Live above the Influence

Marijuana is the most commonly used drug in the United States. New movements are being put in action form left to right. Now this whole live above the influence thing is out and it’s a good thing it is. We do not need teenagers having short term memory loss like if they were eighty. Besides what people may think most teenagers do not use marijuana. If they do smoke in my onion they do it because their friends or brothers and sisters use marijuana and pressure them to try it. Or others may think it's cool to use marijuana because they hear songs about it and see it on TV and in movies. Some teens may feel they need marijuana and other drugs to help them escape from problems at home, at school, or with friends. Whatever the reason may be its never ok to smoke. When a person is high their perception distorted. They do not have a grasp of reality and that is not a good thing. We do not need any more incoherent people walking the streets causing harm because they are not in their right state of mind. If you do not have a firm grasp on reality there is no telling what you can do or what can happen. When people smoke they lose valuable brain cells that can’t be recovered.



For teens these brain cells are very vital to get through school the drug can make you mess up in school, in sports or clubs, or with your friends. If you're high on marijuana, you are more likely to make stupid mistakes that could embarrass or even hurt you. If you use marijuana a lot, you could start to lose interest in how you look and how you're getting along at school or work. Athletes could find their performance is off; timing, movements, and coordination are all affected by THC. Also, since marijuana can affect judgment and decision making, its use can lead to risky sexual behavior, resulting in exposure to sexually transmitted diseases like HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.   

OMG....do you know whats in that

Cigarette warnings have been changed on packages for the first time in over twenty-five years. The depiction of deceased lungs, corpses, and other graphic images are disturbing to many, however, the Food and Drug Administration is backing up this move.
The decision to make cigarettes more unattractive to consumers has been pushed forward by proponents to stop people from smoking by using images that are disturbing to the consumer. The warning labels will cover half of the package’s front and rear, plus the top twenty percent of all cigarette ads. The statements on the package will not have the usual warning by the Surgeon General, but a much more severe admonishment by regulators.
They are hoping to stop young people from ever picking up their first pack, and by using the graphic images, they say this, “We want to make sure every person who picks up a pack of cigarettes knows exactly what the risk is they are taking,” Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sibelius said at a news conference.


Personally I do not think the new package labels will stop people from smoking, but it can help. No matter what you tell them people they still have an addition. No one label will stop their want for nicotine. What is can do is make it less appealing and hope people turn it down or never pick it up.

Lock Down Clink Clink

The justice system in America is the harshest just system of the developed countries. Around 2.3million people in America are in prison. That is almost in every one hundred Americans are in prison. And one in every 331 adults is under supervision. This justice system in America is hard on criminals but there are two flaws. The drug problem and the response to it,the justice system puts too many people behind bars for way to long.

More prisoners are locked away for drug violations than all violent crimes combined. It used to be perfectly legal for anyone to walk into a store and buy heroin or cocaine. Then the progressives took over in the early 20th century and began waging a war on drugs, which blossomed under Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, when marijuana became nationally illegal. This method is also redundant and ineffective in reducing drug abuse. And it leads to more crime, gang warfare, judicial and police corruption, and all the other problems that accompanied alcohol prohibition. People who have committed no crime against person or property should be released from the jails and prisons. These people include drug offenders, sex workers, those in possession of illegal guns, and anyone else who has hurt and threatened no one, whose only offense was to violate a victimless crime statute.

Nation-wide attention was focused on so-called three-strikes laws in 1994 when California voters approved an initiative mandating prison terms of 25-years-to-life for defendants convicted of a third felony On one hand many of the defendants sent to jail under three-strikes laws are non-violent repeat offenders. The original intent of the law was the stop violent criminals, but the result has been that criminals with a history of minor offenses, such as petty theft or drug dealing, are being sent away for longer terms than criminals who commit violent acts. The prison population has grown so much that most are already filled beyond capacity and many more prisons need to be built; tax payers will have to foot the bill. Three-strike laws are not effective crime prevention measures, they are unnecessarily harsh sentencing guidelines that punish harmless petty criminals and overcrowd our prisons. On the other hand if a criminal does not reform after two felony convictions, it is unlikely that he or she ever will. Three-strike laws are effective because they target these repeat offenders who have proven unable to change their criminal behavior. The mandated 25 years-to-life sentences for third time offenders keep repeat criminals off the street, and the threat of such a long sentence may stop a two-time offenders from committing a third felony. Tough-on-crime laws like this have contributed to the nation-wide drop in crime rates over the past decade. Three-strike laws can help reduce the prison population by serving as a deterrent to potential repeat criminals.
• California has convicted 4,468 offenders on third strikes since 1994.

• There are 2 million people behind bars in the U.S., including local jails--twice as many as a decade ago.

• Approximately 2,700 "third strikers" received at least a 25 years-to-life sentence for nonviolent and non-serious offenses.

• In California, nearly 75 percent of 2nd strikes and 50 percent of 3rd strikes are for nonviolent and non-serious offenses.

• The most common charges leveled against third-strike criminals are drugs, theft and burglary.
 http://www.breakpoint.org/commentaries/12395-prison-overcrowding-and-public-safety
http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1775

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/11/us/11prisons.html