Baelyn Rackley

Professor: Paul Roberts

Hlth 1050

August 2, 2022

Reflection Paper

When I first decided to register for this class I had to scroll through a number of

options for a health class, however for some reason this one stood out to me. First

initially coming into this class I was not sure what to expect and what the dynamic of

topics and conversations we would be having. This class brough a very interesting

informative approach into a topic that a lot of the time is talked about in negative light

when analized, however by not giving an opinion on this class it really allowed me to

take a step back and think of things in a way that was new to me. Within this class we

focused on 6 main substances which I though were all the most prevalent within society

and within each of those categories we were able to see how they work, the history of

these substances and also how they are affecting our society today.

There was numerous things that stuck with me throughout this course however I

think that the thing that I hold on to the most would be the module about medical

marajuana. After reading though and watching the vidoes within this module it was very

interesting to see how the substance actually worked, and how it got its relevance within

the United states. This drug flourished in cartels and for most was the main focus for

cultivation and distribution. However this drug has been governmentaly regulated within

the united states and even leagalized allowing people and dispensaries to grow and sell

weed. Thus creating the shift in cartels intrests in producing marajuana. Marajuana
once a stigmatized “Gateway” drug has now become something that we see being

prescribed by doctors to treat health conditions. The most memarable vidoe i can recall

in this class wuld be the video of young charlotte and how they were able to jurasticaly

improve her quality of life by the simple use of a plant.

This is a very real thing for me, i deal with this in my everyday life. I have a

girlfriend with numerous chronic illness such as POTS, EDS, and Compression

syndroms and with these health conditions she has severe chronic daily pain. She has a

couple options to deal with this problem, 1 being to when this pain is badd enough take

pain pills to regulate the pain and 2 being ingesting weed. She has been using

marajuana for roughly a year and has said that this has drastically improved her quality

of life and has helped her rugulate pain in a more sustainable maner. She is my

inspiration and is the strongest woman I know.

The societal problems society has v=faced regarding drugs has had huge affects

around the world. This being said of the the things that ties into my economic classes is

how the power of cartels and drugs can influence ecomomics. Drugs have an huge

impact on the manufacture, distributor and also the consumer, so it coems as no

surprise the power that these substances hold. A great example of this is the country

Columbia. This country is known for its cocain production and the rise of the famous

cartel leader Pablo Escobar, thia country is mainly a poverty stricken country that also

has uncontrollably high crime rates. The cartel infultrated this country and has taken

control of the economics, this includes controlling the police, controlling distribution in

and out of the country and most of all it has allowed for people to think that the cartel is

an opportunity to make money and in their eyes it is better for them to contribute to the
cause than help the cause. In ecomomics there is a lot of varables that can factor into

society such as job opportunity, in this country these people could make 5 dollars a day

doing honest work or they could trade their time for working with the cartel and come

home with 50 dollars a day. Not only this when people feelprotected by police and

stature of societial rules this enviroment is a very different place than some realiteis

where a lot of police forces are influenced by the cartel and have been known to help

and lie to protect the cartel.

This class has allowed me to take a deeper look into how big of a roll Drugs have

on society and just how prevalant they might be around me without me even knowing.

Going forward I will take the knowledge i have learned within this class and apply it

within my own life. I will take into consideration the health concequences of these

actions, and most importantly I think one of the main taek aways from this class is not

that drugs are bad but everything should be done in moderation.