Candidate No.

Centre No.:140008

Ye a r o f e x a m i n a t i o n : 2 0 2 3

Te a c h e r : M r s . Y. G e o r g e

Subject: English

To p i c : D r u g s

Te r r i t o r y : S t . L u c i a
 Table of Contents
Plan of investigation 1

Artefact 1
2

Artefact 2 3

Artefact 3 4

Reflection 1 5

Reflection 2 6

Reflection 3 7

Written report 8
 Plan of investigation

I chose this topic with hopes of learning how drugs get the body addicted. This theme
attracted me especially as I consider becoming a drug rehab specialist, to help people
addicted to drugs and to guide them to a better and stable lifestyle. This topic interests me
as I want to be able to identify symptoms in my relatives and friends as many of my
family and friends have succumbed to drug abuse.

I hope to benefit from this, by improving my English data finding skills, analytical skills
and creative writing. Additionally, I hope to improve my vocabulary as well as my
English skills in general.

I plan on collecting data for a video, articles and an analysis on my topic by surfing
articles, newspapers and videos and going through lectures and articles to collect
sufficient data.

I will take advantage of my analytical and word skimming skills to find and piece
together data to write my reflections.
 1
Artefact #1

People with addiction lose control over their actions. They crave and seek out drugs, alcohol, or
other substances no matter what the cost—even at the risk of damaging friendships, hurting
family, or losing jobs. What is it about addiction that makes people behave in such destructive
ways? And why is it so hard to quit?

Current treatments can help people control their addictions. But even for those who’ve
successfully quit, there’s always a risk of the addiction returning, which is called relapse.

The biological basis of addiction helps to explain why people need much more than good
intentions or willpower to break their addictions.

Researchers have found that much of addiction’s power lies in its ability to hijack and even
destroy key brain regions that are meant to help us survive.

A healthy brain rewards healthy behaviors—like exercising, eating, or bonding with loved ones.
It does this by switching on brain circuits that make you feel wonderful, which then motivates
you to repeat those behaviors. In contrast, when you’re in danger, a healthy brain pushes your
body to react quickly with fear or alarm, so you’ll get out of harm’s way. If you’re tempted by
something questionable—like eating ice cream before dinner or buying things you can’t afford—
the front regions of your brain can help you decide if the consequences are worth the actions.

But when you’re becoming addicted to a substance, that normal hardwiring of helpful brain
processes can begin to work against you. Drugs or alcohol can hijack the pleasure/reward circuits
in your brain and hook you into wanting more and more. Addiction can also send your emotional
danger-sensing circuits into overdrive, making you feel anxious and stressed when you’re not
using the drugs or alcohol. At this stage, people often use drugs or alcohol to keep from feeling
bad rather than for their pleasurable effects.

To add to that, repeated use of drugs can damage the essential decision-making center at the
front of the brain. This area, known as the prefrontal cortex, is the very region that should help
you recognize the harms of using addictive substances.

“Brain imaging studies of people addicted to drugs or alcohol show decreased activity in this
frontal cortex,” says Dr. Nora Volkow, director of NIH’s National Institute on Drug Abuse.
“When the frontal cortex isn’t working properly, people can’t make the decision to stop taking
the drug—even if they realize the price of taking that drug may be extremely high, and they
might lose custody of their children or end up in jail. Nonetheless, they take it.”
Scientists don’t yet understand why some people become addicted while others don’t. Addiction
tends to run in families, and certain types of genes have been linked to different forms of
addiction. But not all members of an affected family are necessarily prone to addiction. “As with
heart disease or diabetes, there’s no one gene that makes you vulnerable,” Koob says. -
National Institutes of Health article on addiction

Artefact #2

Science Behind addiction

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPeTbDnO09A

Heroin binds and activates opioid receptors in the brain. Opioid receptor activation is
associated with the increased dopamine release within the brain reward center, leading to
a euphoric sensation.

What makes it so dangerous?

-High risk of respiratory depression which could lead to overdose
-Some adults rant or "cutting"  agents dont dissolve completely in the injection solution
which can lead to serious health problems

How long does it take to get addicted?

-The surge of euphoria experience d from using heroin, especially via injection, can be
powerfully reinforcing, driving people to use it again and again.
-This repeated use can quickly lead to physical dependency and eventually addiction.

Effects of heroin on the body

Brain: Injury caused by lack of oxygen due to respiratory arrest and lowered breath rate.

Heart: Infection of heart lining and valves (needle use)

Respiratory: Pneumonia (when smoked) Nasal passage irritation and nasal septum
injury(when snorted)

Circulatory: Chronic vascular inflammation, collapsed veins (needle)

Liver: Increased risk of hepatitis (needle)

 -American Addiction Centers

ARTEFACT #3

Addiction is a chronic disease characterized by drug seeking and use that is compulsive,
or difficult to control, despite harmful consequences. The initial decision to take drugs is
voluntary for most people, but repeated drug use can lead to brain changes that challenge
an addicted person’s self-control and interfere with their ability to resist intense urges to
take drugs.

These brain changes can be persistent, which is why drug addiction is considered a
"relapsing" disease—people in recovery from drug use disorders are at increased risk for
returning to drug use even after years of not taking the drug.

It's common for a person to relapse, but relapse doesn't mean that treatment doesn’t work.
As with other chronic health conditions, treatment should be ongoing and should be
adjusted based on how the patient responds. Treatment plans need to be reviewed often
and modified to fit the patient’s changing needs.
4
 5

Reflection 2

“How the body becomes addicted to drugs” makes use of a rsearch evidence in the line
“Researchers have found that much of addictions power lies in it ability to hijack and even
destroy key brain regions that are meant to help is survive”. This is effective in solidifying its
credibility and legitimacy of the information presented on the effects of drugs on the body.

The video ‘Science behind addiction: Heroin’ makes use of a list to quickly summarize
the effects on the organs of the body due to drug abuse. This is effective in bringing information
to the viewer without the use of long, overbearing paragraphs and jumbled sentences.
 6

Reflection 3

The SBA helped me improve in many ways. It helped me to improve my ability to reflect on
previous actions and mistakes and learn form them.

By working on the SBA, it helped me to become more tolerant and learn self control. It has
helped me better my communication skills, so that I can better my communication skills, so that I
can cooperate with my group members.

Working on this SBA made me learn time management, which helped to improve my
productivity. My confidence also increased as a result of having to present my personal response
to my peers.
 7

Written report

The theme for this group is drugs. From this 4 subtopics were chosen: “Signs and symptoms of teenage
drug abuse”, “Effects of marijuana on the body”, “Negative effects of pharmaceutical drugs.” And, “How
the body becomes addicted to drugs.” The number of artefacts added up to 12. The titles of the 3 chosen
artefacts are “Effects of cannabis on your body; “Drug abuse” and “How the body becomes addicted to
drugs.” The decision to choose these three was unanimous.

The article “How the body becomes addicted to drugs(2018) written by the National Institute of Health’s
main states that drugs are able to affect the brain and get you addicted. We learnt how easily drugs are
able to affect the brain and should be cautious of drugs.

In the video “Effects of cannabis on the body made by the Medical Centre, the main idea is that
cannabis has various negative effects on the organs and systems of the body. We learned that cannabis
has short and long effects.

In the poem "All My Friends That are Left" written by Jon Klain, the main idea is the loneliness and
mental instability that can accompany the use of drugs. We learnt that drugs can and will destroy you
mentally.

Meetings were held every Tuesday night at approximately 8pm to discuss and give feedback on our
respective SBA’s. Time was taken to reflect upon information gathered to write our reflections. One
group member was responsible for editing and constructing the written repor.
Oral Presentation