For this assignment I collaborated in a group to write and record several 30 second radio style PSA's these are the two scripts that I wrote personally and recorded.
All too many people these days are unaware of how good their body is designed to feel! Exercise might sound like a drag after sitting on the couch for a while, but is scientifically proven to increase well being in all areas, it’s proven to improve your mood, treat depression, amazingly boosts energy, brain function, relieves bodily stress and can even put that spark back into your sex life. As soon as your body gets exercising regularly for a month or two, you won’t want to stop! Change your life for the better and get moving, you won’t believe what your body is capable of! For more information visit www.mayoclinic.com/health
Depressed? Tired? Stressed out? Struggling with work? Are you lethargic and just waiting for something good to happen in your life? Stop waiting and make it happen for yourself! Exercise and physical activity is the answer! You’ve heard it before but it’s true, exercise really does have the power to completely change your outlook on life. Dedicating 30 to 60 minutes out of your day to a good work out can essentially improve your entire sense of well-being. Make it happen for yourself! Celebrate the benefits of good health and a long life! Buy a gym membership today!
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Report
Mitch
Poen
English
2010
Ashley
Argyle
12
March, 2013
Report on the Consequences of the U.S.
War on Drugs
The U.S. War on Drugs creates a very
complicated set of problems. In an attempt to eradicate drug addiction, our
government has waged war on the issue. For years, the War on Drugs has been a
zealous and dangerous battle, however many are saying it has had too many
unintended consequences, and that it has been statistically ineffective in
achieving its sole purpose. People opposing the U.S. government’s approach to drug
policy argue that it results in a lack of civil liberties for the people. Any
anthropologist would agree that the use of drugs or psychoactive substances is
a deeply engrained facet of human culture, and has been for thousands of years.
The relationship between humans and psychoactive substances is very complex and
must be considered very carefully when attempting to create legislation
regarding their production and distribution. It’s a fact that people will use
drugs anywhere, regardless of the illegality. If there’s a demand for
something, there will be a supplier.
The drug war has statistically been ineffective in lowering addiction
rates and is overcrowding prisons, increasing death and violence, and is
costing an enormous portion of tax revenue to operate. (“Drug War Statistics”)
Many
believe that our laws do not reflect a good understanding of the principles of
harm reduction and public health and safety. One scholar, Philippe Bourgois, a
Professor of Anthropology and Family and Community Medicine at the University
of Pennsylvania, observes that political zeal tends to blind our country’s leaders
when it comes to drug enforcement. In order to prove their patriotism, he
believes, American politicians are prone to waging war instead of carefully
exploring different and more effective ways to achieve things in the interest
of public health. Bourgois explains that, “Despite repeated documentation of
the much lower risks associated with the consumption of marijuana consumption
compared to alcohol use, U.S. federal law enforcement agencies in the 2000s
have been spending over $4 billion a year arresting almost three quarters of a
million people on marijuana charges—usually merely on charges of possession.” (Bourgois
581)
Another example of negligence mentioned
by Dr. Bourgois is the fact that needle exchange programs still aren’t
nationally legal in the U.S. out of fear that they “condone the use of drugs”.
Needle exchange programs are an example of a harm reduction initiative. They’re
designed to give drug addicts clean needles to use in order to prevent the
spread of infectious diseases like HIV. Methadone clinics are also proven to be
great programs to help heroin addicts get clean by weaning them off of opiates.
Still though, treatment of this sort is often criticized by legislators (Bourgois
582).
 |
| Figure 1 (Singer) |
Anti-prohibition groups argue that rehabilitation
isn’t an option for many poor Americans who struggle with drug addiction. The
stance for this argument is that poor Americans that get arrested on drug
charges don’t have the financial means to get a fair trial. Drug addicts with
low incomes will often get arrested and incarcerated with no legal support. For
many, there just isn’t ever an opportunity to break their cycle of addiction
and there are not enough government programs to help those at rock bottom. If any
given celebrity gets caught doing drugs, they generally pay for a really good
lawyer and go to rehab, for instance, the actress Lindsay Lohan’s scandal about
cocaine use.
 |
| Figure 2 ("World Prison Populations") |
According to a report published by the Cato Institute in
Washington D.C. titled, “The Budgetary Impact of Ending Drug Prohibition”, it’s estimated that the U.S. would
save $41.3 billion dollars a year in government expenditures on prohibition.
