HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuron Expositor, 2016-10-19, Page 44 Huron Expositor • Wednesday, October 19, 2016
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These clowns need to quit it already
The other day I googled
the words "the movie"
and the first thing that
popped up was "It'; the well-
known Stephen King mur-
derous clown film that was
released in 1990.
That movie literally scared
the hell out of me for years. My
mother and her friends would
parry to all times of the night,
which meant from the wee
hours of the morning until
partway through the afternoon
I had the house to myself. This
also meant that eight-year-old
Shaun, since there was no
parental supervision around,
which I never really had much
anyways, could watch what-
ever I wanted. For all of you in
your 20's out there, this is well
before High-definition video
or Blue -rays or a DVD for that
matter. This era emanated with
bunny ears on your televisions
for an antenna with a VCR as
the only method of watching
movies. So as my mother slept,
I watched all the most inap-
propriate movies-Goodfellas,
Column
Shaun Gregory
Eddie Murphy's Delirious and
of course the film that left me
plugging my ears and closing
my eyes while I watched -the
one and only creepy clown
flick -It.
It's been about two decades
since I've seen this horror on
my RCA tube, now there is a
clown crazed spectacle pow-
ered by all forms of social
media. I'm pretty sure it
started in the U.S. and then
turned into an epidemic
worldwide wandering from
the UK directly to the back-
yard
ackyard of Huron East (according
to a Facebook post that
received 222 shares, they have
been spotted in Wingham).
These teens and according
to reports from numerous
media organizations, some-
times even adults in their mid -
40's are fully dressed up in
clown costumes, which com-
prises of the make-up, shoes
and even balloons to match.
According to CBC the lovable
well respected Ronald
McDonald has been ordered
to keep a lesser profile because
of the outbreak of eerie clowns.
I have no problem with a
person that has the odd pre-
requisite to go purchase the
whole clown getup and scare
their friends or family mem-
bers. But when you are sitting
in the dark in the bushes of
elementary schools or you're
chasing kids with the hopes to
scare them that's crossing the
line. Not only might it get you
arrested, the possibility of get-
ting hurt may be on your
agenda. I know if I was walking
my little ones down the street
and some clown jumped out
from behind a bush or started
chasing us, I would be forced
to use self-defense. How do I
know this is a joke? All that
goes through my head, does
he or she have a weapon? Is
this person mentally unstable?
This makes me more than
uncomfortable just thinking
about it. So if you wake up and
decide to throw on some
clown shoes and a mask to
coordinate the outfit, think of
the consequences. I know my
children are my life and I will
do what is ever is necessary to
protect them and most every
person on Earth will do the
same. It's crazy how these
types of themes hit the media
waves, I guess I'm to blame as
well, as I type a story about
clowns, which is only giving
them the fuel they need. Any -
ways, I'm signing out from my
home just outside of Clinton,
Shaun AKA the guy who has
been trained in jiu-jitsu for the
last four years, so please do
yourself a favour and put the
clown suit down or at least
please leave the kids alone.
Editorial: Ontario's opioid plan has its pluses — but does little to ease pain
There is much to
applaud in the Ontario
government's new,
"comprehensive" opioid
strategy. But it still puts too
much emphasis on only one
side of the problem.
First, though, the pluses.
The government has acknowl-
edged that opioid -related
overdoses and deaths are a
serious problem. In 2014, 700
Ontarians are reported to
have died from opioid over-
doses, making it the third-
highest cause of accidental
deaths in the province, ahead
of traffic accidents.
Ontario will also loosen its
rules around the drug Subox-
one, which can be used to
treat opioid addictions and is
more benign than Metha-
done, the current drug of
choice. Both family doctors
and nurse practitioners will
soon be able to prescribe
Suboxone; addicts won't
have to go to special metha-
done clinics.
Then there's Naloxone, an
antidote administered in the
case of overdose. Under the
new plan, it will be available
free. The province also plans
to give Naloxone "kits" to
inmates at high risk of addic-
tion on release from jail.
Finally, the government
has recognized there is a flip
side to this problem, and that
it needs addressing. What is
proposed, however, falls
short.
The issue is what opioids are
legitimately used for: pain con-
trol. Ontarians in severe and
chronic pain need powerful
drugs to manage it, and we can
expect, as the population ages,
that the need will grow. At one
point, doctors were prescrib-
ing oxycodone, but a crack-
down
rackdown on it led many to turn to
fentanyl, the potent narcotic
whose abuse spurred the cur-
rent crisis. Certainly, the evi-
dence suggests doctors have
been badly over -prescribing
opioids (one researcher called
them "mind-boggingly cava-
lier" in their attitudes toward
prescribing fentanyl). Never-
theless, the patients still need
drugs.
Yet the provincial plan pro-
poses removing several high-
strength opioid formulations
from the Ontario Drug Benefit
Formulary at the end of the
year - less than three months
from now. That's not much
time to come up with alterna-
tives for Ontarians who strug-
gle with debilitating suffering.
Some experts fear the abrupt
removal of such drug options
will send more people to the
black market. And that could
accelerate the cycle of drug
abuse and risk.
Ontario does say it will
pump cash into 17 chronic
pain clinics across the prov-
ince, and offer physicians
more training on pain man-
agement - which will help
counter the tendency to
over -prescribe. These are
good initiatives, but won't be
implemented quickly. Wait
times to see pain specialists
are already long. For people
suffering, each day is agony.
The province has made a
good start in dealing with
addiction overdoses; it needs
to work equally hard on
behalf of pain sufferers who
need appropriate drugs.
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