Welcome to week 2 of Drug Use, Abuse, and Trafficking.

This week you are required to read Zilney, “Chapter 1: Framing Drugs and Their Use.” (I have provided you with a copy of Zilney’s textbook, in PDF, from our homepage. I recommend you download and print the chapters you are required to read. Take me seriously on this point, please: like it or not all of us read differently when there is a physical copy of text in front of us.) I highly recommend you download and print a copy of Zilney’s Table of Contents and the Index to her book.

On Wednesday, I will release the discussion board to you. I release the work for the week on Wednesdays. This is to get you into the habit of reading first and doing the work for the class after you have done the reading.

You can prepare for this week’s discussion board in a number of ways:

1. Do the reading required for the week.

2. In this particular week think about what “framing” an issue means. Also, why don’t you look up the Rashomon effect? Try to think about how the issues of drug use, abuse, and trafficking are “framed.” Ask yourself questions about how the issue of “drugs” (whatever that word means to you) has been framed for you. What effects has that framing had on you? When you think of “drugs” are you thinking about “caffeine”? If so, why? If not, why not?

In a related note, how do you think of Rashomon? Do you recognize that the only common fact among the divergent stories is that the man died? Or, do you immediately fall into the trap of thinking that the film is a whodunnit and that Tajomaru murdered the man? Or that the man committed suicide? (Neither of these two possibilities are facts. Rather they are interpretations of the man’s death.)

3. Read the Sway webpage on the requirements for Writing a Discussion Board. (Print this out!)

4. Read the rubric I will use to grade the discussion board. (Print this out!)

5. The discussion board prompt will be released to you here on Wednesday before 12pm MT.

If you are on the UTEP campus consider cominmg to my office hours for this week: Tuesdays from 2pm to 4pm in BEN 304. You can also meet with me virtually via Zoom during the same time period — just send me an email to let me know that you want to meet via Zoom. The Zoom link is at the bottom of this Blackboard page.