Tune in to Hot 107.5 FM and listen closely. Count how many times a song played on this radio station refers to drugs? Which race is commonly known for listening to drug infested hip hop music? African Americans. The media is just the beginning of our war on drugs in my community. How can we express the negative effects of drugs when the media convey a different image? I believe my African American peers are unaware of the effects of substance abuse. In my clique, I'm the only one who chooses not to smoke marijuana, take pills, or drink skinny drinks. 1 in 3 of my friends who smoke marijuana, drink percocet, molly, or xanax, or use codeine have untreated mental illnesses such as anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, or bipolar disorder. How do drugs affect the African American population financially, physically and mentally? Say no to plagiarism. Get a Custom Essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay From my own experience with drugs, I noticed a change in my behavior after smoking medical marijuana in least three or four times a week. Many of my peers smoke three times a day; in the morning, afternoon and before bed. A large percentage of my classmates started smoking marijuana in college. In eighth grade, my middle school was drug raided because I was selling, smoking, and using marijuana on school grounds. Do medications decrease or increase stress, anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental illnesses? I was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder and moderate depression while I was in high school, at seventeen. I noticed some changes in my mental health after smoking marijuana more than once a month, such as slower response time, sky-high anxiety levels, and a lack of chatter like I was in high school. One of the major changes I've noticed is that I'm not able to handle stress well without wanting to self-medicate with medical marijuana. The slightest stress makes me want to light the next cone. Having a family history of addiction and mental health is an important part of your tolerance to drugs and alcohol. Being related to others who have developed an addiction and having suffered from mental health disorders yourself makes it very likely that you may develop an addictive personality. Contributions to an addictive personality can be a combination of family history, genetics, and environment (community, friends, etc.). My tolerance for alcohol and marijuana is extremely high due to family history of addiction and mental illness. Looking at the demographics of an African American community such as Detroit, Michigan, you will see a liquor store on every corner and at least one dispensary on every street. If you were to travel northwest to Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, you wouldn't find half the liquor stores or dispensaries you would in Detroit. Why are most dispensaries found in urban cities? African Americans have more access to medicine because dispensaries are your neighbors. Getting my medical marijuana card was an easier process than registering to vote. The majority of my male peers were in possession of illegal drugs and selling them to more thanpeople. My community doesn't know the signs of drug addiction because it's considered the norm to drink lean every weekend, take a percocet, and smoke marijuana. If you don't ride the wave of alcohol and marijuana, you're considered lame. Even if you were taught to say no to drugs, that's not what children learn from their peers or the media in today's society. If you claim to be addicted to marijuana, my community would find that hysterical. “It’s all in your head, you can’t be addicted to marijuana.” “This false claim has been circulating for generations before I was born. Too much of anything can be unhealthy. The use of marijuana is linked to addiction in which a person experiences withdrawal symptoms when not using it. It turns into an addiction when it interferes with your daily activities such as work, school, eating and sleeping. I am deeply invested in finding answers to my questions because I truly worry about my friends and family who continue to use drugs on a daily basis. I've been researching the effects of marijuana for two months now. Since I've had a few bad experiences smoking marijuana, I've been trying to learn more about its connection to mental illness, gum disease, bipolar disorder, etc. Unfortunately, there isn't much research on the effects of marijuana on your health. mind and your body. This really scares me because as Americans begin to vote on legalizing recreational marijuana in the upcoming election on November 6, 2018, we don't understand what it actually does to our minds and bodies. States like California, Colorado, Alaska, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Maine, Massachusetts, and Vermont, including the city of Washington DC, have legalized marijuana for recreational use. Nine states have legalized a substance that has not been tested on human subjects to determine its benefits or harms. However, I found a plethora of articles covering broader research that concerns drug addiction as a whole. I originally wanted to focus on the effects of marijuana in the African American community, but there were limited resources available for any one drug. To get to the heart of the research, it was necessary to research drug addiction as the subject rather than marijuana. Since there are not many scientific articles or books on the effects of marijuana in the Wayne State University library, I chose to use the Internet as my only source of information. There were pros and cons to using only the Internet because while I could find resources about drug addiction and marijuana use, the information provided could be erroneous and less than truthful. The first secondary source was included in my I-Search essay when I searched for "What are the effects of drug abuse in the African American community?" » in my Google search engine. This article focuses on the causes of substance abuse, including the multiple stressors prevalent among African Americans. Emily Guarnotta identifies the variety of drugs widely used in the community. She forgets to mention the use of pills like percocet, molly, xanax or codeine known as Lean. Guarnotta shows the symptoms of addiction and how African Americans are affected by drug addiction in the short and long term. The most interesting part of the article is about how to seek and pay for treatment, the obstacles African Americans face when.