Opioid epidemic: Overprescribing leads to addiction

You hear this all the time on the news, drugs are flooding our streets. Why is this happening? Where are all these drugs coming from? Some sources believe that drugs are trafficked into our boarders from other countries. All though that maybe true, our own system in this country is also partly to blame.

Currently, the United States is facing an opioid drug epidemic. The country is trying resolve this problem by implementing new laws to control overprescribing of these drugs. Not too long ago, drug laws were more lenient on prescribing these pain relievers. Often, physicians would overprescribe these drugs due to patient convenience and lack of knowledge about the particular amount of pain a patient can handle. Overprescribing of these drugs has led to increase of overdose, addiction, and marketing of these illicit drugs. My goal is to help others realize this issue and to try to resolve this problem. Possible by educating others through this blog I hope I can help prevent addiction and overdoses. It is sad to realize that one of the leading causes of death in this country is from overdosing.

Issues against the Police In the United States

When ever you are in trouble or in a time of need whether it may be something small or large, who is the one individual or group of individuals across the United States who are readily available to help you? The most common answer to that question would be a police officer or a police department. Since 1838, Police officers have enforced the law, save lives, kept a good relationship with the community, and have protected people who cannot protect them selves. Within the past four to five years however, police officers in the United States have been under a lot of criticism. After numerous police involved shootings of African-American individuals. A nationwide “Black Lives Matter” movement has spread like wildfire throughout most of the U.S. This movement has caused large amounts of resentment towards the police. Many people believe that these incidents were racially motivated, therefore stretching the relationship between law enforcement and people of color even further.

In the midst of these high profile use of force cases, police agencies all over the United States have seen a increase in Police officers killed in the line of duty. Many police leaders believe this is because officers are more hesitant before pulling the trigger with the fear of getting in trouble or potentially losing there jobs. Social media has been a police officers worst nightmare, as body cam footages of police officers acting in the wrong and racially profiling individuals are posted on social media platforms almost on a daily basis, further more increasing peoples distrust for law enforcement.

Is Google the Largest Monopoly in the World?

Everyone has heard of Google and most likely uses one of the company’s many services in their day to day life. As they own the world’s largest search engine, video sharing site, and one of the largest email providers, it would be hard not to. While these services may not cost anything to use, they’ve made Google into a juggernaut of a company. When it comes to Google’s real product, it’s their users. The amount of data Google has on private citizens is staggering.

To me at least, they don’t seem to be the most trustworthy when using all this data and their position in the world. In 2017 they started what they’ve called “Project Owl,” which aimed to redesign the algorithm for their search engine. What this seems to be in practice is Google attempting to curate what they think should be viewable online or not. They hired individuals to represent the average user and provide feedback on search results, however these individuals are required to act according to what Google sees its “average user,” as. It’s easy to imagine that they’re using this position to control what people see and what information spreads.

Concussions in sports and other sports related injuries: Jonny Lamprecht

My writing topic for this semester is concussions in sports and other sports related injuries. The issue at hand here is that high schools and professional sports organizations nationwide are not taking enough safety and precaution when it comes to preventing injuries. Also, head injuries are a devastating problem that do not get enough attention.  More precaution needs to be taken when it comes to head injuries such as concussions, which can cause permanent brain trauma and diseases such as CTE. This trauma is evident in many former athletes, especially ex NFL players. This specific writing topic intrigued me because I have been wrestling my whole life and throughout my wrestling career I have struggled a lot with injuries. To put it into perspective, I have been wrestling for eleven years and I have never completed a full season without an injury. Often enough, most of the times I got hurt wrestling it was due to a lack of safety precautions or lack of enforcement of a rule. These injuries have prevented me from reaching many of the achievements I had set out to accomplish over my high school wrestling career such as getting one hundred wins, getting the opportunity to compete in the district tournament my junior year and many more. I genuinely believe that change needs to be made regarding precautions to prevent injuries so the great athletes that will come after me don’t have to have the same nerve wracking experience that I did. Overall, I am interested in this topic so I can potentially make a difference and prevent people from having to go through the same thing that I did.

Art Programs in Public Schools

You always see in t.v. shows or movies how the music, drama, dance, and art programs in schools have low numbers and lose out on funding to sports or academic programs. This isn’t an effective fictional conflict for the plot to show the main characters struggle and soon overcome in the end. This is a real issue going on in today’s world. I’m extremely passionate about this subject because one day I wish to be a music educator in public schools. It breaks my heart to see students not have the opportunity to create art and express themselves in another way. Not every student is spectacular at solving equations, throwing a football, or even making friends. Arts programs in schools gives kids another outlet to be who they want to be and find another activity that provides them joy. I strongly believe that music, art, and dance is for everybody and can provide tremendous benefits to any kid no matter their race, sexuality, religion, or economic status. In many schools the problem is that art programs are being looked down upon or not given the same opportunities as other organizations. Programs across the country are losing the resources they need in order to have a success rate. The number of participants are dwindling because kids aren’t attracted to activities that don’t provide them with exciting experiences. That’s because these programs don’t have the necessary tools and attention to provide kids with amazing moments.

