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Performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) are used by people who want to have a competitive edge.  Most of the time these drugs are used by bodybuilders and professional athletes.  The satisfaction of becoming a star on a team or representing your country becomes too great and PEDs is what opens the door for these athletes to shine.  By taking these drugs you are giving yourself an advantage over players by using a substance that improves your abilities to perform.  As good as these drugs sound, there are a lot more bad qualities than there are good.  

Most people think that PEDs just consist of steroids but they are wrong.  There is a drug by the name of Erythropoietin that increase the count of someones red blood cells.  Red blood cells carry oxygen throughout the body, so if one can increase his/her red blood cell count, there will be more oxygen going through ones muscles.  This is just one example and there are many more that are more effective.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/10-performance-enhancing-drugs.htm

http://s.hswstatic.com/gif/performance-drugs-3a.jpg

The people who use PEDs are putting their bodies at risk for a temporary boost of performance.  The effects of these drugs can differ between genders and different drugs have different effects on the body.  Anabolic steroids come with severe physical side effects such as acne, high blood pressure, risk of tendinitis, and more.  If one consumes Gonadotropin side effects could include joint pain, muscle weakness, diabetes, and fluid retention.  Taking these drugs effects someones in a lot more bad ways than good.

http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/in-depth/performance-enhancing-drugs/art-20046134

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/uNONMyS0uwo/hqdefault.jpg

This is a very touchy topic to me because me being an athlete, all I want is a fair chance.  For someone to cheat and use anything for them to get an unfair edge sickens me.  Me personally I will never use any type of unfair advantage to get myself better.  I believe the only way you will ever progress is if you show hard work and dedication to whatever you want to get better at, no matter what it is or what level you are on.

Philly School Funding

For my topic, I will be researching and hopefully positively contributing to Philadelphia school funding.  I am interested in this because I personally go to a public school in Philadelphia, who is struggling due to the lack of funding in our schools.  Currently, according to an article on the Education Week website, the school districts deficit is about 216 million dollars.  The school district plans on raising the cities sales tax to cover only half of that.

The states previous governor, Thomas Corbett, caused many problems for schools by giving tax breaks to large companies instead of money towards schools.  Our new governor.  Our current governor, Tom Wolf has been more compliant in supporting the school system, but the damage has been, and our schools are facing a crisis.  Here is a look at where the money in Philadelphia schools is being spent.

Almost no money is being spent on important extra utilities such as safety, food services, and transportation.   And, even with 45% of the money going towards instruction, there were still many lay-offs, especially for teachers with positions considered more minor or less necessary.

I am wondering the main ways I can help school funding, because although the problem is a lack of money, my donations would not go very far.  I will talk to teachers and students who have experience with this issue to say how they contribute.  I will do my best to spread awareness of the topic, however I think most people around me are aware of the problem because it affects them as well.  I don’t feel informed enough to design my own plan on how to fund the school system, because I am not sure of a fair way of raising the kind of money needed.      

Philadelplhians have a very bad view of public schools.  A survey showed that only 18% of people have a positive view of the schools, while most others see it as “poor”.  However, studies have shown that over 85% of teachers are competent in their teaching, meaning the problem lies elswhere.  America puts more money into their school systems than many other countries whose students excell beyond ours.  Therefore, the problem does not reside entirely within the school, but rather the personal lives of the people.  Unfortunately, I cannot change everyones lives, and make them richer.  So, I will use an interview as a way to come up with ideas of how to

benefit schools.

I wonder if any students in past years have chosen the same topic I am doing.  If I find out about someone who did, I wonder what I should ask them so they could help me with my project.  As the project goes on, I hope I thoroughly learn all the information I will need for this project about my topic, because it is useful and very relevant information.

Bibliography

Blog Post #1:

My topic is going to be Depression and Anxiety (for any age group). I am interested in this topic because I myself was recently diagnosed with depression and anxiety, and it’s fascinating because this is something that can developed over time or maybe after a certain event. Also how there is so many in’s and out’s to it, and how it can be different for everybody. Depression is basically chemical imbalance in the brain, that causes a lot of mental and physical symptoms that can affect you and your loved ones.

