Life, Society, and Drugs

Victoria Hart
What have I learned in this class and how am I going to apply this information to my
future life?
Taking this course has taught me immensely about drugs and how it affects your life.
There are so many facts that shock me, and others I find extremely interesting. I know one thing
I will take away from this course, is to continue the way I live my life. I avoid any form of
drugs/alcohol because of how awful the outcome can be. When you get high or drunk youre
never fully aware of your surroundings, and do not have complete control of your thoughts or
actions.
The three main drugs I hear about throughout college are marijuana, hallucinogens, and
alcohol. Something I have learned is that college students (age 19-22) have smoked marijuana
46.6 percent ever in their life, 33.2 percent in the past year, and 19.4 percent in the past month.
(Levinthal, 2014, pg. 16) Something I found interesting was in 2011 there was 456,000 drugrelated emergency department visits in DAWN statistics that involved marijuana. Making it the
second highest category, behind cocaine. (Levinthal, 2014, pg. 173) A form of hallucinogens I
hear about often would be the Amanita muscaria mushroom. The effects can be lethal and lead to
muscular twitching and spasms, hallucinogens, dizziness, and aggressive behavior. (Levinthal,
2014, pg. 159) Alcohol consumption comes with a lot of consequences. You can produce three
different liver diseases: fatty liver, alcoholic hepatitis, and alcohol cirrhosis. What I found
interesting about cirrhosis is that it is ranked the twelfth leading cause of death in the United
States taking more than 27,000 lives a year. Also, I learned that nearly fifty percent of all cancers

are associated to heavy drinking. (Levinthal, 2014, pg. 227) I was surprised to read how many
lives are affected by drinking, and nearly fifty percent having the risk of cancer. These three
forms interested me the most because of how common they come up in my life. Whether its
through hearing family or friends stories, social media, or a television series, reading legitimate
facts has really helped me see how terrible they are mentally and physically.
I am so happy I took this course to learn so many facts about drugs and the effects that
come along with it. I was originally interested in this class because of how popular drugs are in
todays society to have knowledge of the different substances, but the main reason I took this
class is because I am interested in pursuing career as a social worker. Im not entirely sure on
what type of social worker, which is something I am still trying to find out, but learning different
ways it can have an effect on any individual, has the potential to help me, help them, later on in
life. I love caring and helping others, it brings me joy to bring the best out of people. I know I m
capable of becoming an excellent social worker.
Another way Im going to apply it to my life is to make sure my family knows these
facts as well. I this class would have been required in high school because of how informative it
is. I have younger siblings, cousins, and a niece and I would hate to see any of them experience
what these people have. I would want to make sure they have a full understanding of what the
effects are, short and long term. My family means the world to me, and I would want nothing but
their futures bright ahead of them, and not ever get peer pressured or give in to any substance of
using drugs. I have also informed some of my friends the different results it can have on them. I
want what is best for my friends, I would also hate to see those abusing drugs, get any form of
disease, cancer, etc. I hope for the same with my own family I will have some day.
Reference - Levinthal, C. (2014). Drugs, behavior, and modern society (8th ed.). Boston.