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2nd Amendment rights

The Constitution is the worlds oldest document that is still being used by a major world power today and it’s rules are starting to conflict with the modern era. As seen in the news quite frequently the second amendment has been causing some turmoil amongst the American people and its elected officials. Many of us know the argument and we know that this amendment has to do with everyone being allowed to own a firearm, but the conflict has been going on for a long time and there are many different angles to consider. To get a brief introduction to the argument there are many web sources that are available that are more than happy to voice their opinion, for a factual introduction click here. The argument has evolved and changed vertigo with the new technology that has become available and unfortunately the argument has changed because of the increasing capabilities of modern firearms.

Before taking a stance on an argument it is important to be a well informed citizen that can accurately express themselves. This argument is a very important one because it directly relates to the rights that every citizen has and even if you have never thought about owning a weapon that doesn’t mean that every one you know thinks the same way.

Gun Control

Gun control is an issue that America has been struggling with for years. Gun control is the regulation of the sale and use of fire arms.(https://www.dictionary.com/browse/gun-control) For years on end our society has been reliant on owning a weapon that can take the life away from any living thing. A weapon that when placed in the wrong hands can cause massive amounts of casualties. There have been mass shootings in clubs, airports, and most prominently in schools. Although we already have gun laws put into place the NRA has still made it very easy for anyone to obtain a gun. The one that we most commonly here about is the AR-15. A riffle designed with bullets to tear through human flesh. Today is February 14, 2019 the one year anniversary of the Parkland school shooting in Florida. Where the shooter used an AR-15 riffle to kill 17 people, and left 14 people wounded. (http://time.com/5160267/gun-used-florida-school-shooting-ar-15/) The list goes on.

I am interested in writing about this topic because it is really disheartening to me that students, and faculty have to fear going to school everyday. Students come to school to receive an education, and they shouldn’t have to fear being killed in their place of learning. It also baffled me to hear about the rise in school shootings over the years, and especially the Parkland shooting, which was so recent. My friends and I decided to honor those who passed in the Parkland shooting, and to lead a walk out against gun violence. The walk out was held on April 20, 2018 the anniversary of the Columbine shooting. We wanted to use our voices in hopes of making a difference. Also in the hopes to encourage others to not be scared to fight for what they believe in.

Mass Incarceration in America

This semester, I chose to write about mass incarceration America. The Unites States locks up more people every year than any other country, even ones with much larger populations. Mass incarceration often is controlled by racism and prosecution overreach. People of color are incarcerated at much higher rates than white people. The NAACP reports that if African-Americans and Hispanic people were incarcerated at the same rate as white people, the population of people in jail would decline by 40%. People, especially ones that have mental health issues, spend years in prison for misdemeanors when they should really only be there for a short amount of time. People that go to prison are often unable to find any work when they get out, making it extremely difficult for them to not end up back in prison. While they are incarcerated, they are stuck in a life of solitude rather than one of rehabilitation. This means that a lot of the skills they have are slowly going away.

The threats of global warming

My topic for this semester is global warming, which is the gradual increase of temperature in earth’s atmosphere. A term commonly associated with this is the greenhouse effect that is caused by the increasing emissions of carbon dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons, and other pollutants, as they get trapped the troposphere not allowing heat to escape the atmosphere. I am so interested in this because I care about the damage that humans are doing to the earth and the species that live among us and would like to one day reverse the effects of global warming. Not only are humans slowly making earth uninhabitable for themselves but also for millions of animals that call earth home too. One animal that has recently gone extinct due to drought and climate change is the Golden Toad last seen in 1989. There are many new technologies that are making it easier to maintain our rising temperature such as: producing clean energy like solar/wind power, restoring our forests, reducing food waste, adapting to a plant rich diet, lowering your personal carbon footprint like using less electricity, and so many more.

Animal Testing and the Beauty Industry

Animal testing is also known as animal experimentation. These experiments commonly cause the animals pain, suffering, distress or lasting harm. The beauty industry has been testing different products on animals since 1938 when the “United States Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act” was signed, forcing companies to test their products on animals before putting them on the market. I have been interested in Animal Rights as long as I can remember. I am a huge advocate for adopting over buying from a breeder, I eat tofu instead of meat (haha vegetarian problems I know) and it wasn’t until I stumbled upon a YouTube video about animals being experimented on that I realized I was a consumer of brands who violate the rights of animals all for… lipstick? After I watched this video I knew I had to look for brands of makeup that were made ethically and trash half of the products I owned.