This issue is significant because Depression and Anxiety is one of the main causes of disability, and even death. It is extremely important to be aware about it because you never know when or if you would run into this kind of situation in desperate need of help. Depression and Anxiety is basically an imbalance in your brain. Everyone every now and then gets a little blue sometimes, however if you are waking up in tears almost every morning, feel like you are dragging your feet 24-7.

At this point I’m wondering how educated people are these days about this subject, I also question what I haven’t learned yet about Depression and Anxiety. I’m hoping that I can find great ways to explain this kind of subject because it can be extremely difficult sometimes explaining to others what seems confusing sometimes yourself.

http://40.media.tumblr.com/37bd4927b718e09d0dde7f00beb70f80/tumblr_namloc4Cp51swxxogo1_500.jpg

I am passionate about sex education. Teens need to be taught about the dangers of       sex but also that sex is a natural thing. I’m connected to this topic, because I didn’t learn  much about sex in middle school, just abstinence. I went to a private school, so it was their choice to educate us about it or not. I think teens these days should have the right to be educated in a safe setting about a natural occurrence. 

 In most states, sex education is not mandatory. It is required in 25 states & Washington DC. Most of these courses are abstinence only anyway. Teens are already having sex, I doubt any type of course is going to change that. But what we can do is make sure they’re safe while doing it. That could mean giving them condoms, or telling them the dangers of unsafe sex. Of course abstinence is the only way to make sure of being safe, but do teens really care nowadays?

A pie chart about Texas sex    

education in 2009. Almost all

abstinence only. Abstinence plus

should be required in schools as well.

In a research done by Columbia University, virginity pledges increased the risks of STDs or pregnancy since those taking the pledges did not know how to have safe sex. Even 88% of those that took the pledge, had premarital sex. There are articles saying that abstinence pertaining to god forces you into marriage

In the state of Pennsylvania, sex education is not required. The state actually received over a million dollars in 2010 to teach abstinence until marriage courses. Even though the age of sexual consent in Pennsylvania is 16, so many kids aren’t taught safe sex at all. Most private schools don’t choose to teach sex education as a whole, because most private schools are religious & think sex before marriage is sinful. So if most public schools & practically all private schools are rejecting sex education, how do teens find their information? The internet is a fairly reliable source, but sometimes they learn some things that aren’t quite true. Most articles about abstinence make it seem awful if you have premarital sex. Nowadays people staying abstinent for god are more believing that its sinful and they’ll be punished instead of doing it for themselves.

A survey teen girls took about how they got educated

I was devastated when I realized that I would likely be disregarding of America’ s failing mental health system if it were not for my own nonverbal, autistic, younger brother. I find it terrifying to think that I would just be another kid who paid this issue no mind, if I did not have this personal connection. It disappoints me even more that there are many people who simply do not care about this problem, or even refer to this as a significant issue.  Despite the occasional spark a deadly school shooting ignites in the discussion of mental illnesses, this topic is usually ignored and the invisible cult of depressed, autistic, bipolar,  children remain hidden at the back of classrooms, where they become shadows of a system that fails to provide the resources essential to their growth.  They are then forced to thrive in a competitive world, where people with differences are usually ostracized and shunned without a chance. In my project, I plan to connect the defective mental health care system to the general ignorance shared by the public about how these issues affect the mentally-challenged.

This picture metaphorically illustrates the dangers the breaches in the mental health care system cause in reference to the Connecticut shooting.

The numbers are sickening. 40,000 people die a year by means of suicide. Only 30% of depressed teenagers are being treated for depression. These statistics make me wonder: Why is there not a lot of emphasis being put on mental illnesses? Why do politicians seldom talk about underfunded special education programs at school? Why does death resuscitate the usually ephemeral debate? I believe that if the public was educated about the cracks in the mental health system,and the deadly consequences they engender, more citizens would care enough to drive an imperative discussion that can lead to awareness concerning ways to make people with mental illnesses feel welcome in the society they live in.

This picture represents a campaign to stop teen suicides.