Also estimated in this report was that drug legalization would yield tax
revenue of $46.7 billion dollars annually (Miron and Waldock). Other sources
painted a very similar picture, if these are indeed good estimations, a
reevaluation of our drug laws might be more than necessary at a time where our
national debt exceeds $16.6 trillion dollars. In an online factsheet from the
informational website of the Drug Policy Alliance, it says “The number of
incarcerated individuals in federal, state or local prisons in jails is
2,266,800 or 1 in every 99.1 adults, the highest incarceration rate in the
world (“Drug War Statistics”)”
In an attempt to find official government data about
incarceration statistics I went to the BJS (Bureau of Justice Statistics)
website, and I hit a brick wall. I wanted to find an annual account of those
incarcerated for drug crimes versus other offenses published by the government
itself and returned empty handed. I was seeking data that showed the percentage
of non-violent drug offenders in the prison population, and instead came to
this:
 |
| Figure 3 ("Drugs and Crime") |
There are only two publications on drug
crimes and facts that are available to the general public on the BJS website,
and they’re from 1989 and 1988. One can see in Figure 2 that the button that
says ‘Publications’ is in blue, designating it as an active link, which links to
the PDF file below it. Notice that the other two buttons for data tables and
press releases are grayed, giving the researcher no options and literally no
data for the past 24 years. When I went to look at statistics of violent crime
at bjs.gov it was a different story. For statistics on violent crime, I was
able to find data up to 2010.
Aside from the debate over the morality and
legality of drug use, a component that is often discussed is the limitations
presented by marijuana laws alone. According to federal law, marijuana is a
Schedule I substance. Schedule I substances are defined as ‘drugs with no
currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. Schedule I drugs
are the most dangerous drugs of all the drug schedules with potentially severe
psychological or physical dependence (“Drug Scheduling”).’ Heroin is Schedule I as well as marijuana, even though opiates
(drugs from the poppy seed origin, heroin included), are commonly used in pain
management prescriptions. Marijuana is an herb with hundreds of potential medicinal
uses. Cocaine is a Schedule II substance, meaning it has a high rate of
addiction but some medicinal use and is commonly used in surgery as a local
anesthetic. Amphetamines are also Schedule II and they happen to be in the same
chemical family as the notoriously addictive drug known as methamphetamine or
meth. Nowadays, “hard drugs” such as heroin, cocaine, and meth are regarded as
some of the most addictive illicit substances out there. It is a scientific
fact that marijuana’s risks are minimal in comparison to heroin, cocaine and
meth. Nevertheless, marijuana is regarded by the government to be one of the
most dangerous drugs and is still, despite of the findings of public health
research, of the most heavily prosecuted and enforced and also the most widely
used and distributed illegal drug in the U.S. (“Drug War Statistics”)
Cancer patients, survivors,
and researchers may find it bewildering how marijuana, a very useful medicinal
resource is considered by the federal government to have no medicinal use
whatsoever. Patients going through intensive cancer treatment such as
chemotherapy and radiation therapy are subject to a wide array of extremely
unpleasant side affects such as chronic nausea and loss of appetite, among many
others. Chemotherapy is essentially a treatment that slowly poisons a patient’s
body in order to kill cancer cells, by halting cell reproduction or mitosis,
our body’s natural way of maintaining itself. Patients have reported marijuana time
and time again as the most effective way to alleviate symptoms of nausea and
vomiting while increasing appetite. Other antiemetics (anti nausea and vomiting
medications), have been reported to be significantly less effective than
marijuana among patients. An online report from cancer.gov that discusses the
benefits of cannabis for cancer patients states, “Among all 1,366 patients
included in the review, cannabinoids were found to be more effective than the
conventional antiemetics, prochlorperazine, metoclopramide, chlorpromazine, thiethylperazine, haloperidol, domperidone, and alizapride.” (“Cannabis and Cannabinoids”)
Fortunately, national
attitudes are slowly changing on marijuana. Several states are now dispensing
medical marijuana prescriptions and Washington and Colorado have even legalized
its recreational use. Though some state laws may be lax on marijuana, it’s
still federally illegal. In Colorado and Washington, marijuana is currently
legal and illegal at the same time, and the DEA continues to violently raid
dispensaries.
