Topic: Addictive substances

Target group

High school / technical school student

Core curriculum

New core curriculum:

High school and technical high school. Chemistry – basic level:

XXI. Chemistry around us. Pupil:

4) include what they can rely on and what the healing and toxic properties of the substance depend on chemical (dose, water solubility, fragmentation, method of penetration into the body), e.g. aspirin, nicotine, ethanol (ethyl alcohol).

High school and technical high school. Chemistry – extended level:

XXI. Chemistry around us. Pupil:

4) include what they can rely on and what the healing and toxic properties of the substance depend on chemical (dose, water solubility, penetration into culture), e.g. aspirin, nicotine, ethanol (ethyl alcohol).

Old core curriculum:

High school and technical high school. Chemistry – basic level:

XXI. Chemistry around us. Pupil:

3) explains what they can depend on and what depends on the healing and toxic properties of chemical substances (dose, solubility in water, fineness, the way of penetration into the body) eg: aspirin, nicotine, ethanol (ethyl alcohol);
4) searches for information on the effects of ingredients of popular drugs (eg activated carbon, aspirin, agents that neutralize excess acid in the stomach).

General aim of education

The student discusses substance causing addiction

Key competences

• communication in foreign languages;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn.

Criteria for success
The student will learn:

• to explain the concept of addiction;

• to justify the harmful effects of alcohol in its abuse;

• to classify alcoholism into social diseases;

• to justify that smoking is an addiction harmful to health not only of the smoker himself;

• to discuss and justify ways to fight addictions.

Methods/techniques

• expository

  • talk.

• activating

  • discussion;

  • brainstorming.

• exposing

  • exposition.

• programmed

  • with computer;

  • with e‑textbook.

• practical

  • exercices concerned.

Forms of work

• individual activity;

• activity in pairs;

• activity in groups;

• collective activity.

Teaching aids

• e‑textbook;

• notebook and crayons/felt‑tip pens;

• interactive whiteboard, tablets/computers.

Lesson plan overview

Introduction

1. The teacher hands out Methodology Guide or green, yellow and red sheets of paper to the students to be used during the work based on a traffic light technique. He presents the aims of the lesson in the student's language on a multimedia presentation and discusses the criteria of success (aims of the lesson and success criteria can be send to students via e‑mail or posted on Facebook, so that students will be able to manage their portfolio).

2. The teacher together with the students determines the topic – based on the previously presented lesson aims – and then writes it on the interactive whiteboard/blackboard. Students write the topic in the notebook.

3. Health and safety – before starting the experiments, students familiarise themselves with the safety data sheets of the substances that will be used during the lesson. The teacher points out the need to be careful when working with them.

Realization

1. The teacher introduces students to the issue of addictions. He asks students: What is addiction? What substances are they causing and how do they work? Can it also be used to benefit people? During the brainstorming, the students give their suggestions, and the moderator writes them on the board. After the creative phase, ideas are verified. Among the answers should be stimulants, sedatives (depressants), change in the mode of receiving stimuli from the environment, hallucinations, pain relief, treatment of depression, harmful effects on health.

2. The teacher divides the class into three groups. They are so‑called expert groups. Each participant should become an expert who will significantly contribute to the success of the entire group. Each student performs as a learner and preacher.
   Each group gets a different issue to develop:
   Group I - ethyl alcohol (properties, detection, effects on the human body, alcoholism);
   II group - nicotine (components of cigarette smoke, effects on the human body and plants);
   Group III - drugs (concept, examples of psychoactive substances, symptoms after taking drugs, effects on the human body, afterburners).

3. Groups develop issues using the available sources of information. All students in the group are discussing, explaining each other unintelligible issues, learning.

4. Students create new groups on the agreed sign, so that each new group includes experts from all other groups. Experts report successively what they have learned in their original groups. Then they return to their original groups, confront the acquired knowledge, supplement it, check that everyone has learned the whole material. The teacher checks, completes and optionally explains unintelligible issues.

5. The teacher announces the film „Cigarette tar - the effect of smoking cigarettes”. Before watching the film, the students write down the research question and the hypothesis in the form in the abstract. After watching the movie, they write observations and conclusions in the form in an abstract.

6. Students perform an interactive exercise from the abstract.

Summary

1. The teacher asks the students to finish the following sentences:

   • Today I learned ...

   • I understood that …

   • It surprised me …

   • I found out ...

   The teacher can use the interactive whiteboard in the abstract or instruct students to work with it

Homework

1. Listen to the abstract recording at home. Pay attention to pronunciation, accent and intonation. Learn to pronounce the words learned during the lesson.

2. Write a short note about the topics covered in the lesson.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Addictive substances

All alcoholic beverages contain the same chemical – Ethyl alcohol, i.e. ethanol ${\text{C}}_{\text{2}}{\text{H}}_{\text{5}}\text{OH}\text{.}$ Consumed alcohol almost immediately gets into the blood – it is already absorbed in the mouth and penetrates very quickly through the gastrointestinal mucosa.

Alcoholic beverages have narcotic properties. The alcohol contained in them primarily attacks the nervous system and leads to poisoning of the body. As a result, the coordination of movement, speech, sensation and behaviour control is impaired. Consumption of alcohol for a long time causes permanent damage in the body and changes in the nervous system and other organs, such as the kidneys or liver.