For years, I have watched my parents struggle to provide my brother with the best opportunities, mainly because few exist  without a hefty price tag. Moreover, many of the programs that are supposed to aid his development are uncoordinated to the extent when calling the state of unorganized, and sometimes ineffective services,  offered to the mentally-challenged,  a “ system”, can be questioned. Families in desperate need of assistance are usually forced to navigate a circuitous route, involving professionals who know little about their child’ s history, and experimenting with countless prescriptions, praying that one bottle of pills makes a difference in their children’ s lives along the way. These families, like my own, live in the constant fear of being unable to provide their loved ones with the necessities they need in order to stay healthy and content mainly because the current makeshift system is not secure enough to support their needs.

Through research, I found that there are only 7, 500 psychiatrists, while 20,000 are actually needed. 5 million American children suffer from mental illnesses, however, reimbursement for mental health services, from public and privates insurers, often falls short of providing the most salient services. These issues are seldom spoken about in society and in the media unless a mentally ill person goes on a murder spree. Even then, the excitement is short-lived.

 This graph shoes how mental illnesses affects American students.

My project will bring awareness to the gaps in our mental health care system. I plan to do so by showcasing how little the public knows about the issues that negatively affect the mentally-ill through a survey and field observation at a treatment center , and correlating my findings to the broken system. Stay tuned!

Bibliography

Syeda: Así que, ¿dónde debemos ir hoy? (so, where should we go today?)

Nana: Tengo muchas ganas de ir de compras. (i really want to go shopping)

Athalia: yo también (me too)

Liv: Pero yo quiero ir a la fuente (but i want to go to the fountain)

Tajnia: Sí, yo tambien! (yeah, same here)

Syeda: el centro comercial cuenta con ropa bonita (the mall has nice clothes)

Tajnia: ...... pero tiene largas colas (...but it has long lines)

Liv: hay una tienda de helados junto a la fuente (there is an ice cream store next to the fountain)

Nana: ... pero la fuente que te hace mojado (...but the fountain makes you wet)

Athalia: debemos ir de compras y luego la fuente (we should go shopping and then the fountain)

EVERYONE: SÍ!

(inside the mall)

Nana: (looks at phone) Oh... Tengo que ir al baño (Oh... I gotta go to the bathroom)

Athalia: Yo iré contigo (I'll go with you)

Nana: NO!.... sólo compras (no... just keep shopping)

Athalia: Bien(Okay)

Tajnia: quince minutos más tarde (fifteen minutes later)

Nana: (looks behind her) Debo ir a casa (I gotta go home)

Syeda: Por que? (why?)

Nana: Tengo que llevar a mi perro al veterinario (I have to take my dog to the vet)

Liv: No tienes un perro (You don't have a dog)

Syeda Tajnia Athalia Liv: (looks back) Es el novio, Mason?!

Raul: Huh? Who’s there?

Pedro: Just some friends we would like to invite you over to our house.

Juan:  Yeah, do you want to come over?

Raul: Uhhh….

Juan: They’ll be candy….

Pedro: And tacos….

Raul: Sounds tempting, where are we going?

Pedro: Mexico City, home of the slums and the dru-I mean, the candy and the chocolate!

Juan: So whaddaya think? Do you want to come with us?

Raul: Yeah, I think so. It sounds good!

Pedro: NOWS OUR CHANCE! GET HIM!!! HE’S A WANTED MAN FROM THE RIO GRANDE TO PATAGONIA!!!

(Raul Starts running)

(Pedro and Juan chase with batons)

(We circle around the room a couple of times)

I am participating in this project called “You and the World Project”. It was given to me in my English class and basically what we have to do is find an issue in the world and interact with it. So based on this, I chose to have my topic be Sex Slavery.

Many people believe that slavery no longer occurs, whereas that is not the case. Specifically, I will like to inform the world of sex slavery. Sex trafficking is the oppression of women and children being forced into forms of sexual activity. I have done research on many personal stories from women and children who have gone through forms of this. According to this article, I have learned that sex trafficking occurs in places like Cambodia and India, but not only that, they also occur in places in the US such as New York. The sex typically happens in places called brothels, which are houses of prostitution.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/09/world/asia/cambodia-cfr-mira-sorvino-karaoke-brothels/index.html

