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Psychology
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Topic:

Medical Benefits and Disadvantages of Using Cocaine. Health & Medicine

Essay Instructions:

CPSY607: Drugs and Human Behaviour Term Paper Guidelines

Term Paper: A 5-8 page (double-spaced, 12-point font; 1-inch margins) critical evaluation addressing 2 or more sides of a current debate or controversy involving recreational or medicinal drug use; 35% of the total course mark

 

In line with the focus of the course, please ensure your topic is related to psychoactive drugs (i.e., NOT antibiotics, anti-cancer drugs, blood thinners etc.).

 

The essay is neither a report (i.e., no point form) nor a literature survey (i.e., exhaustive coverage of an issue). Rather it is designed to promote a critical analysis of more than one side of a current debate or unresolved question using selected journal articles and chapters in edited texts.* Apart from this requirement, the topic of the essay is up to you.

 

 The PubMed database http://www(dot)ncbi(dot)nlm(dot)nih(dot)gov/pubmed provides abstracts of articles from peerreviewed scientific journals. This is an excellent resource that you can use to find relevant information for your assignment (i.e., use key words - author, topic, title - to search published scientific abstracts).

Google Scholar (not Google) https://scholar(dot)google(dot)ca/ is another resource you can use for more socially-oriented articles that do not appear in PubMed.

 

 In many cases, the abstract will suffice for reporting a key finding or assertion. You may only need the full article in one or two cases (e.g., to describe research methodology or a particular sample of research participants). Students should restrict their sources to articles or books listed on these 2 websites to ensure that they are legitimate peer-reviewed publications.

 

*You should plan to read and incorporate a minimum of 5 journal articles or published chapters; there is no maximum number of articles but I would advise against using more than 20. Information from Internet web-sites, unlike journal articles, is not subject to peer review and therefore may be invalid. Accordingly, I will only allow such information to be used to amplify a particular point but not to support the foundation of an argument.

 

When reporting a research finding, cite the author(s) and year of the publication immediately after you state the finding in the body of your paper, "…some investigators have suggested that knowledge is less important than the belief that you are knowledgeable (Smith, Jones, & Brown, 2000)." Then provide full citation in the Bibliography/Reference section at the end of the essay:

 

Smith, B. D., Jones, R. F., & Brown, Y. A. (2000). How to succeed in college without really trying.              Journal of Fictitious Data, 21, 355-364.

 

 

ALL information that is not your own MUST be cited. In cases where a direct quote is used, the page reference must also be given. E.g., "Knowledge is no more valuable than the conviction one has in the veracity of that knowledge" (Smith, Jones, & Brown, 2000, p. 318)

Please use APA format for citations and references (you do NOT need to submit an Abstract or apply other aspects of APA format. https://apaformat(dot)org/apa-website-citation/

 

Marking criteria： 

1) Relevance and Accuracy of Information (30 marks)

2) Strength of Argument: Based on the Information What Do You Conclude? (20 marks)

3) Demonstrated Understanding of Basic Concepts (20 marks)

4) Organization / Form / Style (20 marks)

5) Originality/ Creativity (10 marks)

Essay Sample Content Preview:

Medical Benefits and Disadvantages of Using Cocaine
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

Medical Benefits and Disadvantages of Using Cocaine
Cocaine is a chemical that occurs naturally from a coca plant or Exythroxylum coca. In most cases, when people mention cocaine, common thoughts are the adverse consequences of addiction and misuse. The drug is highly abused in the streets, and many individuals rarely discuss its medical uses. Although cocaine is a prominent illicit drug, it has numerous legitimate uses. In particular, it acts as a vasoconstriction agent and valuable local anesthetic. Before the drug was banned in 1922, some people, such as indigenous Peruvians, used it in religious ceremonies. Sigmund Freud, a renowned neurologist and psychoanalyst, used cocaine at some point his life and admitted that it cured sexual impotence and depression. Although at that particular time, there was no evidence to show the medical benefits of cocaine, some users admitted that it was helpful. However, when this drug gained popularity in the United States of America (USA) in the 1900s, the number of deaths associated with it increased rapidly. Since the drug enabled users to overcome depression, people used it any time they were stressful, which made the majority of them to be addicted. As a schedule II drug, cocaine is highly addictive and impacts the nervous system directly. For this reason, the primary focus of the paper is on the medical benefits and overall disadvantages of using cocaine.
Cocaine is used by people across different age groups in the USA. Additionally, users come from different cultures and ethnicities. In 2012, a report by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) indicated that approximately 4.7 million individuals with over twelve years admitted using the drug at least once in their life. In particular, the research found out that white people have a high likelihood of using the drug as compared to Hispanic and Black individuals. The percentages of the White, Hispanic, and Black users were 16.9%, 11.6%, and 9.7%, respectively (Palamar et al., 2015). Adults with ages between 18 and 35 years are the ones who are likely to abuse cocaine. During this age group, individuals are independent and employed, which is the reason why they can use their money to buy anything they want without restriction from anyone. A report by the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) indicates that around 968,000 individuals aged 12 years and above started using cocaine in 2015 in the USA. Indeed, this was a 26% increase as compared to the new cocaine users in 2014. Many people use this psychoactive substance for their first time when they are in colleges or universities. As the number of cocaine users continued to rise, cocaine-related deaths also increased gradually. For example, in 2012, there were about 4,400 deaths, 2013 had 4,900, 2014 had 5,400, and 2015 had 6,800 (Hughes, Williams, Lipari, & Horn, 2016). Consequently, young adults have a high likelihood of using cocaine since they are curious to try numerous types of drugs due to peer pressure.
Cocaine has several medical benefits even though it is an illegal drug, which is banned in the USA. Specifically, doctors use cocaine to block...
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