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Grade 10: Understanding Drug Abuse and Social Justice

October 27, 2020

In the Academy class in the afternoon of October 22nd, the 10th Grade students went to the Lecture Hall to listen to a speech about drugs.

In the speech, the biology teacher Luis Portillo came on to the stage to teach the students the mechanisms of drug addiction and the history of drug laws in the United States.

First, Mr. Portillo told the story of his "drug use" in college, explaining the definition of drugs and telling students that there is no essential difference between sugar, caffeine, and heroin. This broadened the concept of drugs for students as students now know there are addictive drugs all around them. After that, Mr. Portillo introduced neurons, synapses, and neurotransmitters, and explained the four mechanisms of the drugs’ effects on the brain that lead to addiction. Finally, Mr. Portillo explained the history of American drug abuse and the discrimination against minorities. In the history of the United States, the proportion of people in the minority population that consume drugs was similar to that of the majority. When the condition that minorities have a smaller fraction in the overall population is considered, minorities should be arrested less for drug abuse. In reality, however, the number of minorities who went to prison because of drug abuse far exceeds that of the majority. This reflects certain deep-rooted discrimination in the American society.

This Academy class broadened the students' concept and knowledge of drug abuse and revealed the various discrimination that still alive in today's society, encouraging the students to stay healthy and become responsible global citizens.

（Written/ Pictures by Tiger Ding and Ilinna Qiao Supervised by Jialong Liu）