It is estimated that there are 8.4 million children in slavery or practices similar to slavery. Girls being sold into sex slavery are more likely to be in between the ages of 10-15. There are 215 million child laborers 5-17 years old (2010). Sex slavery is recorded to be the worst and highest in Asian countries. Many girls in Cambodia are said to be dead by the age of 20 with AIDS because of slavery. Mother’s at times sell their girls to sex slavery because of lack of money. According to this site human trafficking produces $9.5 billion a year in the United States. A sex slave can be forced to have sex up to 20-48 times per day. Pimps here in the United States can make $150,000-$200,000 per child each year and pimps usually have 4-6 girls. All the money earned has to be given to a pimp and if the victim does not meet their quota for the day, they may be asked to remove their clothing so they can get a beating. Kolab, a survivor of sex trafficking in Cambodia was beaten with a stick until she fainted, often getting electrocuted and getting cut by a knife by her pimp. One out of every three runaway teens are lured into prostitution within 48 hours of being in the street. Most victims suffer from emotional trauma, are under mental and physical threat and have symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

http://www.chestnuthilllocal.com/2014/08/26/sex-trafficking-victims-pa-treated-criminals/

In order to fight against sex trafficking, efforts must be made to eliminate gender discrimination and inequality. Poverty and the lack of protection from abuse and violence perpetuate and feed into the demand for sex trafficking. According to this article “It is critical to implement legal safeguards for women and girls to alleviate poverty and create greater possibilities for non-exploitative options for girls and women”. Sex tourism is also another form of sexual exploitation. A sex tour operator makes it feasible for someone that travels in from another country access to sex slaves in that city. Advocates against this type of tourism have worked hard to criminalize and prosecute sex tour operators under the law.

I am interested in this topic because, aside from women, forced sex happens to children my age! It is a mind blowing situation that needs to be discontinued and terminated. This hurts lots of families all over the world and  I expect to learn more about the personal encounters and stories these women and children have to share.

Annotated Bibliography

Anti Semitism is something that I have always been fascinated by. Throughout history jews have been faced with prejudice, exile and genocide. As a jewish boy who went to school in a private jewish school for 9 years I felt almost no ais very important because many innocent people are being mistreated and abused due to their religion. Many people are not aware of the struggle that a lot of jews go through. My first time going to school where their were almost no jews has been very different. A lot of people at SLA and other public schools do not know any jews and most people are not taught and educated about the struggle that jews have been through to keep their heritage and religion alive. If people knew more about what jews have been through and that kind of way we are treated in other countries in Europe and Asia their might be less anti semitism in Philadelphia and in the world. A lot of anti semitic countries are located in the Middle East and Israel has been attacked several times in the past and now.  Israel has taken part in 15 battles and wars and is still fighting once again to keep it’s freedom.  Countries like Greece are in high support of those who fight against Israel. For the first time since the holocaust NeoNazis have entered into government in Greece. The world is becoming more and more against the idea of jews having their own country.

A survey was taken asking people around the world whether or not they believed certain statements and stereotypes about jews. The results were astounding and scary. One statement was “Jews are responsible for most of the world’s wars.” 38% of people who were surveyed said that this was probably true.  

At this point in the project I am wondering what steps and actions are being taken the world and in the community. I want to learn more about anti semitism and how a lot of it started. For the rest of the project I want to make a difference in the community by showing how anti semitism affects millions of people. I also wonder why and how certain anti semitic thoughts are started and pushed to millions of people throughout the world.

While growing up I have heard many stories about people of all different ages being abducted for reasons such as personal entertainment, money, custody disagreements, and other things that you would never think of. Almost everyday I  watch the news and it is so mind blowing when you hear about the things that are going on today in the world. However when I watch the news there will always be that one thing that catches my attention the most and that is when they talk about the amber alerts. A lot of the younger people are not educated enough about the different scenarios that can be used to lure people into the danger of a strangers arms. I have always been interested in this topic because I have always wondered how anybody could take away another human being knowing that, that person has somebody that loves them and cares for them. How could anybody do something for their personal gain while knowing that it is hurting somebody else. By taking on this project I want to try to show people what kind of approaches could be used and I also want to inform people on what could be done to help yourself and others when a possible abduction could take place. If you keep up with my blog posts you can learn ways to protect yourself and others by. Together we can decrease the amount of people that get abducted a year..

https://www.ncjrs.gov/html/ojjdp/psc_english_02/page1.html

• Image number one shows the statistics for the abductions by gender and age.

• Image number two shows the statistics for the abductions by showing the percentages of who the perpetrator in non- family Abductions.

