My Editorial

Say No to Drugs
By Bryan Molt

For several decades drugs have been one of the major problems of society. There have been escalating costs spent on the war against drugs and countless dollars spent on rehabilitation, but the problem still exists. Not only has the drug problem increased but drug related problems are on the rise. Drug abuse is a killer in our country. Some are born addicts called crack babies, while others become users. The result of drug abuse is thousands of addicts in denial. One controversial solution is the proposal of legalizing drugs.

In 2004, 14.6 million Americans age 12 and older used marijuana at least once in the month prior to being surveyed. About 6,000 people a day in 2004 used marijuana for the first time. That’s about 2 million people, according to the NIDA Web-Site. The way to make this stop is to keep supporting our groups in America that help fight drug abuse. These groups such as NIDA(National Institute of Drug Abuse) need to keep up their research and provide useful facts and information to our society. This will help not only elders, but the youth of our society from beginning drug usage. Ourselves also can be a major contributor to this.

Although people feel that legalizing drugs would lessen crime, drugs should remain illegal in the U.S because there would be an increase of drug abuse and a rapid increase of diseases such as AIDS. Many believe that legalizing drugs would lessen crime. They point out that the legalization of drugs would deter future criminal acts. They also emphasize and contrast Prohibition. When the public realized that Prohibition could not be enforced the law was repealed. From this, one may infer the same of legalizing drugs. Legalizing alcohol didn't increase alcoholism, so why would drugs increase drug abuse?
However, drugs should Not Be Legalized because there would be an increase in drug abuse due to its availability. Once legalized, drugs would become cheaper and more accessible to people who previously had not tried drugs, because of the high price or the legal risk. Drug abuse would skyrocket!

Addicts who tend to stop, not by choice, but because the drugs aren't accessible would now feed the addiction if drugs were made legal. These drug addicts would not be forced to kick the habit due to the availability of the drug they would partake eagerly. The temptation to use drugs would increase when advertisements for cocaine, heroin and marijuana are displayed on television. Instead of money used by employed addicts, you will see welfare funds used to purchase drugs. If welfare funds were being misused, this would cause a major problem in the economy. Drugs must not be legalized. It puts our country at a terrible risk. Just say, “No,” to drugs.

Crazy History

I found some crazy history facts at crazynews.net. Some of them are pretty interesting and kind of relate to the "Big Food" editorial that we discussed the other day in class. Check them out.

A single share of Coca-Cola stock, purchased in 1919, when the company went public, would have been worth $92,500 in 1997.

Americans consume 42 tons of Aspirin per day.Americans spend more than $5 billion a year on cosmetics, toiletries, beauty parlors and barber shops.

Bayer was advertising cough medicine containing Heroin in 1898.

Carbonated soda water was invented in 1767 by Joseph Priestley, the discoverer of oxygen.

Cheerios cereal was originally called Cheerioats.

Chewing gum was patented in 1869 by William Semple.

These are just a few of the ones I thought were interesting. There are a lot more!!!!

2010 Racing Season

My picture at the top of my page is the design I am going to have on my racecar this summer. Wells Designs out of Ogallala, NE did the design and I think it looks pretty sweet. If anyone wants to comment on it feel free.

Big Food-New York Times

I found this editorial very interesting. It talks about corporation merging and really how much those corporations are expanding in size and by products. A lot of the companies I have known of for a while but didn't know that they had either merged or got bought out by another company. For example I think Dr. Hansen said the original Chex name brand the other day but I can't remember it, but Chex was bought out by General Mills. Some other merges are Pennzoil and Quaker State, Procter & Gamble's purchase of Tambrands, etc. These mergers are also leading to higher prices as well. This editorial is very informative to the reader and leaves the reader off on a good/opinionated ending. "Call us pessimists, but chances are it won't be long before they all taste the same."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/25/opinion/25mon4.html

What Didn't Happen-By PAUL KRUGMAN New York Times

I found an article called, "What Didn't Happen," from the New York Times. The article was written by Paul Krugman. It talks about how the public has been second guessing the actions of President Obama and how he has too much emphasis in the healthcare issue rather than on improving our downed economy. Krugman disagrees with the public opinion and states, "The Obama administration’s troubles are the result not of excessive ambition, but of policy and political misjudgments." I think I agree with what Krugman is stating here. The Obama administration just came in with an arrogant attitude and thought they were going to switch these bad time and bad issues in this country, straight into good time and turn those bad issues into good issues. That administration is just going to have to be more patient and needs to put their focus on the US as a whole and not single out the groups of small people that need help now but let them also benefit when Obama effects this country as a whole. Article link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/18/opinion/18krugman.html?ref=opinion