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Ivan Madrigal

Professor Paul Roberts

Health 1050

23 November 2019

Reflection on HLTH 1050 – Life, Society, and Drugs

Salt Lake Community College

I took this course during the Fall Semester of 2019. It fulfilled a requirement I needed

that covered an international/global study field. I was genuinely interested in learning how drugs

impact our society because of the role and influence drugs have had on my family. My family

immigrated from Colombia to Utah when I was two years old, and I have been told that the

dangers that the Drug Cartels imposed on us was part of the reason my parents decided to raise

my sisters and I in Utah. The other primary way drugs have been impacting my family recently is

the struggle my brother-in-law has been having with a long addiction to heroin and perception

opiates. I hate to see the negative effect to my sister’s young family and her husband is a really

good man but has not been able to rid himself of the destructive disease for years. This course

helped me understand more about addiction and how prevalent and infused drugs are in our

current world. The course was divided up into six modules covering different drug topics from a

global view, and below I will review each of them along with my biggest take-aways.

Mexican and South American Drug Cartels. I found this module the most interesting personally

because of how I have stated, the history of the Colombian Drug Cartels played a big role in my

family’s history. Both sides of my family were directly impacted by the Medellin Cartel’s power

and greed. The examples I gave in previous assignments was that of the experiences my

grandfathers had. One of them was a Judge and was under constant threat to not rule against or
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even take cases against the traffickers. We learned in this module of the extent the Cartel were

willing to go to, to enforce their will. In the Book Critique about the Medellin Cartel I did, I

learned how they even played a role in an attack on the Colombia’s supreme court that resulted

in more that half of the deaths of the court justices.

The violence associated with drug trafficking continues today. We watched news reports

about the drug trade in Mexico. The traffickers never fail to come up with new way to smuggle

their product. We watched them pack door panels in cars and build long intricate tunnels that

cross the southern border.

Heroin and Opiates. Opiates and the other synthetic forms of it I think are the most dangerous

from a single use aspect. We learned about how common overdoes are becoming and that it is

often life threating. User can become more and more tolerant, which leads to more danger

because they start using higher dosages to chase the high.

Amphetamines and Cocaine. Fueled by the South American Drug Cartels, cocaine flooded the

American market to the point that it was recognized as an epidemic in the 80’s. There are no

concrete numbers but is well known that billions of dollars flowed for the U.S. to the traffickers.

I believe cocaine was the start of the party drug fad than continues today.

Marijuana. Of the drugs we studied, marijuana appears to have the least long-term dangers. It is

widely used now for medical purposes, and the users claim relief from ailments but there is

lacking evidence of its effectiveness. Most states now have legalized the CBD medical marijuana

and stores have begun to pop up even here in Utah.

Tobacco. I learned that tobacco has been around for a long time and was used by natives for

ceremonial purposes and sometimes in their medicine. Cigarette use has become very common,
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but the decades of research on the long-term effects has led many countries to outlaw tobacco

marketing, especially to the youth. A relatively new trend and product in the tobacco industry is

e-cigarettes. They are thought to be less dangerous than traditional cigarettes, but the long-term

effects need to be studied more.

Alcohol. I believe alcohol has the most damaging effects social and otherwise to young teens and

adults in this county today. The other drugs we learned about may be more dangerous in a single

use, but none of them save tobacco have proven to become as common and widespread in our

society and around the world. Even with evidence of the dangers, the youth seem to fail to grasp

just how dangerous and destructive the road can be of alcohol abuse.

Conclusion

I learned a lot in the course about the history and the current state of drug use in our society and

on a global scale. This course was unlike any have taken before because almost all of them did

not focus on current events as this one did. I have decided to never use drugs when at all

possible, but it is still important understand drug use because of how incorporated it has become

in our society. What I learned in this course has confirmed me decision to not use drugs and has

informed me more to understand why people are led to abuse drugs.