Department of Health and Community Services
HCSV
370-05 Drugs In Our Society
Instructor:
Dennis Hyde
Office Hours:
Thursday 9-11 AM
Office:
Phone: 898-4620
Email:
dhyde@csuchico.edu
Required
Textbook: Fields,
Richard (2007) Drugs in
Perspective. (6th ed.) McGraw Hill
Publications
Course
Description:
This course examines the use and abuse of
alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs and consequences for young adults, families,
and society. Historical, economic,
social, political, psychological, and pharmacological determinants of drug use
are considered. Decision-making skills
regarding drug use are also addressed.
HCSV 370 fulfills the requirements of the
General Education Upper Division Theme, Contemporary Health Issues, Area
D. You must have already completed 45
units in order for this course to count towards the theme. This course has a 1500 word writing requirement,
which is discussed below. All the
courses in this theme, including this one:
* address concepts of well being,
health, and disease;
* focus attention on how class,
ethnicity, and gender affect health;
* teach methods for
distinguishing hearsay from valid information;
* develop knowledge and shills
for making effective decisions that enhance health and
facilitate understanding of public policy; and
* address the impact of biology,
ethics, morality, politics, economics, and culture on
health, health care, and health policy.
Course
Objectives:
The student will be able to:
1. Outline the history of drug
use in the
2. Discuss the extent of use of
licit and illicit drugs within various populations in the United
States.
3.
Outline the cultural influences, including family, peers, and media, on
the use of selected
drugs.
4. Describe the nature and
characteristics of dependence and addiction.
5. List the major drug
classifications and their physiological effects.
6. Discuss the social, economic,
political, psychological, and pharmacological
consequences of drug misuse on
7. Evaluate current efforts to
control drug use and suggest alternative approaches.
8. Discuss the physiological, social, and
treatment aspect of alcohol and tobacco use.
9. List the major illicit drugs,
their prevalence, physiological effects, and treatment
strategies.
10. Discuss the effects of
maternal drug use on the fetus.
11. Discuss the major types of
prescription and over-the -counter drugs, their use and
misuse, the effects of medical advertising, and regulation.
12. Develop decision-making
skills regarding personal alcohol, tobacco and other drug
use, abstinence, responsible practices, alternative activities, and
positive uses of
drugs.
Student Responsibilities:
1.
Attendance: Missing more than two
(2) class meetings during the semester will possibly affect one’s grade for the
class the more misses the greater the
consequences
Attendance will be taken each class
meeting. Participation in class is
essential which is why attendance is so important. If an absence is discussed in advance and
approved by the instructor then that will not count as an excused absence.
2.
Academic Honesty: The faculty at
CSU,
3. This
class will be highly interactive because so many people have so many feelings
and thoughts about abuse and addiction.
This also can keep the class moving and interesting.
It is also important that disruptive behavior
not be tolerated. In addition
appropriate language used and respect of others students opinions, even though
different, is part of the learning, growing, and sharing environment. In essence, you will learn from each other as
well as the instructor.
4. If
discussed in advance because of some kind of emergency, then use of cell phone
is appropriate. Otherwise it is expected
that cell phones will be turned off.
5. Work
Load: Students should plan to devote 6
hours of outside work load per week for this class. Late papers will not be accepted unless arranged
with instructor in advance.
EVALUATION AND GRADING:
Midterm 100 points
Final exam 100 points
Term paper 100 points
2 Articles 50 points TOTAL OF 500 POINTS
What role paper 50 points
Class participation 50 points
Behavior change 50 points
Final Grades will be assigned on the following
basis:
93-100%=A
90-92%
=A-
87-89%
=B+
83-86% =B
80-82% =B-
77-79% =C+
73-76% =C
70-72% =C-
66-69% =D+
60-65%=D
<60% =F
ASSIGNMENTS:
1. What
Role Paper:
What role has chemicals (misuse, abuse,
dependency) played in your life paper.
This could be issues you are addressing currently or have addressed,
family members, friends that you care about, employers, neighbors, etc. You may have a family history of addiction or
abuse that you grew up with. Describe
the issues, chemicals, when started, what has happened, what are you or the
persons you have concerns or have been affected by doing to address the problem. Or they might not be addressing the problem
at all (denial).
