Drug addiction can be a part of daily life. You may be addicted right now! It is likely that you use either nicotine or caffeine in your daily life. Choose one of these and document how this drug fits into your life. If you use one of these, you are required to track it so that you are able to use the provided charts. If you use neither, you may track your consumption of sugar, though this might require a bit more ‘homework’ to acquire the additional data on the sugar content of your consumed products. If none of these substance options work for you, please contact me for an alternative.
Your task: Track your consumption of nicotine/caffeine for three days: Monday, 2/19, Tuesday, 2/20, and Wednesday, 2/21. Record the time of your use and the amount you consume. The following websites have charts documenting the nicotine/caffeine content of various products. I have also attached a caffeine chart.
Nicotine: https://www.govtlab.gov.hk/english/pub_tnrpt.htm
Caffeine: http://www.cspinet.org/new/cafchart.htm
After the three days are up, refrain from using nicotine/caffeine for 48 hours (Thursday, 2/22 & Friday, 2/23). Document any withdrawal symptoms you may experience and the types of support you have during this time (emotional support from friends/family, use of other drugs to relieve symptoms). Take careful notes about your physical and mental health. Try not to relapse, but if you do, describe the context surrounding the relapse—physical withdrawal symptoms at time of relapse, social setting, time of day, etc.
The report: The data should be collected such that you could write up the results for a scientific report. Develop an appropriate strategy for documenting your data and keep careful records of your progress over the duration of the experiment.
This report is due to Blackboard by the end of Module 6. (If it works better for your schedule to start tracking on Wednesday, so that you are abstaining on the weekend, you may do this as long as you note it in your data record and still submit by the end of the day on Sunday.).