Approximately 4,600 children are abducted by strangers (non- family members ) each year in the United States. There are 300 long term abductions each year where children are murdered, never found, or returned back to their parents after months or even years later. Surviving an abduction can start a development of Social Anxiety, Eating Disorders, numerous hallucinations, and lots of other things. The 450,700 children that ran away from home did not think about the possibility of being picked up by a stranger. More than 758 kids have been saved from Amber Alerts in all 50 states.

If you ever see someone being abducted you want to try to be as helpful as possible without putting yourself in danger. To help out the police you could try to look for scars, tattoos, or even the logos that could be on the clothes of the abductor. Also if you the abductor came out of or is in a van or car try to take pictures the vehicle so that way the police can run it through the system. If you can get a picture of the vehicles license plate that would be even better.

Everyday innocent people are being ripped away from their families and are being held captive by a stranger or family member. We can help teach this generation of kids to learn how to protect themselves and others when in danger. After being abducted they life is cut short, they can not live their life anymore without fearing that someone is going to take away their happiness again. I hope to dive further into my topic so I can inform others about how to be aware of your surroundings and how to protect yourself. I can not wait to learn more about abduction and make a positive change.

My topic is on Obsessive Compulsive Disorder; most commonly known as OCD. This is a brain and behavioral disorder that causes anxiety, obsessions and compulsions. My project will be in video form, involving a thorough OCD explanation, statements from people suffering from OCD, and tips that have helped others. As child I had mild OCD relating to my body and even actions. I would have to touch something an even amount of times on both sides in the exact same way. If I mess up, I would have to finish the first set and make a completely new one to accommodate my mistake.

OCD based repetitive checklist. Example of ODC situation

There are many stories that are similar to my own. ADAA provides a similar story, from an anonymous person “The stress of moving away from home made my OCD explode. My parents and I wondered why I couldn’t adjust to college. Like a member of an audience, I watched my hall mates experience the normal worries of college: homesickness, classes, and the quality of dining hall food. I assumed the nervous feeling would eventually subside, but I was wrong. Even when the initial stress of college wore off, my anxiety remained.” This person struggled with their OCD. College drove them to stressful situations.Their OCD left a big impact on their life, along with many others.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder art

Another example from the ADAA is this person who had a college problem as well.“Episodic OCD burdened me for over a decade, from my college years until 2006. Self-punishment made matters worse, as it does for everyone. I compulsively checked the coffee maker to see if it was off, and over checked my written work.“ College is putting a really big strain on this person. It was so hard he became a slave to his OCD. He started checking things in his daily life over and over again, routinely too. These habits disrupt people's lives and create a barrier against the rest of the world.

OCD isn't always a seriously dangerous experience. For some people the thing that sets them off could be considered normal to others.  “Diance doesn’t know why she felt so anxious. But she knows what she saw when the feeling overwhelmed her: a nearby woman wearing a v-neck sweater.” Some peoples OCD is different from most. Like this person, she simply didn't like they way something looked. A piece of clothing bothered her. Even though it may seem ridiculous, its very real and frustrating. She has to live with it for the rest of her life. Things may seem weird to her, but she feels like it needs to be fixed. Thats just how some cases of OCD are.

OCD example of order (Alphabetically)

The three examples used showed that OCD can have an effect on peoples lives; even in small ways. This Disorder makes people who they are, and I want to help people find a way to help themselves without suppressing it with medication. I am curious to find out how OCD can differ from person to person. I want to learn how OCD is developed. I Also plan on finding the statistics of OCD. How many people are diagnosed, what ages, and where.  

Throughout my life, I witnessed animal abuse through many aspects. For example, commercials, infomercials, videos, pathlets, and movies. I have also noticed animals injured throughout my neighborhood. I see glimpses of cats with no tail, walking without a leg, and ears chopped off. Before I walk over to them they run away because they are afraid of what humans can do. Luckily, some people have gathered together and formed shelters and fundraisers to help animals in need. In my experience, My father and I used our cat box and fixed it with a heating pad. We built this for a cat to survive the winter who was occasionally at our house. We have helped this cat many times by feeding it and giving it water.

