Hum/111 Week 1 Learning Journal Analysis

Superior Essays
Learning Journal 1
I have not been subjected to individuals in my family using or abusing drugs. I also must admit I am a bit naïve about many of the drugs in society today. Therefore, I am learning quite a bit about many different names, types, affects and history of the numerous drugs within our societies. For instance, Marijuana being the oldest known psychoactive plant and that many of the illicit drugs of today were first used for medicinal purposes and for cures of addictions. Also, who would have thought that cocaine was used for eye, nose and throat surgeries for its anesthetic properties? And, I was quite surprised by the statistics, provided by the book, of 4.3 million emergency room visits due to drug use or misuse. More surprising
…show more content…
I understand confidentiality, however, alcohol use is rampant in colleges and parents need to be aware of the crisis in schools. The media only highlights the issue when a scholarship athlete or high profile student is involved. However, I feel everyone needs to be aware in order to help educate our youth on the risks of alcohol and drugs. For our week 2 discussion, we discussed how the lyrics of songs promote alcohol and drug use and influence teenagers. We cannot make the songwriters quit writing songs that promote drinking or drug use. However, we can continue to educate our youth and not make alcohol and drugs so readily attainable. I think one of the items from the discussion board that everyone should accept is teenagers are curious and are easily persuaded. I believe middle schools and high schools need to have mandatory drug & alcohol classes. Show teenagers what drugs can/will do to their minds and bodies. Show the horrific car accidents, overdoses and sexual assaults so they are aware. We cannot continue to believe that teenagers are mature enough to make the right decisions. Therefore, we need to educate them so they can make more educated decisions.

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    Do you know someone that has consumed alcohol at an early age? Growing up alcohol was very evident in my local junior high and high school. My peers consistently talked about going out on the weekends, sometimes even the week and boasting about being the biggest drinker at a local bar they snuck in to or even going as far as describing extravagant narratives about not remembering the night before from partying too extensively. Underage drinking on college campuses are a common issue nationwide. While students and faculty alike are all aware of the issue not much is done or can be done to end underage consumption.…

    • 1606 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    The Power Of 420 Analysis

    • 1203 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The United States government has been campaigning on the prohibition of drugs for nearly a century. President Richard Nixon declared the “War on Drugs” in the 1970s. It was evident his administration wanted to shift the public perception of drugs by demonizing all drugs and campaigning on the dangers of drug use, which later lead to major anti-drug bills during the 19080s and 1990s. For years, our society has been taught that drugs have negative consequences that causes drug users to commit crimes. As a result of the stigmatization of drugs, we are faced with the challenges of changing the mindset that drug addicts are not criminals, but instead their addiction is a disease that requires medical attention, not criminalization.…

    • 1203 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Do Drugs Hurt Society

    • 1039 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Do drugs hurt society? In 2014 the FBI reported 1,561,231 arrests for drug law violations. 83.1% of those arrests (1,297,383) were for possession of a controlled substance. Annually the U.S. spends more than $51,000,000,000 on the war on drugs.…

    • 1039 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The drug epidemic in America is something that is hard to overlook these days. More and more people are dying from illicit drug overdoses and prescription drug overdoses. Pharmaceutical companies continue to create new drugs for new problems. Illicit drugs continue to be manufactured both internationally and domestically, being sold in every city across the nation. For Americans, medication has become a normal part of life.…

    • 1159 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Gore Vidal Drugs Summary

    • 740 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The name of article I am going to summarize is Drugs written by Gore Vidal in 1970. In the article, author showed the possibility of legalizing the drugs, labelling each drug with its effects and selling drugs at cost to stop most drug addiction in America. Gore Vidal argued in the article, drug addiction is similar to alcohol addiction, once forbidden by the government, the situation would turn worse, which cased his belief in that if everyone knows what would drugs’ effects in advance, he or she would not become a drug addict as long as he or she is “reasonably sane”. To prove that, he took himself as an example, he admitted that he had tried “once—almost every drug” and insisted on “like none”. What’s more, Gore Vidal suggested the…

