Issues In Our Society Essay, Research Paper
Psychology is the scientific study of human and animal behavior. It is made of theories and
tries to prove why we behave the way we do, our mental processes, our emotions, and our
actions. In this writing assignment I will discuss why some people choose to behave so
outrageous that we see it as abnormal self-destructive behavior and why others try to fit in
this society and follow the rules. In the United States there?s people from all over the
world from different cultures and traditions. I will give my personal opinion on some of
the issues and controversies in our country.
My first issue is about drugs. Many people feel that certain illegal drugs like
heroin, marijuana, and cocaine should be legalized. I think it?s a crazy idea, people feel
that is they legalize it at first we would buy it but then we would get bored and the use will
decrease, but how many lives will be lost? Is it worth taken a chance? I don?t think so,
tobacco is legal and people don?t get tired of smoking, so if they legalized these drugs
more and more people will get addicted. The effects of any drug depend on several factors
like the amount taken the user?s past drug experience, the manner in which is taken, and
circumstances. Heroin is a highly addictive drug derived from morphine, which is obtain
from the opium poppy. It is a downer that affects the brain?s pleasure systems and
interferes with the brain?s ability to perceive pain. Heroin can be injected into a vein or a
muscle, smoked in a water pipe, inhale as smoke through a straw or snorted as powder via
the nose. Cocaine is a powerful central nervous system stimulant that heightens alertness,
inhibits appetite and the need for sleep, and provides intense feelings of pleasure.
Cocaine?s short-term effects appear soon after a single dose. Marijuana is usually smoked
as a cigarette or in a pipe or a bong. If you have a job and you are selected for a urine test
marijuana will show up. The short-term effects of marijuana include problems with
memory and learning, distorted perception, loss of coordination, increased heart rate and
anxiety. The long-term effects of these drugs include slowed and slurred speech,
constricted pupils, droopy eyelids, impaired night vision, sedation, coma, addiction,
convulsions, heart failure, paranoia, hallucinations, delusions, loss of interest in sex,
marijuana even contains some of the same, and sometimes even more of the
cancer-causing chemicals found in tobacco. These drugs can hurt you and those who
surround you. I don?t understand why would anyone go through the risk of dying of
overdosed and just the fact of addiction is a nightmare that many choose to live every day
of their lives.
Drugs bring me to my next issue which is why some people think that alcohol and
tobacco should be illegal. Let me start by saying that millions of lives would be safe if
smoking and drinking was illegal. Is it fair for innocent people to die because of a drunk
driver or because of second hand smoke? How much do we value the lives of others and
our own?. You don?t need to drink much alcohol before your ability to dive becomes
impaired. The more heavily you drink, the greater the potential for problems at home, at
work, with friends, and even with strangers. One of my family member was an alcoholic
and I know that they face a lot of problems like arguments with the family or friends, loss
of employment due to absences or decreased productivity, committing or being the victim
of violence and also alcohol can cause a range of birth defects, the most serious being fetal
alcohol syndrome F.A.S. (physical abnormalities, mental impairment). Children born with
alcohol-related birth defects can have lifelong learning and behavior problems. Some
problems, like those I mentioned above, can occur after drinking over a relatively short
period of time. But other problems such as liver disease, heart disease, certain forms of
cancer, and pancreatitis often develop more gradually and may become evident only after
long-term heavy drinking. Women may develop alcohol-related health problems after
consuming less alcohol that men do over a short period of time. Some drinkers develop
alcoholic hepatitis, or inflammation of the liver which can cause death if drinking
continues. If drinking stops, this condition often is reversible. Alcohol also causes cirrhosis
which is not reversible and causes death unless you stop and you?re chances of survival
improve considerably.
Moderate drinking can have beneficial effects on the heart, especially among those
at greater risk of heart attacks, such as men over the age of 45 and women after
menopause. It wouldn?t be so bad if alcohol was illegal and you could only get it like most
legal drugs with a medical prescription. Long-term heavy drinking increases the risk for
high blood pressure, heart disease, some kinds of stroke, and cancer, especially cancer of
the esophagus, mouth, throat, and voice box. Women are at slightly increased risk of
developing breast cancer if they drink two or more drinks per day. Drinking may also
increase the risk for developing cancer of the colon and rectum. The pancreas helps to
regulate the body?s blood sugar levels by producing insulin. The pancreas also has a role in
digesting the food we eat. Long-term heavy drinking can lead to pancreatitis, or
inflammation of the pancreas. Alcohol had a great effect on body, and it does more
damage than good.
Tobacco is another drug which I think should be illegal. Tobacco contains
nicotine, an addictive drug that makes it very difficult for users to quit. One out of every
three smokers dies from tobacco related disease. The tobacco industry main targets are
teens, minorities, and women. Nicotine has both stimulant and depressant effects upon the
body. Stimulation of the central nervous system may cause tremors in the inexperienced
user, or even convulsions with high doses. People who use tobacco products frequently
depend upon it providing the side effects, some of them are the stimulation of the memory
and alertness, alleviation of boredom to help them accomplish certain tasks at specific
levels of performance. Tobacco is believed to have an addictive potential comparable to
alcohol, cocaine, and morphine. There are many associated health risks. In general,
chronic exposure to nicotine may cause an acceleration of coronary artery disease, peptic
ulcer disease, reproductive disturbances, fetal illness and death. Tobacco and its various
components have been associated with an increased risk for cancer of various body organs
like cancer of the oral cavity, esophagus, lungs, kidneys, pancreas, stomach, cervix, and
bladder.