For my “You and the World” I chose to focus on Animal abuse. I decided to go on further with trying to help animals and the “You and the world” project is a chance to get motivated and have a visual of what I should be expecting. It will also give me an insight of what I will be dealing with if I continue with this activity. I mainly chose this topic because I have seen many animals abused and injured and I could not help, but now I know I have a chance to help make change. The average amount of abused animal is growing each year. Approximately 7.6 million companion animals enter animal shelters nationwide every year. Of those, approximately 3.9 million are dogs and 3.4 million are cats.

• This is Oogy, he was tied to a stake and used as bait for a Pit Bull. The left side of his face including most of his ear was torn off. He was bitten so hard a piece of his lower jaw was crushed. Afterward, he was thrown into a cage and left to bleed to death.

• This is Lincoln, he is a Plott Hound mix who was brought to a high-kill shelter. A local rescue group saved him on the day he was to be put to sleep. He was immediately taken to a veterinary clinic for medical attention because of a severely injured back leg. Xrays revealed it was old fractures. His left hind limb had sustained such damage that it was thought impossible to save. Sadly, it had to be amputated.

Whenever veterinary surgeons see cases of “non-accidental injury” in pets, they know that there’s a serious risk that humans in the same household could be at risk of similar injuries. The second way that animal cruelty has serious consequences for humans is a phenomenon known as the “erosion of empathy”. It’s been known for some time that most serial killers start their murderous careers by killing animals: Jeffrey Dahmer impaled the heads of cats and dogs on sticks. The self-named Crossbow Cannibal from Bradford was reported to keep large lizards which he fed on live rodents. Cruelty to animals is the first step; once this moral hurdle has been stepped over, it’s much easier to be cruel to humans. It follows that if animal cruelty can be prevented, or stopped at an early stage, assault and murder of humans will also be prevented.

Animal cruelty is basically when an owner hurts an animal or does not care for an animal responsibly, like not giving a dog or cat food and water. It is against the law to be cruel to or harm animals, even your own pets. It’s also called animal abuse, or neglect. Animal abuse is important for people to know because people need to understand the importance of keeping animals safe. If people see animal abuse, they should know not to stop the abusers, but to call for help. It would be very dangerous to stop the abusers alone.

Bullying is one of the biggest problems in schools all over the world. It all starts with an annoying comment then it leads to sever matters. We've seen it happen and unfortunately, lots of people know how it feels. No one likes it, especially people who can’t fight back whether it's physically or verbally. Those people or students are immigrants and English Language Learners (ELLs).

My interest on ELLs being bullied is very personal. Two years ago I moved to the United States knowing only twenty words in English.  I went to a new school where people were nice to me, but a few other students were making fun of me. I remember they were making fun of my accent and a few words I used. They continued to do that for a full school year and it really bothered me. It wasn't just me they were making fun of, there were more of my classmates that had to go through their bullying and act like everything was okay.

The issue is that these students can’t fight back in any way other than inappropriate behavior. There are many ways these kids get bullied. For example, students get taunted and sometimes physically abused. They are made fun of the way they dress or what they believe in and many more.

This is important because if all these non-ELLs are getting bullied and not a lot of peple know about it. There a many difficulties that these students have. Like, learning disabilities, adjusting to the environment and meeting new people. Language differences, they might not understand what is being said or cannot respond to the point. Bullying experiences may lead to inappropriate behavior and self-harm.

Research shows that about 50% of students say that they make fun of non-ELLs accents and 29% say that they use physical force to bully them.

Frequently asked questions

Annotated Bibliography

For my ¨You and the World¨ project, I decided to research the abuse of drugs. Drug abuse is when a person use more of a drug than they are suppose to. Drug abuse interested me because drugs have encounter in my life in many ways. For instance, Some people that I personally know are addicted to drugs and don’t know that they are. In addition, I am interested in this topic because drugs are frequently used in and outside of school. Drugs that are prescribed from the doctors is not abuse; It becomes abuse when people continue to use the drug after the amount or days prescribed are over. A person is usually addicted when they continue to use the drug for the pleasure that they receive while taking that certain drug. Risk for addiction is influenced by a combination of factors that include individual biology, social environment, and age or stage of development.

