Durham Chronicle 17-18 Issue 12

12 The Chronicle April 24 - 30, 2018 chronicle.durhamcollege.ca Campus
Porn can affect intimacy in young couples
A debate
on the
'new drug'
Tegan Sonley
The Chronicle
Pornography addiction is a cause
for concern, especially among
young people, according to some
experts.
Clay Olsen, founder of Fight
the New Drug based in Utah, was
on campus earlier this year to talk
about the very real consequences
of this addiction.
He says Fight the New Drug
was created to inform people of
the harmful effects of pornography
on the brain, heart, and
more specifically, intimate relationships.
“The rising generation today
is dealing with these issues to an
intensity that no generation in
the history of the world has ever
seen,” Olsen says. “That alone
should warrant some attention or
some discussion around the subject.”
Kyra Cooper, student president
of the Campus Ministry at
Durham College, helped to put
together the event for students and
residents in the community.
“I think the main point was
that we recognized as a group that
pornography was something that
impacted a lot of peoples’ lives,”
she says. “It’s something secretive
that people don’t want to talk
about.”
It’s difficult to find statistics
on porn addiction in Canada because
until recently, this addiction
wasn’t studied as a serious problem,
according to Olsen. He says
only in the last few years have
doctors been treating it more seriously.
Jade Cyr, a student at Durham
College in the General Arts and
Sciences program, says it should
Photograph by Trisha Kundu
Acting Det. Drew Groves
of Durham Regional Police
Services' Investigation Unit.
be treated like any other addiction.
“It can be debilitating for the
person undergoing it and embarrassing
because it’s not like conventional
addictions,” she says.
And this is just the start. Generation
Z, which includes anyone
age 3 to 23 as of 2018, is the first
generation to have pornography
readily accessible to them by way
of the internet, according Olsen.
“Due to the digital nature of
their upbringing” young people,
especially young couples, are
more at risk of pornography addiction,
he says.
This addiction, according to
research gathered by Fight the
New Drug, can affect future relationships
if it’s not addressed.
“We talked to countless individuals
about how pornography
has affected all, if not almost all,
aspects of their dating and relationships,”
says Olsen. “What the
research shows is it warps sexual
templates. And so, individuals
over time start to develop a new
template.”
He says the rewiring of these
templates can affect who these individuals
have interest in, as well
as how they view and treat their
partners. Olsen says, the impact
can be “profound and can affect
intimacy in young couples.”
For years, there was nothing
known about recovery other than
“white-knuckling’” through it, according
to Olsen. But now he says
there’s more research on porn
addiction, and groups in the community
have been popping up to
help people recover. These can
range from rehabilitation programs
to therapy.
One such group is the Fortify
program, started by Olsen as an
extension of Fight the New Drug.
He says nearly 100,000 people
have entered the program from
more than 150 countries to date.
The program measures outcomes
of depression levels, loneliness
scores, and pornography use, as
well as duration.
“We’re seeing that those that
participate in the program have
a significant decline in pornography
use, depression and anxiety
symptoms, as well as a significant
increase in connections with other
people and hope for the future,”
Olsen explains. “I can’t speak for
all options out there, but as far
Photograph by Tegan Sonley
Clay Olsen, founder of Fight the New Drug, spoke at an anti-pornography seminar at Durham College on February 12.
as results, I can speak to what we
have.”
According to Cooper, students
need facts to see how dangerous
this addiction can be for their own
relationships.
“You can’t ignore cold hard
facts so that’s why we brought
Clay in,” she says.
Olsen says having the facts
will help convince one of the
least trusting generations, Gen
Z, of the dangers of pornography
addiction. He understands not
everyone will agree but he hopes
that enough people will listen
to the research to start helping
people recover.
“That’s our goal. That’s where
we stop. We say here’s the facts,
here’s the research, make your
call,” says Olsen.
The art of forensics can fill gaps in investigations
Trisha Kundu
The Chronicle
Gordon Jenish, president of Jenish
Forensic Engineering in Oshawa,
has investigated many cases. He
recalls one story from early 2000s
when he was contacted by the police
to investigate a car accident.
The accident involved a husband
and a wife whose car swerved off
the road and fell into shallow waters,
killing the wife.
There were no witnesses and the
“driver’s story seemed credible…
someone cut him off,” said Jenish.
However, he said a deeper investigation
revealed it was likely a
first-degree murder.
He said police initially treated
the case as an accident and they
missed some evidence, such as
tire marks. They were gone due
to workers walking on the grass,
according to Jenish.
He said the police later discovered
the husband’s motive for the
murder and he was convicted, in
part due to Jenish’s work. He said
that happens sometimes.
“But if there are shortcomings
in a police investigation we may be
able to uncover that,” said Jenish.
William Jennings, a forensic engineer
at the same firm, describes
the difference.
He said police are “accident
re-constructionists” while his company
works mainly with forensics.
Forensic investigators collect evidence
or reconstruct scenes using
computer simulation techniques,
physical laboratory evidence, and
their inferences are based on science.
They use 3D-scanners and UAV
laser scanners, a machine that collects
data using drones, to identify
blood patterns which might have
been wiped off of a crime scene.
One of the main challenges with
forensics is that each side hires an
expert who interprets the evidence
in different ways, making it sometimes
an “adversarial” business,
according to Jennings.
Forensic investigation is an “interpretation-based
business,” said
Jennings, with police having a certain
expertise because they are the
first to arrive on scene.
He said private investigators
often face the challenge of lack of
circumstantial evidence because
they might be contacted to investigate
a case which has been going
on years. On the police side, there
are other challenges too.
Changing technology, extended
working hours, and mental and
physical demands of the work itself
are some of the challenges faced
by forensic investigators, said Acting
Det. Drew Groves of Durham
Regional Police Services.
He said the police sometimes
deal with infant deaths, which
makes them question, “Could that
be your child?”
“Keeping everyone’s mental
health here good is one of our main
challenges. But we take care of ourselves
very well,” said Groves.
Some of the things they see are
so graphic, it might affect them,
he said. “I think if you do this
job and nothing affects you then
I think there’s some serious issues
that need to be addressed.”
He said the duration of an investigation
depends on the complexity
of the case itself.
For example, a recent discovery
of human remains in Oshawa took
months of investigation.
Sometimes investigations can
take years to solve because of the
“meticulous, methodical and tedious
work,” he said. People have
tried to clean up scenes and hide
the crimes they’ve committed, according
to Groves.
The Forensic Identification Unit
of Durham police works with the
homicide unit to solve a case with
the former collecting the evidence
and the latter investigating the
cases, said Groves.
Forensic investigators, private
and the police, say they have a duty
to the public, before anyone else, to
convey the truth.