Tobacco is Wack...o....

The obvious answer the the question, "Should tobacco be legalized?" is no. Tobacco should be illegal or at least restricted for a number of reasons. Not only is tobacco just plain disgusting, but it causes severe health problems such as increased risk of lung cancer. Tobacco is highly addictive because it contains the drug nicotine. Every single form of tobacco, which includes cigars, cigarettes, snuff, chewing tobacco, and pipe tobacco, contains varying ammounts of nicotine and can cause you to form an addiction. Tobacco is the leading preventable cause of disease, disability, and death in the U.S. and should therefore should not be totally legal under any circumstance. People may argue that it is their "freedom" to smoke, but with freedom comes responibility, and if people are not responsible enough to realize the facts about tobacco, then their freedom should be limited. Second hand smoke also puts non-smokers at risk of certain health problems. Perhaps enforcing non-smoking zones everywhere is a bit more reasonable than completely taking away one's right to smoke. After all, if somebody wants to put themself at a high risk of getting lung cancer, who's to tell them they can't? We live in America, where freedom rings no matter how badly your poor choices will affect your life. Perhaps smoking is a means of natural selection to rid the Earth of those who can't think for themselves. However, there is certainley no reason tobacco should be fully legalized; there always needs to be some restrictions. Tobacco companies make millions of dollars off of getting people addicted to their product. Without nicotine, there wouldn't be tobacco companies. Such companies could care less about the health risks involved with smoking, so long as they can make a profit. In the end, if people know the consequences of smoking and still want to take the risk, then, by all means, let them smoke. However, completely legalizing tobacco is probably a bad idea.

Too Young To Be a Dad

Even if I didn't see the video in class, it's incredibly obvious what pressures teenage guys into having sex. Most of the pressure, in my opinion, comes from the media. Every song you hear on the radio these days contains sex. Not to mention sex in movies and such. The media portrays sex as "masculine" and "fun". Apparently you're not a man until you've had sex. Another source of pressure for guys to have sex is peer pressure. Friends could possibly pressure you into having sex because they say it's "cool" and "fun", very similar to how the media portrays sex. I also heard somewhere that the average guy thinks about sex every seven seconds. If such is the case, then it's no wonder why guys are easily pressured into having sex. I guess it all come down to hormones and development.

I also think it's relatively obvious what pressures teenage girls to have sex: the media and friends. But other than those two, I think guys pressure girls into have sex as well. Since guys tend to think about sex a lot more than girls do (at least that's how it seems), guys are more likely to pressure their girlfriend or date into having sex.

Drugs and alcohol greatly influence people to have sex. Consuming either of these completely alters your way of thinking; you pretty much don't think at all. There's no way you can make a good decision under the influence of drugs or alcohol, so you're more likely to do things you wouldn't normally do when sober.

When taking sex into consideration, it's best to use the GREAT decision making model. The feeling/acting method seems kind of "go with flow". In my opinion, letting things just happen for no reason is one way people end up having sex in the first place. If you're making an important decision, it's best to really think things through and consider your options rather than just do everything loosey goosey.

Legalize Marijuana?

My initial reaction to the legalization of drugs was short and simple: NO! However, through careful research and better knowledge of the illegal drug trade, I am somewhat in favor of legalizing at least a few drugs. Perhaps the legalization and taxing of marijuana, an already widely used illegal drug, could help solve our economic crisis. The government is currently pouring tax payers' money into catching those who sell illegal drugs, prosecuting them, and placing them in jail. Let's face it, legalizing drugs is not going to encourage drug use. In fact, it may do just the opposite. Drugs lords only get involved with the drug trade because they can make around $5 billion annually, so legalizing and taxing drugs that are currently in the black market of the drug trade would cause the profit of illegal drug trading to go way down. Ultimately, this would encourage many people to stay out of the drug trade, as they are not tempted by the enourmous profits in the first place. However, even if drugs like marijuana are legalized, the government can still regulate them, which, in the end, would be profitable to our economy. Not to mention the gang violence on the Mexico-America border. The illegal drug trade has caused countless acts of violence in this particular region and many have been killed. Legalizing certain drugs would put a halt to such violence on the Mexico-America border. While there are probably no health benefits to legalizing drugs, there are certainley economic and safety benefits. Drugs like marijuana are already widely used, and legalization of such drugs would most likely not change how many people use them. Society would mostly remain the same if certain drugs were legalized. Marijuana is already legal in a few states anyways. One must ask the question, do the economic benefits outweigh the potential problems caused by certain drugs? I'm not sure; I'm kind of on the fence with this one, but if somebody wants to use drugs, does it really matter to you? Just because drugs are legalized doesn't mean you must use them. I for one would not smoke marijuana simply because it's legal. As long as people are educated on the effects of certain drugs, there is really no point in keeping them illegal; those who are well-educated should be able to make the right decision. Let the stupid people fuel our economy! Hoorah!


I kind of got a little bit loopy towards the end. Whatever.

Environmental Pharmaceutical Polution

Millions of various pharmaceuticals are perscribed annually. However, after a pill has been consumed, the active components of the drug are not completely absorbed by the body. Perscription drugs have been discovered in our soil, ground water, waterways, and drinking water. The last thing sewage treatment plants are looking for are perscription drugs, and they're not always removed properly. In addition to this problem are drugs that aren't used; some people dispose of drugs by flushing them down the toilet or storing them in land fills, which greatly affects the environment. It has been confirmed that most waterways contain at least some steroids, antibiotics, synthetic hormones, or other household drugs. One problem that pharmaceutical polution has on humans is antibiotic-resistent bacteria. Compounds from antibiotics remain in the environment when the drugs are not properly disposed of, and bacteria in the environment is able to mutate into strains that are resistant to antibiotics. Among animals, pharmaceutical pollution causes abnormalities in reproductive cycles. This is seen particularly among fish. Drugs can also contaminate crops if the pollutants make their way into fertilizer. Some health problems caused by pharmaceutical polution are largely unkown, but there certainley needs to be something more done to prevent the growing problem of pharmaceutical polution.