In conclusion, it is increasingly evident that
legislators must be educated as much as the general public about what drugs
mean socially and culturally to truly understand the morality of drug use. Many
westerners, generally the youth, experiment with and consume marijuana and
psychedelic drugs out of social and cultural tradition. The social dynamic of
drug use is very complex and is tragically ignored. An individual’s choice to
do drugs is a personal decision that affects none other than the individual (in
most cases). We have the freedom to choose what we eat, how much we eat, what
we drink, and however much alcohol we wish to consume. These choices fall under
personal behavior, something that, many scholars believe, our government should
have no jurisdiction over. The War on Drugs creates a vacuum in which new ideas
that will benefit our national well-being are unable to surface publicly, due
to the laws that say they’re wrong. It is of the utmost importance to
reevaluate and examine, that which limits what this nation is truly capable of
and what is causing the most pain and grief among Americans.
Works
Cited
Bourgois, Philippe. "The Mystery Of
Marijuana: Science And The U.S. War On Drugs." Substance Use &
Misuse 43.3/4 (2008): 581-583. Academic Search Premier. Web. 9 Mar.
2013.
"Cannabis and Cannabinoids." National Cancer Institute. National
Institutes of Health. Web. 11 Apr 2013.
<http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/cam/cannabis/healthprofessional/page5>.
"Drugs and Crime." bjs.gov. Bureau of Justice Statistics, 22 Aug 2012. Web.
9 Mar 2013.
"Drug Scheduling." justice.gov. The Drug Enforcement Administration. Web. 9 Mar
2013.
"Drug War Statistics." Drug Policy Alliance. Drug Policy
Alliance. Web. 11 Apr 2013. <www.drugpolicy.org/drug-war-statistics>.
Miron, Jeffrey A., and Katherine Waldock.
"The Budgetary Impact of Ending Drug Prohibition."Budgetary Impact of Ending Drug Prohibition.
(2010): n. page. Print.
Singer, Andy. No Exit. Cartoon.
andysinger.com, N.d. Web. 1 Mar 2013.
"World Prison
Populations." BBC
News, British
Broadcasting Company. Web. 9 Mar 2013.
Position Arguement
Mitch
Poen
Ashley
Argyle
English
2010
7
April, 2013
Position Discussing the Benefits Hemp and Marijuana
There
is perhaps no other family of plants that is more misunderstood than the family
of Cannabaceae, the hemp family. Both
marijuana and industrial hemp are two crops that, contrary to popular belief,
harness quite a lot of progressive power in the worlds of medicine and
industry. The United States, despite all of its strength, would benefit
immensely from finally making the decision to recognize cannabis plants (once
again) as some of the greatest, most versatile, and useful resources on planet
earth. As an evolving and progressive
people, it is more than necessary to reevaluate the laws that prohibit the cultivation
and use of cannabis. Industrial hemp is a crop that can drastically improve our
ecosystem, help eliminate a great share of deforestation and provide a solution
to soil depletion. Hemp can be used for a wide variety of purposes including
the manufacturing of textiles, hundreds of food and nutritional products,
paper, plastic composite materials, construction materials, bio fuels and more.
The psychoactive properties of THC-concentrated marijuana hold an unimaginable
amount of potential for pharmaceutical researchers. As soon as marijuana is legalized
and regulated, fantastic medicines that scientists haven’t yet been allowed to
create will be introduced and the medical industry will rejoice. An unfortunate
history of harsh assumption and a lack of critical thinking has led to a
situation in which the government is shooting itself in the foot, so to speak,
by both eliminating a huge potential market for itself and by spending billions
of tax dollars annually in enforcing and prosecuting marijuana offenders (Small
and Marcus).
Hemp
is a sister plant to marijuana and has extremely low doses of
tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the chief psychoactive chemical in cannabis. If one
were to try smoking hemp to get high, he or she would be sorely disappointed,
as it holds non-threshold doses of THC. The two plants can cross pollinate, but
plants grown primarily for their intoxicating resins are potent because they
have been selectively bred to produce those attributes. If a marijuana farmer
tried to put high-THC marijuana plants among a field of hemp to effectively
hide them, the marijuana plants and the hemp plants would cross-pollinate,
resulting in a much less THC-concentrated bud, something that any pot farmer
would never want. Hemp may look a lot like marijuana, which is one reason why
people are so quick to feel uneasy about it, but it is truly one of the most
fibrous plants on Earth, and to say that it deserves respect would be an
understatement (Small and Marcus).
