Self-Analysis of a Drug Experience

Introduction

The nature and meaning of specific drug-taking experiences have a profound effect on drug users. It is the primary reason that people initiate and continue their drug taking. You are asked to identify and to analyze a particular drug-taking experience from your life, and to prepare a short paper discussing it.

Learning Activities

Select an interesting drug-taking experience from your own life; it can be medical or non-medical in nature (e.g., your first experience with a new medication; or experiences with nonprescription drugs or herbal remedies or your first experience with alcohol, tobacco, or other social-recreational drug; an unusual experience with a drug that produced effects, positive or negative, that you were not expecting, etc).
Describe in as much detail as possible the physical and mental effects that occurred during your experience, placing each effect in the time-order in which they occurred, your response to those effects, and the social or behavioral circumstances under which the experience transpired. Also, include information about the ritual and setting of use, dose, route of administration, and other pharmaceutical factors.
Speculate and discuss the sociological as well as the pharmacological aspects of this experience and what specific social factors influenced the effects that did occur.

Grading

This assignment will be graded on your depth of reflection, relevance, readability, and promptness. I am looking for unique and interesting expression of drug experiences, especially those to which you had a strong response (found it very positive, did not expect it and were surprised, found it negative, etc.) and, as a result, you definitely would or would not use the drug again, and you would have strong opinions about the drug in making recommendations to patients or others.