"HarmCausedByDrugsTable" by User:Tesseract2 - "Scoring drugs", The Economist, data from "Drug harms in the UK: a multi-criteria decision analysis", by David Nutt, Leslie King and Lawrence Phillips, on behalf of the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs. The Lancet. 2010 Nov 6;376(9752):1558-65. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(10)61462-6 PMID:21036393. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HarmCausedByDrugsTable.svg#/media/File:HarmCausedByDrugsTable.svg

In this picture it shows a list of severe drugs. The picture depicts how many people each drugs harms. It also shows how many people around that person is harmed even though they do not use the drug.

Drug abuse is a problem that occurs all around the world. Most people who use drugs are influenced by their environment. Although a numerous amount of people use drugs, Not many know the effect it had on your brain. It is important for you to know about drugs because they can cause lifelong problems or even death. You probably know that the United states is in debt, but did you know that drugs are a big reason why we are this predicament? The United States spend about $193 billion on illicit drugs, $193 billion on tobacco, and $235 billion on alcohol yearly. It is significant to inform you about drugs because you as a reader probably didn’t know the effects drugs have one people and the country itself.   

Before doing this project and research, I already knew an iota amount of knowledge on drugs such as if a person is addicted to a drug and they really want to stop, it will be a hard process because of your brain not the person. From the research so far, I have learned some new types of drugs. In addition, I also learned how drugs disrupts your communication system inside your brain. Learning all these negative things about drugs made me think of other things. As I continue to this project, I would like to discover if there are any ways that these horrible drugs help a person in a positive way. I hope to learn that there are other people out in the world trying to find ways to lower the drug abuse rate. Also, I hope to learn that the government or police are trying to eliminate any illegal drugs from any users.

In conclusion, My ¨ You and The World “project is on the abuse of drugs and how it affects people. For my outside portion of the project I will be doing a survey and a visit to a rehabilitation center.

Which country won the Vietnam war? Who is the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court? What is the number of voting representatives in the House of Representatives? Can’t answer those questions? Chances are you are not alone, as most of the American population cannot answer basic questions about US civics, politics and history. That is not acceptable and I am here to help solve the crisis.

How did I come to know about the problem at hand? It came to light from of all media, a Youtube video. This video accurately showed that the majority of the American public does not know basic information. For one of the questions, most responses to “Name a country that begins with u,” were “Utah.” Utah is not country, the United States of America is. An overlooked problem in our society is that the citizens are not fully informed about the country they live in. It has always frustrated me to see that citizens who grew up in a school system, which although is not the greatest, can’t remember the topics they learned in class or in school.

“Americans Don't Know Much About History” reads the title of an NBC article, detailing the lack of knowledge the country as a whole has. This could be the fact that our education system and our method of news distribution has been . I am not fond of American news agencies for their constant repetition of information and only reporting about the “breaking news.” One might at least know, from all of the ad hominem thrown at the public, what some current issues are and maybe basic facts. But no, an article by Mic.com on a study done by Ispos-MORI, shows that our country is the 2nd most ignorant in the world when it comes to knowing about social issues and topics.

This infographic above is a great showing of where we fall on the ignorance scale.

What does not being informed mean to the country though? By not being informed, the country will not be able to make decisions that help the situation. Like immigration, most citizens know that illegal immigrants cross the border, but many don’t know that immigrants legally take the citizenship test have a 97% chance of passing! What does this have to do with the situation? Well the whole test is about American civics and politics so Americans should pass with ease, right? Wait for it, 1 out of 3 naturalized citizens would fail the test. If the number of answers right needed to pass the test was 7 instead of 6, 1 out of 2 naturalized citizens would fail. What does this all say about our country? That we are losers and or stupid? No, it says we need to study more and be engaged in the topics that affect us all

This above is the chart on how many native citizens would actually still get to live in the country if they had to take a citizenship test to determine their status.

After reading this, some might say, “Who cares? The government makes the decisions and not me, besides I already am informed about this country.” It does make a difference on what you know,  this country is a republic and built off the people. I hope to see throughout the course of this project, that citizens will all take charge of our American knowledge and strive to learn about the country we call home. It is a civic duty to be informed. Our country must enlighten itself.

Images are taken from sources listed in the bibliography.

Practice your American smarts

Check out the youtube video which got me started, I bet you will laugh!

Want to take the Ipsos-MORI test, click on me!

Bibliography