Drugs

These often illicit substances come in a variety of shapes and sizes. They can both cure us and kill us in the same breath. Popping pills can ease our pain, but one can get hooked, as some meds are heavily addictive. They can cause cravings, and even breed killer kingpins who commit crimes in the ugly underworld. Say hello to my little friend. We’ll take a look at legal and illegal drugs on this week’s episode of FYI.

Transcript

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FBI open up these often illicit substances come in a variety of shap shapes and sizes they can both cure us and kill us in the same breath popping pills can ease our pain but one can get hooked as some meds are heavily addictive they can cause cravings and even breed killer kingpins who commit crimes in the ugly underworld sh to my little friend you want to play us okay we'll take a look at legal and illegal drugs on this week's episode of FYI welcome to for your info English you got it you got[Applause][Music][Applause] it[Applause][Music] hello hello hello and welcome to this another exciting edition of FYI for your English this is a show where we take a look at a topic every week and we delve into it so just remember if you have any ideas for upcoming topics drop me a line I'm really easy to find in fact you can find my website I'll Al Berto alons so.com really easyy name.com and there you can find my YouTube page you can find everything you need Twitter or X as it's called now and you'll have links to all of my podcasts past and present I have a podcast on Amazon audible exclusively if you guys are Amazon Prime subscribers or you have Audible then you should listen to the show it's called this show is the milk and it's based on my bestselling books this book is the milk and this book is the milk too available wherever fine books are sold that's the way they've been saying it since I was a little kid it's funny how we learn things from our environment and my daughter shows me that every day which reminds me I have a section with my daughter on my daily radio show as well it's called learn with Lara and it's a weekly section the radio show is called The Show With No Name name in case you haven't discovered it yet again you'll find all the information at my website which is Alberto Alonso docomo and speaking of my daughter she loves coming into the studio with me so I recruited her once again and this is a little audio it's of my mother and my daughter congratulating you congratulating the FYI and myself on reaching 600,000 downloads hey Alberto it's your mother just wanted to say congrats on 600,000 downloads we're very proud of you yeah congrat Daddy that is awesome great job keep it up next stop 1 million wow it is absolutely mindblowing and again and it would not be possible if it weren't for you guys so keep downloading keep commenting and keep spreading the word and if you're hungry for more every week well don't worry there's tons more where this came from if you're in my Curious Community you can get a bonus episode every week in that episode we'll take a look at well hey why don't I just tell you what we're going to take a look at in this week's bonus episode since we're taking a look at drugs on this week's episode in the bonus part we'll look at the War on Drugs we'll hear from Richard Nixon we'll learn about the DEA and the FDA if you don't know what those stand for you will by the end of the show we'll look at legislation and we'll also hear from Nancy Reagan and Clint Eastwood what yeah I'm dead serious we'll also take a look at some famous drug addicts and many people who ow deed and to overdose mean means to OD we'll also take a look at drugs and pop culture there are tons of references in music and movies I mean it's its own genre we could say and as always we'll take a look at some very useful vocab and idioms associated with today's topic all that and much more in the bonus episode so if you want to get that bonus episode and get PDF documents with all the vocabulary all you have to do is go over to patreon.com SL Alberto Alonso and if you're in our super duper level or our Interstellar level well then you'll get a weekly class with me and students in our Interstellar level get a monthly private class with me so that's five classes a month with me if you're in our highest level our Interstellar level take a look and see which option is right for you but I'd like to take a moment to send a shout out to all my Curious students especially my super duper students Mara Javier Paco Roberto and Mila and don't forget about my Interstellar students Gman Lena Issa Paco David Jose Maria Patricio and Edgar you can get more information at patreon.com Alberto Alonso let's take a look at our intro I started off by saying these often illicit substances come in a variety of shapes and sizes I want you to pronounce the word variety with me variety variety it's got a lot of vowels in it then I said they can both cure us and kill us in the same breath and the only thing I want to highlight in that sentence really is the word