Kelsey Walker and Gelja Sheardown, who lost her husband Barrett Warwick to a fentanyl overdose.
The We Will Remember Them opioid overdose awareness event was held at the Owen Sound Farmers’ Market in Owen Sound on Saturday, March 26, 2022. From left are Grey Bruce Health Unit Public Health Nurse Heidi Lucas, Michelle Parkes of Safe ‘n Sound, GBHU Public Health Nurse Kelsey Walker and Gelja Sheardown, who lost her husband Barrett Warwick to a fentanyl overdose. Photo by Rob Gowan

Gelja Sheardown was brought to tears by the number of local lives lost due to opioid overdoses since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic just over two years ago.

“Forty-eight. I didn’t realize it has been that many. That is a lot,” Sheardown said after hearing the number of Grey-Bruce residents whose deaths had been confirmed as being a result of an opioid overdose.

In 2020, the first year of COVID-19 pandemic, fatal opioid overdoses spiked to 24 in the two counties, up from 16 the year before. According to the Grey Bruce Health Unit, through the first half of 2021 there had been 15 confirmed fatal opioid overdoses.

Alison Govier, who is the co-ordinator of the Community Drug and Alcohol Strategy, said Saturday during the We Will Remember Them opioid overdose awareness event in downtown Owen Sound on Saturday that more urgency needs to be put into addressing the crisis.

“What we have done so far it hasn’t worked,” said Govier. “Since the beginning of COVID we have lost – and this is an underestimation – at least 48 community members.

“These are our husbands, our neighbours and our friends.”

Govier said they are calling on all levels of government to prioritize the opioid epidemic with a determination similar to that that has been shown during the virus pandemic.

“We have learned so much from COVID how if all levels of government and across all sectors and agencies and community we work together then we can solve big complex problems,” Govier said.

On Saturday, Govier thanked Sheardown for the work she has done to raise awareness and in doing so, helping to save lives.

“I have so much appreciation for Gelja in bringing this into the forefront of awareness with events such as this,” Govier said.

It was two years ago on Sunday that the opioid epidemic impacted Sheardown in a very personal and tragic way when she lost her husband Barrett Warwick to a fentanyl overdose.

On Saturday she was at the Owen Sound Farmers’ Market for the awareness event, meant to shine a light on the ongoing epidemic, highlight the local supports available, and give people a chance to reflect, remember and honour those loved ones they have lost.

Participants were invited to take a carnation, walk the block that includes the 8th and 9th street bridges and then drop the flower into the river, to symbolize the loss of those who have died and are gone permanently from the community. Representatives from the Grey Bruce Health Unit, Safe ‘n Sound, United Way of Bruce-Grey and Community Drug and Alcohol Strategy were on hand providing information and resources. Life-saving Naloxone kits were being made available.

The event was started last year at the urging of Sheardown, who wanted to shine a light on the crisis and help to prevent others from going through what she, her three young children, and the rest of her family and friends have had to go through.

“It is about bringing awareness that this is a big problem in Grey-Bruce and addressing all the things that people can do to try to help if they know somebody who has problems or is needing help,” Sheardown said. “It is very important for me to raise awareness after losing my husband.”

Warwick died in the family’s home in the early morning hours of March 27, 2020 after taking fentanyl, a powerful opioid that is 50 to 100 times more  powerful than morphine. He suffered from depression and had a back injury and had been using painkillers like Percocet to ease the pain of both. Sheardown was unaware of many of the struggles her husband was going through and his death was a shock to her.

While Warwick’s death has been very difficult for Sheardown and her family and friends, she said they all have made it a priority that the opioid epidemic be a major focus in the community.

“We don’t want it to be silenced anymore and we want to end the stigma around drug addicts,” Sheardown said. “These are hard working individuals, these people have families. They are good people who just get caught in a bad place and it is usually because of past trauma, mental health issues and stuff like that.”

Sheardown, who has suffered with addiction in the past herself and managed to beat it, wants to be able to lend her voice to be able to help as many people as possible.

“I just want everyone to know that the clean, sober life is so much better and we can all get there,” Sheardown said.

Govier’s position as co-ordinator of the Community Drug and Alcohol Strategy is resourced by Grey and Bruce counties and embedded in the Addictions Services team of the Canadian Mental Health Association of Grey Bruce. The strategy includes a network of community partners who work towards improving the quality of life for local individuals, families and communities by reducing the health and social harms associated with substances.

The strategy has developed a series of calls to action to address the crisis.

Locally that includes working with community partners to expand and enhance harm reduction outreach as well as assessing and incorporating harm reduction into current policies and practices.

At the provincial level, they would like to see a task force formed that would have monitoring and surveillance through engaging people with lived experience to understand the full magnitude of the problem to create solutions.

They are also calling on the provincial and federal governments and other regulatory agencies to take the necessary steps to implement and support safe supply initiatives.

Also at the federal level, the strategy is asking the drug poisoning crisis to be declared a national emergency so the crisis is met with the urgency it deserves, and that an action plan be developed to address the factors that lead to substance use and abuse and obstruct recovery.

Govier said the decriminalization of drugs for personal use and further development of a safe supply program is also important. She hopes initiatives at the local level  to decriminalize simple drug possession and focus on the trafficking of drugs trends across the country.

“The problem is that drug use is criminalized, so there is a danger and a risk attached to disclosing your drug use, so it is really hard to get an understanding of how many folks are at risk over overdose, because according to our federal prohibition laws they are committing a crime” Govier said. “That drives everyone into the shadows.

“It is a stigma in society and it is a product of our policies.”

Govier said that even when it comes to reporting deaths from opioid overdoses, there is at least a six-month lag as they wait for coroner data to be released.