The level (concentration) of alcohol in the blood is determined in per mils. The number of per mil (‰) indicates how many grams of alcohol is in one litre of blood tested.

The concentration of alcohol in the blood (determining the degree of intoxication) depends on the amount of ethanol consumed, body weight, sex, health status, and individual body characteristics. The lethal dose of alcohol for an adult is approximately 450–500 g of ethanol (approximately 1100g of vodka). Calculated per kilogram of body, it is about 6–8 g of alcohol for an adult and about 3 g for a child.

In the human body, ethanol undergoes metabolic processes. The human liver is able to oxidize 4–8 g alcohol/hour. Oxidation processes occur under the influence of enzymes, according to the scheme:

$\text{R–C}{\text{H}}_{\text{2}}\text{OH → R–CHO → R–COOH → C}{\text{O}}_{\text{2}}\text{+}{\text{H}}_{\text{2}}\text{O}$

Young organisms become particularly quick accustomed to alcohol, and its lack is felt as so‑called alcohol craving. People who abuse alcohol have learning difficulties because they suffer from memory impairment, problems with concentration and logical thinking. Systematic drinking of alcohol irreversibly damages the organs and tissues of the body, causing numerous diseases (liver cirrhosis, chronic inflammation of the pancreas, hypertension, heart rhythm disturbances, strokes, infertility or liver, oesophagus and larynx cancers). Frequent consumption of alcohol can lead to alcohol addiction (the World Health Organization recommends avoiding the term „alcoholism”, and instead recommends using the terms „alcohol addiction syndrome” or „alcohol addiction”).

Methyl alcohol (methanol) is more toxic than ethanol. Drinking it or absorbing its vapours through the respiratory tract shock the nervous system, causing blindness or even death. It was investigated that methyl alcohol is metabolized by humans at a rate 5 times lower than ethyl alcohol. After a single dose, its excretion through the kidneys and lungs lasts at least 4 days.

Methanol metabolism scheme:

$\text{C}{\text{H}}_{\text{3}}\text{–OH ⇆ HCHO ⇄ HCOOH}\stackrel{\text{very slow}}{\leftrightarrows }\text{C}{\text{O}}_{\text{2}}\text{+}{\text{H}}_{\text{2}}\text{O}$

Methanol metabolites (aldehyde and formic acid) directly damage cells, denature proteins, these also act on the nerves, especially the optic nerve. Toxicity therefore affects primarily the central nervous system, the optic nerve, as well as the kidneys, liver and heart. In the eye, apart from the optic nerve, retina and cornea are damaged. In addition, formic acid causes the formation of metabolic acidosis.

The first cigarette is usually accompanied by choking, headaches, nausea and even vomiting. However, despite this, some people reach for a cigarette for the second and third time – until the body itself signals the need for nicotine, because it was gradually used to it. There is an addiction, called nicotine addiction, which is extremely difficult at this stage to fight. After inhaling tobacco smoke, a huge amount of poisonous chemicals enters the body through the respiratory system, including nicotine, hydrogen sulphide, ammonia, methanol, carbon monoxide and carcinogenic tar substances as well as radioactive isotopes.

Nicotine inhaled during smoking narrows the blood vessels of the smoker, which after a long time leads to heart disease and the entire cardiovascular system. The lungs necessary for human life become less efficient. The complexion is destroyed, the teeth turn yellow, and the breath becomes stale. A complex mixture of compounds present in tobacco and tobacco smoke also increases the risk of many dangerous diseases development, including all types of cancer. About how strong poison is nicotine, testifies, among others its use as an insecticide in gardening. The LD Indeks dolny 50₅₀ is about 1--1.5 mg/kg of body weight.

Strong painkillers, and sometimes even drugs (such as morphine), are used by patients suffering from very painful diseases (e.g. cancer).

The drug user craves the effects these cause and needs regular and higher doses to get them. It is extremely difficult to quit the habit. Drugs change awareness and behaviour, causing depression, mental disorders and hallucinations; these are psychoactive.

Drug use results in irreversible changes in the psyche and the human body, causing permanent brain damage by substances considered to be drugs. General health deteriorates. Important vital functions, such as breathing or kidney work, are disturbed, which inevitably leads to death. The cause of these changes is permanent brain damage.

AIDS is particularly related to drug use.

There are many drugs commonly available (e.g. morphine, cocaine, amphetamine, LSD, mescaline, opium, heroin, hashish, marijuana, etc.), each in several forms (powder, pills, solution, joint).
Some drugs are obtained from plants (heroin, cocaine), others are synthesized (amphetamine, LSD).

• Chemical substances may affect the human body and cause the desired effect (medicines) and or act adversely - toxic (poisons).

• This is primarily determined by the dose of the substance and the way it penetrates the body (through the skin, respiratory system or digestive system). When using medication, it is very important to follow the doctor's instructions – take the right doses of the medicine and take it over a sufficiently long period of time.

• Stimulants are a group of substances that have no nutritional value, but are taken by people because of their stimulating effects on the nervous system. Long‑term administration can lead to addiction. Stimulants include, for example, alcohol, nicotine (from tobacco) and the most dangerous drugs and afterburners. Stimulants also include coffee, tea and energy drinks. All stimulants change (to a greater or lesser extent) the state of human consciousness.