What has been tried (treatment, 12-step
programs, religion, therapy, etc.)?
Include as much information as possible.
It could have been a stranger like a drunk driver that changed things for
you or a friend or family member.
Include different people as needed.
What is happening now if anything?
Be as thorough as possible. This
paper is only to be read by the instructor and will not be shared in class
unless desired.
2.
Behavior Change Paper.
Select an activity that you find difficult to
stop doing but have set goals to succeed in this area before. It would be most
valuable if you could refrain from this activity for a month to really feel
what happens when trying to change behaviors that have haunted you from the
past. But at least 2 weeks would be
necessary to get a good read and understanding of what the behavior means to
you.
Some examples of activities that you might
select include:
Reducing carbohydrates to a set number each day.
stop watching television, or keep to an hour a
day, or deliberately miss your favorite program.
refrain from drinking or using drugs
quit smoking for a month
commit to daily exercise to lose weight and feel
better about yourself.
let other people talk first so you become a
better listener
do not gamble for a month
refrain from dating for a month
You do not have to be right for a month. Winning becomes less important.
Agree to study for a certain amount of time each
day no matter what the distraction
Find something you obsess about and find ways to
distract the pattern to something else.
These are just some examples. You can find some of your own. Keep a daily diary of your success or
challenges and feelings you have during this experiment to help you write you
paper. Pick something that you genuinely
want to work on for your benefit.
Guidelines for writing your paper
1. Did
you succeed in refraining from the behavior?
If yes, how did that make you feel?
If you did not succeed how did that make you feel and what interfered
with success?
2. Did
your relationships with others change?
3. Did
talking to other students in the class who were also undergoing behavioral
changes help you resist the temptation to give up?
4. What
needs did the old behavior fulfill for you or you would not be doing them in
first place?
5. What
was most difficult part to change?
Easiest?
6. If you
succeeded or failed or partially succeeded what are your feelings about this
task and the challenge? Was it harder or
easier than expected?
7. Even
if you succeeded did you think about quitting?
What triggered those feelings?
8. Did
other people help you or make it more difficult by putting pressure on you?
9. What
was your strategy in addressing your challenge?
10. Were other people affected by your trying to
change these behaviors.
11. How
did this exercise make you feel about addicted people? Did you gain any insights into what it feels
like to have an addiction and how addicted people can best be helped to overcome
their dependency? Were you able to
identify any compulsive behaviors of your own?
This paper needs to be at least three pages in
length double spaced. It also needs to
be typed. For your information this
assignment was adapted from “Empathizing with Addicts” by Peter Finn, pp.
78-79. Teaching Ideas, Association for the Advancement of Health Education.
TERM PAPER:
This is a research paper. You may pick any topic of interest related to
the field of chemical dependency, addiction, drugs, treatment, enabling and
codependency to name a few. You can get
some ideas by perusing your textbook.
Even though it is an assignment for class you will learn more if you
pick a topic that genuinely interests you.
This paper needs to be typed and at least 10
pages in length. It also must have at
least three references that are from books, professional magazines, or journals
outside of the internet. You can include
internet materials as additional materials to support your report. We will go over this paper more completely in
class.
ARTICLES:
Students will write two papers on articles in
Drugs, Society, and Behavior (Annual Editions)
Students will form in groups of four and choose
two different articles from the manual.
Then each group will make a 15 minute presentation in class about the
article. One will write about the
history of the issue, pros and cons, research to support the issue, and
conclusions. This will allow you to stay
current with new material that is constantly evolving in the field.
APPROXIMATE CLASS SCHEDULE
WEEK NUMBER
1.
Introductions and overview of class
2.
Statistics and definitions
3.
Alcohol and other drugs
4.
Alcohol and other drugs
5 Alcohol
and other drugs
6. Family
Systems Theory
7.
Chemically dependent family systems
8.
Chemically dependent systems
9.
Midterm
10.
Codependency and enabling
11.
Treatment and Recovery
12.
Treatment and Recovery
13.
Thanksgiving vacation no class
14.
Social Policy/social control
15.
Articles presented in class
16. “Wave
of Addiction” Video
17 Final
exam: December 18, 2007
This schedule may vary depending on the pace of learning within the class but is at least an approximate schedule.