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.

331