Another big problem with smoking is second hand smoke. Many people who have
never smoked once develop cancer faster than a regular smoker. Some of the health risks
in children are: increased frequency of respiratory infections, asthma, and decreases in lung
function as the lungs mature. We all know there are many good reasons to stop smoking
or never start. Tobacco can also cause brain damage, there is strong link between smoking
and strokes; it increases cholesterol and decreases the vitamin C levels in your blood.
Smokers have a higher lifetime frequency of substances abuse, severe depression, anxiety
disorders, and other psychological problems. Smoking can also make you look older.
Heavy smokers have nearly five times as many wrinkles as their non-smoking peers.
Since more people get connected to the Internet every day, pornography has
become a very discussed issue in our society. Constitutional rights freedom of speech and
expression do not factor in to the risk of harm carried by pornography. There is
pornography protected by the First Amendment and illegal pornography which is not.
Pornography use is a choice, and is like an addictive drug; a little can get you hooked and
too much can damage your life. Pornography aside, sex is selling for businesses that aren?t
even selling sex. The mere existence of the advertising industry and the billions of dollars
spent on advertising are proof that visual images persuade. I do think that pornography is
psychologically and socially harmful and should be illegal in all forms.
Pornography shapes attitudes and the way people view relationships and sex roles,
specifically by normalizing aggression towards women for some men in sexual and other
interpersonal encounters and increasing the tolerance for aggression toward women in the
larger culture. Sexual interest and sexual acts of any kind are mistaken for acts of love.
Sex gives the illusion of being loved and appreciated. In the absence of love, people seek
intimacy through porn and sex. Casual sex is portrayed as exciting and desirable outside of
a committed relationship. Beauty is measured by proportion of body parts, shaping
unrealistic expectations of what a woman?s body should look like. Pornography?s
messages about sex and sexual fulfillment are misleading.
Pornography also hurts kids. Teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases like
Aids are completely nonexistent in porn, giving a false believe that there is no adverse
consequences to behaviors depicted in pornography. Teaching that sexual experimentation
with anyone, anywhere is a major theme considered ?fun? in pornography. Pornography
teaches that women enjoy being stripped, forcibly abused and even raped. Other messages
in pornography are drug addiction, prostitution, exhibitionism and voyeurism are branded
in the minds of children as normal behavior. One such message is that women are sex toys
readily available for sexual fulfillment by anyone and are devoid of value, worth and
feelings. These messages found to hurt adults have an even greater impacts on kids. Child
pornography consists of photographs, video tapes, books, magazines, and films that depict
children in sex acts, all of which are illegal. Child porn has become a sophisticated
multi-million dollar black market industry. Hard core pornography of adults is legal to
posses but illegal to distribute.
My last point of discussion is the choice women have of abortion. There are for
options when a women is pregnant with a child. First the option of having and raising the
baby, thus bearing responsibility if she could have helped conceiving the child, in cases
where the pregnancy was due to consensual sex. The other option is to have the child and
raise it, thus showing love to the child where the woman isn?t responsible for the
pregnancy, she was raped. The third option is to have the child and gave it away for
abortion, regardless of how the child was conceived. The last option is to have an
abortion. The morality of abortion depends upon the nature and identity of the thing being
aborted. I do think that abortion should be illegal except in cases where the baby had a
defect or the woman was raped. I do believe abortion is the taking of a human life, being
morally equivalent to murder or manslaughter. The issue of the identity of the unborn (is it
human or not?) is prior logically to the issue of the woman?s right to choose. There is no
morally relevant difference between a fetus and a viable child who is outside the womb.
Fist the size of the fetus doesn?t determine its humanness; the level of development which
would mean that a 25 year old man is more human than a 13 year old boy; the
environment, so if I step out of the house, do I become less of a human being? also the
degree of dependence, appearance and function, many people have hardly any functional
abilities at all but they are still considered humans. Abortion is permissible in the case of
rape. Rape is bad. There is no doubt about this. But if abortion is taking the life of a
human being, then adding murder or manslaughter to an already existing rape hardly
solves the problem. We have four logical possibilities concerning abortion. First the
unborn is a human being and we know it. Second the unborn is a human being and we do
not know it. Third the unborn is not a human being and we know it. Fourth the unborn is
not human and we do not know it. To me abortion turns out to be the intentional killing of
a human being, which should e considered murder. If the case abortion is not murder. But
it is not okay either. Abortion turns out to be manslaughter. For manslaughter is the
unintentional killing of a human being. What lives in the womb is a real child, a small
person, a human being essentially like us, in the first phase of his or her existence.
Our society will never be perfect and I think that?s our main goal. I have discuss
some of the more controversial issues in our society today but it is impossible for everyone
to agree on one solution.
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