Nowadays, wood pulp accounts for the
great share of industrial fiber in the world, and is of course, very useful.
The problem is that world population and industrialization is moving at a rate
that greatly exceeds the capacity of what our forests can churn out. While a
tree might take a hundred to several hundred years to fully mature, a field of
hemp can fully mature in about a year’s time, all the while nurturing the soil
it grows in rather than bleaching it of nutrients. Many say that it would never
be worth the time and money to process hemp fiber at a large capacity, that it
could never be as cost effective as lumber and cotton. Since our economy is so
accustomed to the markets of lumber and cotton, it is argued that it would be
too costly to switch over to hemp cultivation. What if we chose to adapt? In a
time of global climate change, where deforestation is harming the planet’s
ability to clean out greenhouse gases, the forests of the world are needed more
than ever. Hemp provides another source of fiber and a new market for Americans
to develop and grow on all the while being an ecological savior. The vast
amount of products that hemp can produce is far more than what meets the eye. We
have ways of creating biodegradable plastics out of hemp, construction
materials like fiber boards, plastic composite materials for automobiles,
insulation, stronger concrete, more durable clothing than cotton, more durable
paper than wood, not to mention the hundreds and hundreds of food and
nutritional applications of the hemp seed. Hemp seeds are around forty-five
percent edible fats, and are nearly a complete protein. They contain all 29
amino acids including all 9 that the human body must eat to survive. In
addition to being a very nutritional food source and an industrial fiber,
cannabis plants that are high in psychoactive cannabinoids have a seemingly
endless amount of medicinal applications (Small and Marcus).
Marijuana’s
place in the world of medicine is astounding. There are no reported deaths to
this day that attribute marijuana as the soul culprit. That is not to say
marijuana is harmless to everyone, but that’s the way most drugs work anyway.
For the most part, marijuana products are very low risk and are used to treat
many ailments. Marijuana has been shown to be an effective treatment for
chronic pain patients, has been shown to effectively reduce intra-ocular
pressure in those suffering from glaucoma, and also reduces muscle spasticity
in multiple sclerosis patients. Marijuana is celebrated among cancer patients
(myself included) as a far superior drug to help patients deal with the side
affects of chemotherapy and radiation by allowing patients to be relieved of
the endless nausea. Not only does marijuana do all of this and more, THC has
been proven in brain cancer patients to slow the growth of and even kill cancer
cells. Nevertheless, marijuana is federally a Schedule I substance, meaning
that it is considered by the law to have no medical use whatsoever (“Cannabis and
Cannabinoids”).
It
is important to know that plants in the cannabis family have always been a key
player in the industrialization of our world. Archeologists have found hemp as
a binder in pottery as old as ten-thousand years. Hemp was even internationally accepted as the world’s
leading industrial fiber around the mid 19th Century. It should be a commonly
known fact that even the Declaration of Independence, the document that founded
our country, was drafted on hemp paper. Let’s not forget also, that founding
fathers George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were hemp farmers themselves. A historian may find it surprising that
cannabis isn’t commonly celebrated as a key component in the great success of
our nation (“Hemp History Timeline”).
How is it then, that the cannabis family of plants,
an amazingly versatile and long accepted resource for medicine and industry,
has been banished so harshly and quickly in this country? It turns out that many of the attitudes
concerning cannabis appeal to tradition rather than facts. In the early 20th
Century, it wasn’t at all uncommon to be able to purchase hashish extracts,
tinctures, elixirs and tonics, all containing THC of some sorts. The average
American was actually once allowed to grow and smoke marijuana as he or she
pleased. During the Great Depression, however, national attitudes regarding
hemp and marijuana began to change. Millions of Americans experiencing the economic
hardships of the Depression ended up using Mexican immigrants as a scapegoat
for their economic hardships. Mexican workers were the first to really introduce
the recreational smoking of marijuana to North America, so the drug became
associated with them. Prejudice and fear of the Spanish speaking immigrants led
to initiatives and campaigns associating marijuana use with violence, crime,
and other socially deviant behaviors, primarily committed by "racially
inferior" or underclass communities. It is important to remember that
negative attitudes towards cannabis started appearing during a time where
racism and prejudice were at an all time high in the United States; A time
where segregation was still in play and the Civil Rights Movement hadn’t even
made an appearance (“Marijuana Timeline”).
