Summary

A week founded on statistics may seem a little dry, but this provides a great foundation for next week. This week we have learnt that consumption of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs is a major cause of preventable health and social harms. Whilst governments and mainstream media often focus their attention on illicit drugs, we have seen that it is actually, alcohol, tobacco and pharmaceutical drugs that are causing the majority of harm.

In week two we will examine various definitions of addiction, uncovered some basic knowledge about the physiological and psychological aspects of addiction and explore the concept of tolerance and withdrawal.

Discussion

As we discovered this week, substance abuse leads to a wide range of health, social and economic concerns. Were there any facts that surprised you this week?