breath breath is a noun and breathe is a verb it's a common mistake then I said popping pills can ease our pain and to pop pills is another way of saying taking pills remember we take medicine we have food and drink I had a lot of students say to me Alberto do you want to go take a coffee and I always say no I'd prefer to pay for it we would say do you want to have a coffee or do you want to have something we take Asprin we take cough syrup we take sleeping pills but don't go too far or you'll end up like Jimmy hendris but we'll look at that in the bonus episode you might recognize the word ease from the word easy to ease is to relieve just be careful with those words too reli is the verb with a V and relief is the noun what a relief B alio so of course they can ease our pain but one can get hooked and remember this we get get hooked on something or we get addicted to something notice there's a different structure there and you can learn them from different songsa chakaa chakaa Chaka I'm hooked on a feeling so we say to be hooked on something or addicted to and the other one comes from Robert Palmer you might as well face it you're addicted to love we love learning with music here on FYI and we do the same on my daily radio show if you haven't discovered it yet it's called the show with no name and it's been on the air for over 15 years now then I said some meds are heavily addictive they can cause Cravings so a craving is when you really want something the verb is to crave something and they even breed killer kingpins and a Kingpin is like a Crime Boss like a a drug lord I think of Pablo Escobar he's the quintessential Kingpin and they commit crimes in the ugly underworld then we heard from one of the most famous kingpins Scarface played by alpacino Tony Montana that is an amazing movie and sadly it's based on true stories so there's no doubt that you can't take the crime and the violence away from drugs it's par for the course but I love that line say hello to my little friend and I wrapped up the intro saying we'll take a look at legal and illegal drugs just be careful with the pronunciation I've heard people say illegal it's it's illegal so legal versus illegal so as always let's define it what is a drug a drug is any chemical substance that when consumed causes a change in an organisms physiology including its psychology if applicable drugs are typically distinguished from food and other substances that provide nutritional support consumption of drugs can be via inhalation injection smoking ingestion absorption via a patch on the skin suppository or dissolution under the tongue and of course we've got natural drugs that occur naturally in nature such as marijuana weed and then you've got your synthetic drugs such as MDMA ecstasy in Pharmacology a drug is a chemical substance typically of known structure which when administered to a living organism produces a biological effect a pharmaceutical drug also called a medication or medicine is a chemical substance used to treat cure prevent or diagnose a disease or to promote well-being so as you can see the definition is chalk full of great vocabulary and right now I guess you're assuming that we're talking about recreational drugs versus medicinal drugs and you're right but what about drugs that are used for religious rituals I mean some religions are based completely on the use of certain drugs these hallucinogens or psychedelics drugs such as Cava which can act as a stimulant a sedative a euphoriant or an anesthetic the roots of the Cava plant are used to produce a drink which is consumed throughout the cultures of the Pacific Ocean so imagine that you go to church and instead of getting the wine and the communion they hand you some punch but this punch has got a lot of punch hey we're playing with words it's what we always do you can say it's got a lot of punch or it's got a lot of kick and the same can be used for alcohol as well so certain cultures in the Pacific Ocean use Cava in their religious celebrations and rituals and what about the shamans have you guys heard of hayasa I don't know if I'm pronouncing it correctly I think it's awasa and this is this hallucinogenic Brew and it supposedly gives you a higher state of consciousness it's similar to the religious use of salvia divinorum it's a psychoactive plant and it also reminds me of peyote and things like that and now we're going to take a look at some different kinds of drugs and their names we'll also put them into categories or categorize them but first let's listen to this clip from the movie Anger Management this is Jack Nicholson talking about all all kinds of drugs now then we need to go over some ground rules okay my girlfriend got me there you're to refrain from any acts of violence including verbal assault and vulgar hand gestures you may not use rage enhancing substances such as caffeine nicotine alcohol crack cocaine slippy flippies jelly Stingers trick sticks Bing bangs or flying Willards wow how many of those did you catch well we'll go over some of them right now we'll start off with