Anti-marijuana
campaigns gained a lot of steam. By 1931, 29 States had already outlawed
marijuana and hemp began to be farmed less and less. Politicians developed more
and more zeal behind the prohibition of drugs and so the assumptions and
propaganda about marijuana began to snowball. Rather than looking into a public
health researcher’s perspective on the effects of marijuana, politicians became
more prone to hastily wage war on something they knew very little about in
order to prove their patriotism. The beginning of the marijuana misconception
can be traced to the ambitious efforts the first Commissioner of the Federal
Bureau of Narcotics (FBN), Harry J. Anslinger, whose agendas were easily rooted
in racism and greed. Mr. Anslinger once said that, “Most marijuana smokers are
Negroes, Hispanics, jazz musicians, and entertainers. Their satanic music is
driven by marijuana, and marijuana smoking by white women makes them want to
seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and others. It is a drug that
causes insanity, criminality, and death — the most violence-causing drug in the
history of mankind (Gerber 9).” A man with great power and influence on
legislation, Harry J. Anslinger effectively and aggressively ran many national
propaganda campaigns against the drug beginning in the 1930’s, molding the
nation’s notion that smoking pot is a severe violation of the greater good, all
without any scientific backing to his claims. Mr. Anslinger didn’t need credibility,
because he already had the politicians to back him. Harry J. Anslinger’s
outdated perspective on cannabis thrives to this day, maybe with less racism
behind it, but marijuana is still demonized as an illicit drug capable of destroying
lives (“Marijuana Timeline”).
Power
politics and blind ambition are responsible for a misconception that creates a
situation where the very definition of freedom is altered and twisted. The
question is this: Should a person be forcibly arrested and spend time in a cage
for smoking marijuana? The number of incarcerated individuals in the U.S.
accounts for twenty-five percent of the total number of inmates in the world,
while the U.S. population accounts for about five percent of the world population.
The United States of America, “the land of the free, and the home of the
brave”, is the world’s leading jailer.
Over half of the inmates in U.S. prisons are serving time for
non-violent offenses (“Drug War Statistics”). Legislators need to question the
morality surrounding recreational marijuana use. An adult’s choice to smoke
cannabis is not a malicious act. It does not demean people or put others down
in any way, nor does it automatically lead to a life of deviancy. It is one’s
human right to regulate one’s self as he or she pleases as far as what they
wish to consume. The government
has overstepped their authority in putting legislation on personal behavior.
Drinking alcohol and smoking tobacco are decisions that are left up to the
consumer’s discretion. Consumers are warned day in and day out about the
dangers of tobacco and alcohol. Nevertheless, people still consume alcohol and
tobacco in all walks of life, because they consciously make the decision to put
what they want in their bodies (Bourgois
581).
Marijuana laws reflect negligence toward what is
actually causing the largest amount of grief and pain among Americans. Any true
optimist with a faith in the future of humanity couldn’t imagine a future
without cannabis cultivation. It is our government’s duty and obligation to
create the best possible scenario for its people and to ensure that justice is
truly justice. It is 2013, and now is not the time to embrace perspectives and
ideals that put limitations on what this country is truly capable of.
Works Cited
Bourgois, Philippe. "The Mystery Of
Marijuana: Science And The U.S. War On Drugs." Substance Use &
Misuse 43.3/4 (2008): 581-583. Academic Search Premier. Web. 9 Mar.
2013.
"Cannabis and Cannabinoids." National Cancer Institute. National Institutes
of Health. Web. 11 Apr 2013.
<http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/cam/cannabis/healthprofessional/page5>.
"Drug War Statistics." Drug Policy Alliance. Drug Policy
Alliance. Web. 11 Apr 2013. <www.drugpolicy.org/drug-war-statistics>.
Gerber, Rudolph Joseph. Legalizing Marijuana: Drug Policy Reform and Prohibition Politics.
1st ed. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2004. 9. Print.
"Hemp History Timeline." Hemp History Week. Hemp History Week.
Web. 12 Apr 2013. <http://hemphistoryweek.com/timeline.php>.
"Marijuana Timeline." PBS, Frontline: Busted. Public
Broadcasting Station. Web. 30 Apr 2013.
<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/dope/etc/cron.html>.
Small, Ernest, and David Marcus. "Hemp: A New
Crop with New Uses for North America."hort.pudue.edu.
N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Apr 2013.
<http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/ncnu02/v5-284.html>.
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