Exam 8: Cocaine and the Amphetamines

Compare media attention paid to certain kinds of drug use over, say, the past century, and compare that paid to other drugs, then match the volume of each with respect to clear-cut harms-for instance, death by overdose. Consider that benzodiazepines (tranquilizers such as Valium) and antidepressants rank in the top five drugs that cause death by overdose, yet methamphetamine and amphetamine do not appear on this list at all (nor does marijuana). What do you think accounts for this discrepancy? Are all the reasons "constructionist" in nature-that is, not based on the objective harms of the drugs in question at all? Or are concrete, objectivistic reasons behind these discrepancies as well?

What are the factors that make cocaine as popular a drug as it is? What other factors do you think keep the appeal, and the use, of cocaine in check?

Which of the following countries are the origin of the plant from whose leaves cocaine is extracted?

Late in the nineteenth century, Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, wrote about and abused which of the following drugs?

Is cocaine addicting?

"Punding" is a common effect of taking amphetamines chronically and abusively. What is punding?

Another term for "ice" is:

The high or intoxication resulting from smoking crack cocaine is:

Why do you think the use of methamphetamine is as regionalized as it is? Why is use of meth so much higher on the West Coast than it is in the East? What factors or forces account for this extremely strong concentration with respect to geographic area of the country?