RJA #12

“Fighting Substance Abuse.” The Columbian Electronic Encyclopedia. 6th ed. 2007. Infoplease. Web. 15 Apr. 2010.

This source is an encyclopedia that I found online that gave me some information on strategies to stop drug abuse in America. It didn't focus on a certain group, just dugs in general. The strategies it came up with were supply and demand for the solution. Supply meaning shorting the supply of drugs that are here, so that they are more expensive and people have less access to them. Demand was reduction involved in education and treatment. Things that they included as examples were more treatment centers, stricter laws on drug possession, and more education in schools.

Arneson, David, and Drug Policy Education Group. “Methadone Withdrawal.” Drug Policy Education Group. 25 Mar. 2005. Web. 15. Apr. 2010.

This source was written by doctor who gave a ton of information on methadone. He talked about the signs and symptoms of how addictive the drug is and treatment options for someone hooked on methadone. He went into detail about what chemicals are in the drug and how it is given to heroin addicts to wing them off of heroin which results in becoming addicted to another drug. In my paper I used this source to state how terrible the withdrawals are compared to nicotine in my argument. This source reveals the truth about methadone treatment centers and which ones are actually worth going to for the prices that people offer these days.

Perry, Jennifer L., and Marilyn E. Carroll. "The Role of Impulsive Behavior in Drug Abuse." Psychopharmacology 200 (2008): 1-26. Web. 14 Apr. 2010.

This source is a journal that comes from psychopharmacology. It talked about how impulsive behavior can result in drug abuse and how teens who show impulsive behavior are at risk for abusing substances. They did experiments to back up their results and the journal was written as a study including the analysis of the study and the conclusion that revealed the impulsive behavior results. They focused on two tasks that resulted in impulsive behavior for their measurement which were impulsive choice (delay discounting task) and inhibitory failure (go/no-go, stop signal reaction time, and five-choice serial reaction time tasks.

Dell, Kristina. "Inside the Adolescent Brain." Academic Search Premier. EBSCO, 10 May 2004. Web. 14 Apr. 2010.

This source gave information on parts of the brains that teens use. They compare what parts are commonly used in adults and which ones teens use in thinking. The adolescent brain isn't fully developed compared to an adult brain which shows different characteristics between the two on how they think and act. The brain of a teen uses the amygdala more than the adult, which results in impulsive behavior during emotional times. The adults rely more on the pre frontal cortex which isn't dully developed in the teen. The knowledge this source had on the parts of the brain made it easy to put it in my paper. It broke it down into small paragraphs for each part.

The National Institute of Drug Abuse. "Facts about the Effects of Marijuana for Teens."

Web. 13 Apr. 2010

This source had facts about Marijuana and what it does to the body, or how it works. It revealed common myths that you hear about this drug that teen's might believe and then shows the real information. It focused on one drug, and gave statistics of actually how many teens abuse it. This is the most commonly abused substance other than alcohol. These days teens believe anything, so if someone were to say that the substance isn't addictive it could put the teen in danger once they become dependent on it.

Pinsky, Drew. “Season 3: Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew.” Prod. White Duncan. VH1.

Television

This source gave a real life cap of how addictive drugs are and how it ruined the lives of these people on the show getting help. Most of them that got interviewed on this show had adolescent trauma which could by underlying their addiction. They talk about their problems and reveal parts of their life to Dr. Drew and how addiction has impacted their life. The people on this show are well-known celebrities which is surprising to some. The two participants interviews that I watched were Mackenzie and Lisa.