I watched Blow starring Johnny Depp as a kingpin cocaine dealer As well as smuggling and dealing the drug Depp s character George Jung portrayed a drug addiction His second wife in the movie was addicted to cocaine as well even using whilst pregnant with their daughter This movie relates to what we have learned in Psychology 405 because it represents the impacts of substance abuse disorders One accuracy I found while watching Blow was marijuana s impact on more intense substance abuse in the future Jung moved to Los Angeles with relatively little knowledge about drugs and the drug trade but was quickly introduced to and began regularly using marijuana Jung took advantage of the addictive nature of marijuana forming a team of dealers to sell all around Los Angeles George Jung quickly threw himself into a life of crime and marijuana selling on the beaches of Los Angeles turned into an organized worldwide cocaine ring While the movie did not explicitly explain the cause of Jung s substance use disorder besides being a cocaine kingpin it clearly depicted the impact of his disorder on his relationships As an example Jung married a woman who was seemingly beautiful and healthy before they met but his addiction and career took hold of her quickly Throughout their marriage she becomes dramatically thinner and more spastic in nature common effects of cocaine abuse and she even uses consistently while pregnant Another example of relationships that were impacted by Jung s substance abuse was his relationship with his daughter This started at the birth of his daughter when Jung used too much cocaine before taking his wife to the hospital and ended up passing out and almost dying He told the doctor he consumed around 5 grams of cocaine daily As his daughter grew older Jung made many promises about trips they would take and fun things they would do but each time he either got wrapped up in work was arrested or took too many drugs to remember Both Jung and his wife ingested cocaine through snorting a method in which the textbook describes as the most common Some symptoms that these characters portrayed that are similar to the symptoms of substance abuse that we have learned in class were rushes of euphoria and increased energy physical effects such as weight loss fainting due to an overdose and anger and aggression Overall the movie Blow exceeded my expectations on the impacts of substance abuse and a life of crime However there were several pieces left out about drug addiction After Jung s near death experience at his daughter s birth he left the hospital and did not touch drugs or alcohol for years afterwards As we have learned in class and in the textbook it is highly unlikely for a drug addict to immediately recover especially considering Jung was consuming 5 grams of cocaine a day The movie also did not mention any signs of withdrawals or urges to use during recovery This is unlikely especially since his job included being exposed to a large quantity of his drug of choice every day The movie also did not depict Jung seeking any sort of treatment for his addiction A treatment that could have been useful after Jung s heavy amount of cocaine use could be detoxification a systematic and medically supervised withdrawal from a certain drug