Page #1
Respond to the following questions after viewing the National Geographic video entitled “The World’s Most Dangerous Drug” (45min long) at the following link:
https://topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-worlds-most-dangerous-drug/
NOTE: This video contains graphic content, including physical injuries and violence.
1. According to the video, how long is the high experienced by most methamphetamine users?
2. Which region of the United States was hit first with methamphetamine abuse?
3. What percentage of property crimes and identity theft crimes in Oregon are attributed to methamphetamine users?
4. Describe your reaction to the “Faces of Meth” segment of this film.
5. How did the meth user featured in the film describe his meth intoxication/high?
6. According to the video, what causes “meth mouth?”
7. “Meth combines the hyperactivity of _______ with the delusions of _______.” (Fill in the blanks.)
8. How was methamphetamine used during WWII?
9. What is ya ba, and why is it used?
10. Where did the name “crank” come from?
11. What percentage of meth users relapses after treatment?
Page #2
Botany of Desire film segment (start from 15:57 mark at link below, watch until the end)
1. “Cannabis recognized that this [ability to intoxicate humans] was its path to world domination.” – Michael Pollan
What did Pollan mean by this anthropomorphic statement?
2. “Human beings are born with an innate drive to experience other states of consciousness, periodically.”
– Andrew Weil
Do you agree that this desire for intoxication is a universal human trait?
3. Pollan and others in the film allude to the cultural variation with respect to the acceptability of intoxicants, such that the same drug can be celebrated in one culture and taboo in another. What, do you think, is the cause for this variation?
4. Describe the origin of the term “marijuana” as portrayed in the film.
5. Contrast the cognitive symptoms of marijuana intoxication (described during the black-and-white clip in The Botany of Desire) with those of other drugs discussed thus far in HE-160.
6. How did the spraying of paraquat in Mexico in the late 1970s – early 1980s influence the cannabis market in the United States?
7. Describe the rationale behind the cross-breeding of C.sativa and C.indica.
8. How do commercial growers accelerate the production of cannabis resin?
9. What did Raphael Mechoulam discover in a Jerusalem lab in 1964?
10. Describe the implications suggested in the film of the discovery of anandamide in 1992.
11. What do you make of the Amsterdam cannabis shop depicted in the film?