    • 740 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    One of the drugs or rather class of drugs I’d like to discuss are opioids. These drugs/medications which have the tendency to be highly abused, but because of their properties in treating pain, these drugs are widely utilized in modern medical practices. Since the body naturally produces pain killers which are trace amounts of opioid compounds, actual pain killers or opioids enhance these pain killing mechanisms, therefore creating a significant potential for abuse in patients. This is discussed in detail in substance use and abuse in module 4.5. For example heroin has been used and abused throughout history, heroin is a derivative of opium which naturally occurs in poppy plants and by extension trace amounts of heroin could be found in opiate…

    • 315 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Dreamland Discussion Three The third reading of Dreamland continues to shed light on the ongoing opioid crisis in America, and brings some new methods that the DEA and police used to combat the spread of painkiller and heroin abuse to the forefront. In the first section of the reading, we learned about Dr.Katz and his criticisms of the research on painkillers. I agree with him when he said that the doctors are not being truthful when they market these painkillers.…

    • 693 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Now a day, for numerous reasons teens are consuming alcohol, weather it be for enjoyment or peer pressure, but the main reason of doing so is “breaking the law”. According to the SADD Statistics, “Nearly three quarters of students (72%) have consumed alcohol (more than just a few sips) by the end of high school, and more than a third (37%)…

    • 1084 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Patrick J. Kennedy maintains the idea that, “No one is immune from addiction; it afflicts people of all ages, races, classes, and professions”. Kids health as well as their futures are greatly affected by drugs, actions should be taken now to deter them away from using or taking drugs. Schools should be allowed to drug test children in middle school and high school because it could help prevent the use of drugs, stop the issues corresponding with using drugs, and could lead to better lives. People tend to overlook the fact that young people can and will do drugs. “This survey of more than 46,000 teens—8th, 10th, and 12th graders to be exact—showed that 13%…

    • 799 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The goal of Healthy People 2020 is to reduce this number to 37 percent (“Substance Abuse,” n.d..). To reach this goal along with others, it was decided that the best course of action was to design an education seminar that our target audience could attend. This would allow us to get the information out in a useful manner as well as teaching new skills. Education about an issue along with providing essential skills has been proven to be effective in creating a behavior change by multiple organization including The Journal of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (Komro & Toomey, 2002). Once the topic had been selected and the campaign designed, it was necessary to research why underage drinking is a health issue and the burden it places on the health care…

    • 472 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    Drug use and abuse has been a major concern to the society for a long a time. There are myths and facts about drug abuse. Many people have been having misconception on the truth about drug abuse. This has led to many people, both old and young, to continue abusing drugs and substances. With drug abuse becoming more common in our society, many scholars have been trying to explain reasons that make people, especially young people abuse drugs.…

    • 1147 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Young And Homeless

    • 574 Words
    • 3 Pages

    It would make sense that parents of teens are the targeted audience because they probably do not know much about the subject or have not even thought of it. The readers of this paper most likely did not act upon reading this article. This Article merely informed the readers of the problem rather than convincing them to go out and fix it. The Author Kate Riley is the editorial page editor.…

    • 574 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The argument on whether drugs should be legalized has been going on for so long now. Some people say as an Americans we have the right to choose whether we want to do drugs or not. It is really hard to control the consumption of drugs, because people are going to do them whether they are legal or illegal. Other people say that the laws that are being enforced now are good to control drugs. “There will also be more unpublicized fatal and maiming crashes, more job accidents, more child neglect, more of everything associated with substance abuse”(M. Kendrecke).…

    • 1002 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Life as a Drug Addict Most people don’t see me doing drugs but I did and it ruined my life but I survived. I use to look down on people who did drugs and I didn’t understand why they did it and why they just wouldn’t stop using them. Then, I became a drug addict…

    • 1482 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Outline Thesis Statement: Many Americans would argue that conviction is the best solution to eliminate the number of teenagers addicted to drugs, however the best solution to the problem is a combination of parents, school systems, and friends coming together and informing their teens. I. What is addiction? II. Many teenagers do not know the effects drugs and alcohol can have on their bodies. A.…

    • 1861 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays