User:Sld99/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Substance Abuse

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I chose this article because I’ve had more extensive study on what substance abuse means and the effects that follow. I also chose this because I’ve had many loved ones lose their lives to substance abuse or have taken the path down that road. Therefore, I have a more extensive understanding of what it means.

Evaluate the article
Lead- the lead did include a good summary of what the article was about. However, it did not speak much about what the major sections were about and did not include some substances that are even more addictive than those listed. Also in the lead, it listed the amount of deaths associated with each, but those statistics were also not discussed in the rest of the contents. Only the statistics of those who became addicted or experienced harm were listed.

Content- It did have an impressive amount of content however, there was information on a few chemicals that were missing. For instance, cannabis is listed as one of those that are highly addictive when in fact, cannabis is less addictive than the psychological addiction that is created from THC. Although they go hand in hand, THC is that which comes from marijuana and cannabis or CBD is that which is more commonly used to treat medical disorders. [HTTPS://www.yale HTTPS://www.yalemedicine.org/conditions/.marijuana-use-disorder#:~:text=In%20some%20states%2c%20doctors%20can,a%20user’s%20life%20and%20relationships.]

Also a substance that is not listed is nicotine. Even though nicotine is also a legal substance like alcohol, it is still highly addictive and is listed in the DSM-5 as an addictive substance. And although some countries do not consider nicotine an addictive substance, it is still considered a substance that can be listed as addictive in other countries. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3246568/#:~:text=Nicotine%20Dependence%20is%20recognized%20as,Diseases%20%5B4%2C%205%5D. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3246568/#:~:text=Nicotine%20Dependence%20is%20recognized%20as,Diseases%20%5B4%2C%205%5D.]

Also not listed as one of wikipedias equity gaps is race. For a study dated from 2015-2019, black or African people were the median for alcohol abuse at 61.8%, white adults were the median for marijuana use at 15.9%, black or African American people were the the median for Heroin abuse at .3%, white adults were the median for cocaine abuse at 2.2%, white adults were the median for methamphetamine misuse at .8%, Hispanic adults were the median for hallucinogen misuse at 1.8%, Asian adults were the median for inhalant use at .5%, white adults were the median for pain reliever misuse at 4.3%, American Indian/American Native adults were the median for tranquilizer misuse at 1.8%, Hispanic adults were the median for stimulant use at 1.5%, and lastly, Hispanic adults were the median for sedative misuse at .4%. https://aspe.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/documents/784266c8155778feca25050ab9d50996/substance-use-sud-race-ethnicity-2015-2019.pdf

The content under medical definition also did not list the new definition under the DSM-5 which was updated in 2013 to “substance use disorder”.

Poverished communities are also one of those gaps that weren’t included in the special populations section even though they face a lot of issues with substance abuse as well.

Tone and Balance- The article had a good balance and did not lean more towards one side than another and simply gave information about the effects of substance abuse and those that are affected. However, the article did make it seem like all substances are bad and should be stayed away from. As if receiving help from substances is bad and nothing should be used to help with different circumstances or situations at all.

sources and references- most of the references were up to date however, there were a few from 1973, 1998, and 1999 that could have better and up to date references on what the topic was about due to the fact that new information is definitely available. However, there were very few references that were from random websites or articles and many were from actual journals and published texts.

Organization and writing quality- there were clear and concise sections about the subject with each labeled independently from each other. Each was separated and broken down into what that specific subject was about.

images and media- the article did include media however, much of it was centered around graphs and charts about the different substances and did not include media of the substances themselves.

Talk page- the talk page includes many questions, statements, and conversations about what is and isn’t included in the article. Many of the questions were about why specific information was included when it does not specifically pertain to the topic and many of the statements were about information that should be included or people making statements that they are changing information listed within the article to something else based on evidence that they’ve found. This article is rated as a B-Class article and is included in 6 different wiki projects on Wikipedia. The topic is discussed differently than in class in the sense that everything is much more blunt. Instead of easy going conversations, there is a very blunt tone to each of the conversations.