Substances

Project Part 2

Popular Sources (cigarette pack and recovery program website)

Document 1:

One of the most evident ways of being aware of the risk of substance addiction is the red flags society puts up directly onto the substance or the product. For example, cigarette packs have warning messages on the box, showing how physically harming smoking abuse, due to nicotine addiction, could be. Even though tobacco companies are against it, those warnings have been required by the government for many years. The information is directly on the pack so that it’s the first thing that the consumer sees before smoking. It is usually presented as a simple text-based message showing the risks of smoking, like “smoking kills slowly”. It can also be found as little paragraphs and even graphic images of the consequences smoking can have on our bodies. This type of information shows the physical effects that excessive smoking can have on human bodies; such as throat cancer, lung malfunctions, and heart diseases. An Australian warning message shows that 19,019 deaths were caused by tobacco during that year. Probability claims are often made in quantitative forms, but numbers and statistics can also be found on cigarette packs, as stated just above. It is presented as a high risk and as a warning: if you do this, here are the consequences that are related to it.

Document 2:

Specialists in substance addiction and doctors define the risks on this website describing the effects of addiction. They are based on research and actual cases, it seems like a respectable rehabilitation center that is an expert in dealing with drug or alcohol abuse. The information is presented on the website of the center as a list of the long-term effects of drug addiction, with a few short sentences to add information on each effect. There is also a Youtube video of Dr. Steven Batki explaining prescription drug addiction treatment. The specific risks that this institution is talking about are psychological and physical. They give out information on damage in the respiratory and cardiovascular systems. Stimulants like cocaine are particularly hard on the heart, causing damage every time they are used. This can lead to long-term heart disease, like heart failure. Injectable drugs like heroin can cause veins to collapse and even infections in blood vessels or the heart. Long-term drug use can also make the kidneys fail, which is life threatening. The reader is also informed about the effects that addiction can have on the brain: impaired cognitive function, memory loss, changes in brain connections and how it kills brain cells. Glutamate, a neurotransmitter, is easily affected by drugs and can therefore change how a person thinks while on drugs. They also present the risks of financial issues and relationship issues. The likelihood of those events to happen are not presented numerically, but the specialists say that there is an extreme chance of them happening.

Governmental Source

This information is found on the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, a governmental branch of the National Institutes of Health of the United States. This is a very reliable and safe source about

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