1) Written comprehension

1 The main characteristic of addiction is the compulsive use of the substance despite harmful
consequence.

2 An addiction start when people have an intense focus on using a certain substance(s).

3 Tolerance means that people with addiction needs a larger amount of drugs to feel the effects.

4 Because peer pressure cause people to do things they would not have done otherwise because they try
to fit in the group or try to gain the attention of a group.

5 Because the recovery can be hindered when a person denies having a problem and lacks
understanding about substance misuse and addiction.

6 The most common treatment is a combination of medication and individual or group therapy.

7 The DSM-5 shows that gambling disorder is similar to substance-related disorder (such as marijuana)
in many ways.

Words related to addiction

Substance
Disorder
Cravings
Intoxication
Tolerance
Withdrawal
Treatment

B) Five facts about drugs

1 I didn’t know that women were more sensitive to cocaine than men and the fact that it’s because of
this hormone call estradiol and that the cocaine is using it leading to greater euphoria is surprising.

2 I find it surprising that the US Drug and Enforcment Administration only ‘’warned’’ the drug, even
though there has already been overdoses and they knew it could be lethal.
3 It’s awful that doctors would rather choose profit over the patient health, leading to so many death
and addiction.

4 The relation between the life and employement and addiction/drug is really interesting because it
really shows how important a ‘’great condition’’ is.

5 This article was really interesting because it reminded me of a friend who is alcoholic and that we are
currently helping, when we first meet he would have already drink before meeting because he couldn’t
talk to strangers without it etc.

Vocabulary :

-Brain’s reward system : It’s a group of neural structures responible for feeling desire, wanting and
craving for a reward

-Prince self-administrated fentanyl : Prince himself took the fentanyl without (medical) assistance

-Legal narcotics : It’s a drug that is legalised to sell and to use but can cause addiction

-Another drug epidemic is afoot : because of socioeconomics’ problem happening in our society,
leading to more poor people, there will be more people touch by drugs and addiction

-One symptom may snowball into another : One symptom could possibly lead to another one by
escalating/ worsening

2) Oral comprehension

1) THC stands for tetrahydrocannabinol, it’s the psychoactive component of marijuana, responsible for
‘’the high’’ people feel

2) Functional and structural changes in human brain

Factors : chronic drug exposure

3) There’s an increase in the volume and density of grey matter in the Nucleus Accumbens and
Amygdala of marijuana users’ compared to non-users’. There also was a change of the Nucleus
Accumbens in the marijuana users’.

4) It’s a group neural structures responsible to ‘’make us feel good’’

5) Irreversible structural changes that prime the brain for addiction.

B) Testimony crack cocaine addiction

1) The speaker’s family background was that of a one mother family, the speaker’s was abused in a lot
of way and her mother had a mental illness and it was mostly a poor background
2) She thought that something was wrong with her

3) Marijuana really started her addiction

4) Simply terrible

5) She was ready to commit suicide