disruptive substances SL hallucinogens see you say alucin we say hallucinate I hallucinate pickles alucino pepinos shout out to chicote some very well-known hallucinogens LSD or acid as we call it you've also got shrooms or mushrooms magic mushrooms then you've got PCP which is like an anesthetic drug you've got MDMA which is more like ecstasy K which is short for ketamine and sadly all of these words are bringing back memories from college I didn't do these drugs but I knew people who did and I was at clubs and parties where these drugs were readily available and that scares the crap out of me with my daughter but I was at parties where there was LSD shrooms MDMA a k which is ketamine and if I'm not mistaken those are horse tranquilizers I mean what are these people thinking also in this category you've got weed or hash which we're going to talk about weed a lot too because as many of you know weed is now legal in many places in the United States in some states it's medicinal and in others it's recreational but I remember when I was a little kid if you got caught with even a roach which is the little end of a joint you were going in they were going to book you so things have changed but we'll talk about legislation and how drugs were declared Public Enemy Number One by American president Richard Nixon and now you walk down the streets in New York and you feel like you're in Amsterdam isn't there a happy medium next up let's take a look at some depressants alcohol is a depressant alcohol or booze as it's called called you have GHB which if I'm not mistaken those are like roofies they're like date rape pills these are the pills that people use when they want to take advantage of somebody they want to knock them out and have their way with them I think it's absolutely disgusting also in the depressants category you've got Valium opium and junk do you know what junk is junk is another way to say heroin well think about it somebody who does junk was called a junkie now they say a heroin addict but they were called junkies because they got high on junk another word for heroin weed is another one that has a lot of nicknames weed ganja wacky toachi joints and so on and so forth so those depressants are also called downers I guess it makes sense and of course we need to look at some some uppers or stimulants there you have amphetamines such as speed then you've got meth and we'll talk about crystal meth when we talk about Breaking Bad in the bonus episode and of course you've got Coke and crack thankfully I have never experimented with any of these some more information here about psychoactive drugs these substances affect the function of the central nervous system so they alter your perception your mood and even your Consciousness but as we said before drugs can also cure people so in the end it's a double-edged sword and we're going to look at all of those aspects today now let me ask you a trivia question what is the most widely used drug in the world all right let me make it a little bit easier for you top three did you say caffeine nicotine and alcohol sadly those those are three legal drugs and I'm not saying I don't enjoy a beer from time to time but I love it how people say oh no you shouldn't do this or you shouldn't do the other as they're drinking a beer or smoking a cigarette just because it's legal doesn't make it good for you the perfect example of that oxy cotton and if you've seen the documentary on Netflix well it's not a documentary it's a docu series what's the difference a docu Series has actors telling the story they act it out and in this case the lead is the one and only Michael Keaton if you have not seen dopesick you are missing out now right now we're dealing with the fentanyl crisis in the United States but this was a few years back when the opioid Crisis began and this tells the story and it is simply heartbreaking if you have not seen dopesick you have have to check it out oh and dope is another way of saying heroin it also means a stupid person well I guess it makes sense if you do dope you'll end up being a dope let's listen to the trailer from dopesick people all across this great nation are in pain they have hard lives are you still sore I can't work here no more it'll be all right and we have the Cure this this new miracle drug oxyon you will be the largest Salesforce in pharmaceutical history make your doctors feel special take them to expensive dinners bribe the receptionist with a Manny Petty whatever it takes to win their trust your most effective talking point are these magic words less than 1% of people get addicted to oxyon that's not possible I can't live like this anymore I'll start you on this call on a miracle drug you only take two a day I think I can make this the biggest drug in the world you think maybe that medicine might be just a dead more addictive than you said that's not what we're hearing something is happening here go Tove there might be a unique situation Brewing Pharma company is lying about their medication we have to go after the makers of oxycotton my