“It is really hard to respond appropriately and quickly enough if you don’t have an understanding of the problem,” said Govier. “What we can do is listen to people who are most directly affected and we can urge our government to really take this seriously.”

Joan Farley was at the walk on Saturday in memory of her son Grant who died in 2018 of an opioid overdose.

She also wants to bring more awareness to the opioid epidemic and the impact it is having on people.

“We need to do more to educate people and to help save them,” Farley said. “I think we need to raise awareness around stigma, that from my understanding, a lot of people don’t go for help because of stigma. That needs to be addressed.”

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Research sheds light on important events that may play a role in infertility

Research sheds light on important events that may play a role in infertility

Everyone considers sperm to be made exclusively by males. But did you know that females also make sperm? Well, it turns out that females also contribute to what makes a sperm a sperm.

Nearly 20 percent of couples in the United States fail to conceive naturally after one year of trying, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In species with internal fertilization, such as humans, the ability for a female to become pregnant and carry a pregnancy to term is dependent upon effective interactions between sperm and the female reproductive tract (FRT). When those interactions are defective, the result can be a failed pregnancy. Therefore, understanding the factors that contribute to sperm viability between copulation and fertilization is crucial.

A research team from the Syracuse University College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Biology and Cornell University, led by Steve Dorus, associate professor of biology at Syracuse University, have been studying the life history of fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) sperm to better understand molecular continuity between male and female reproductive tracts. In other words, how the male and female reproductive tracts provide support to keep the sperm viable before fertilization. Their results, published on March 7, 2022 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA (PNAS), shed light on important events that may play a role in infertility that up until now have been poorly understood.

The team, which includes members from Syracuse University’s Center for Reproductive Evolution, explored the compositional changes in fruit fly sperm, beginning shortly after they leave the testis, following insemination and finally after protracted storage within the FRT. Fruit flies are powerful model organisms for investigations such as this one because they are easy to culture in the laboratory, have a short generation time and their genetics are richly understood. In their study, the group uncovered that the proteome, or protein makeup, of the sperm undergoes substantial changes after being transferred to the FRT.

For species with internal fertilization, a sperm’s developmental ‘journey’ – on the way to its final destination of fertilizing an egg and beginning a new life – transcends both male and female reproductive tracts. After leaving the testis, sperm travel through the male’s seminal vesicles and descend through the ejaculatory duct, where they mix with seminal fluid proteins. The team found that many of these seminal proteins are progressively lost after sperm migrate beyond the site of insemination within the FRT. Conversely, female-derived proteins that may help the sperm with functions such as energy metabolism, begin to associate with the sperm immediately after mating, signifying a changing of the guard of proteins.

After several days of storage within the FRT, the research team was surprised to discover that nearly 20% of the sperm’s proteins had been replaced by female-derived proteins. The female contributions support sperm viability during the prolonged period between copulation and fertilization. This “hand-off” in the maintenance of sperm viability from males to females means that sperm are materially the product of both sexes, and this may be a crucial aspect of reproduction in all internally-fertilizing species, including humans.

By studying the intimate ways in which sperm interact with the FRT during the final stages of functional maturation, the team’s research advances understanding of animal fertility and the contributions of each sex to reproductive success.

In addition to Dorus and Pitnick, other co-authors from Syracuse University included former postdoctoral researcher Erin McCullough and doctoral graduate Emma Whittington. Co-authors from Cornell University were Professor Mariana Wolfner and postdoctoral researcher Akanksha Singh. The team’s research was funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and a gift from Mike and Jane Weeden to Syracuse University.

Source:

Journal reference:

McCullough, E.L., et al. (2022) The life history of Drosophila sperm involves molecular continuity between male and female reproductive tracts. PNAS. doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2119899119.

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Battlefield 2042 Pulls Russian Helicopter Skin ‘In Light Of Current Events’

Battlefield 2042 Pulls Russian Helicopter Skin 'In Light Of Current Events'

Battlefield 2042

The ‘Grin Reaper’ skin that has been withdrawn
Screenshot: Battlefield 2042

Last week Battlefield 2042 developers DICE first offered, then pulled, a limited-release skin that featured a smiling attack helicopter for the game’s Russian faction, deciding that now was not the best time to be giving players such rewards.

For a while now, the beleaguered online shooter has been offering special rewards for players who can complete certain weekly challenges, sometimes in the guise of Specialist outfits, sometimes skins for weapons and vehicles. The skin in question last week, called the “Grin Reaper”, featured an aggressive smile based on the iconic “shark tooth” custom of aircraft art that dates back to the First World War. It went live then, with events in Ukraine rapidly deteriorating, was swiftly withdrawn:

It was the right move on the part of developers DICE for anyone looking at this skin in isolation, but it also creates a strange precedent where this particular item was seen to be in poor taste, but the remainder of the game itself—which features an aggressive, near-future Russia as one of only two factions that players have a 50/50 chance of being automatically assigned to before each match—is fine.

The removed skin hasn’t been replaced; anyone booting up the game will see a blank area of the screen where a player’s progress towards the current weekly reward would normally be. DICE says “weekly missions will return” later this week, and haven’t ruled out this skin being re-offered at a later date.

This is somehow the third time Battlefield 2042’s skins have made the news since the game’s launch. First there was a skin that directly referenced Russia’s annexation of parts of Ukraine back in 2014, specifically the “Little Green Men”, unmarked Russian special forces units who “allowed Vladimir Putin to briefly claim that they were actually local insurgents, and as such that it wasn’t a clear and overt annexation of foreign territory.”

Then at Christmas some Gamers got mad that a holiday skin was going to feature Santa Claus carrying an assault rifle, then other Gamers got mad that DICE yanked the skin after blowback. The entire thing was very sad.