patience trusted me I can't believe how many of them are dead now we're going to do everything in our power to make sure Justice is[Music] served we're going to cure the world of its pain wow that is pretty deep and I'll warn you right now it is not for the faint of heart but it's based on the Sackler family the ones who released oxycotton which is a highly addictive painkiller very tragic story and again those drugs were legal and supposedly are legal but if you Abed correctly they can ease your pain if abused they can turn you into a zombie let's talk a little bit about treatment because as we said some drugs are highly addictive Somebody went to the doctors because they hurt their back they get a prescription and before you know it they need those pills to keep on living or at least their body is telling them that they do and it's a very sad reality we're not even going to take a look at the numbers in the United States but right now let's put it this way we have a serious problem and not just fenel a serious drug problem the good news is there is hope there are many treatment programs you know if you are an addict and you're listening right now you're not alone many people have been addicts I mean Alcoholics Anonymous wouldn't exist and wouldn't be so popular if people weren't alcoholics we call these 12-step programs another similar one is na narcotics Anon they even have support groups for gamblers people who are compulsive gamblers and there are many different treatments some that are simple such as group therapy and getting out your feelings and trying to understand what your real problem is because normally if you're abusing drugs you're trying to cover up for something else so if we can identify what that root problem is or problems maybe we can attack at the root and also I guess under understanding what addiction is the chemical and psychological side of it and also I guess getting to know yourself as I just said what is what's eating you up inside and why are you trying to numb the pain with drugs and alcohol and if you have a serious addiction problem there are even drugs that they administer such as methadone and countries are trying everything they don't know what to do anymore legalize them crack down and now you know throw everybody in jail for a dime bag a dime bag is $10 of marijuana well in the United States it looks like legalization is the way everybody's going also in Portugal as well in the United States as I said there's a difference between medicinal and recreational but to think at one time they were telling everybody weed was as bad as crack or heroin in fact we're going to wrap up this first episode with Reefer Madness and there's another way to say marijuana reefer and Reefer Madness was a film that came out in 1936 it's what we call an exploitation film about drugs it is straightup propaganda and it revolves around the events that ensue when high school students are lured by pushers or drug dealers to try weed once they try it they become addicted and it leads them to become fiends a fiend is a crazy person and they start committing crimes left and right hidden run accidents manslaughter murder and all of this because they smoked a joint now we all know that that's not really the case anymore but at one time people thought that marijuana would you know turn you into a crazed killer now we know it turns you into a couch potato so let's listen to this trailer from Reefer Madness patrons I've shared the whole movie on patreon if you'd like to watch it it's actually quite funny remember it's from 1936 here it is the trailer for Reefer Madness these high school boys and girls are having a hop at the local soda fountain innocently they dance innocent of a new and deadly Menace lurking behind closed doors marijuana the burning weed with its roots in Hell In This film you will see the ease with which this vicious plant can be grown in your neighbor's yard rolled into harmless looking cigarettes hidden in an innocent shoe or watch case in this startling film you will see dopers lure children to destruction we're going over to Joe's Place why don't you come along we have a date to play a set of doubles oh you can play anytime come on we'll have some laughs can I go along with you sure hey I'll see you dinner sis if you want a good smoke try one of these you will meet Bill who once took pride in his strong will as he takes the first step toward enslavement course if you're[Music] afraid smoking the soul destroying Reaper they find a moment's pleasure but at a terrible price divorcer violence[Music] murder[Music] suicide and the ultimate end of the marijuana addict play faster hopeless[Music] Insanity see this important film now now before it is too[Music] late be careful folks be careful well we have reached the end of the first episode I hope you are hooked on FYI hey there are some addictions that are positive and if you're learning a language that is a positive addiction so I hope you had fun and I hope you'll join us in the bonus episode of this week's[Applause][Applause][Music][Music] FYI