Definition Essay – Tabitha Corrao

Posted on March 7, 2012 by tcorrao

While investigating alternatives for drug offenders, I came across an article called Expanded Road to Recovery project to reduce drug crimes by Charles Hamilton. The article is about how Governor George Pataki and Senate Majority Leader Joseph L Bruno created a plan to clean up the streets of New York. According to Charles Hamilton, the 2.8 million dollar project “is an expansion on the Drug Treatment Alternative to Prison program (DTAP)”.   The DTAP is a program that gives drug offenders an alternative rather than sending them to jail and not providing them with the help they need. To understand the DTAP’s goal first you have to understand the term “drug offender.”

To define what a drug offender is a thorough investigation had to be conducted. It turns out although all states have their own definition of drug offenders, many states’ definition of drug offender are closely similar.  For example, in the state of New Jersey according to New Jersey Statutes Annotated Title 2C:35B-3 Definitions, drug dealer liability is defined as,

a. “Marketing of controlled dangerous substances” means the illegal distributing, dispensing, or possessing with intent to distribute, a specified controlled dangerous substance.

b. “Individual user of controlled dangerous substance” means the individual whose illegal use of a specified controlled dangerous substance is the basis of an action brought under this act.

In other words, in New Jersey there are different definitions of what a drug offender is, one being the drug dealer themselves and another one being the drug abuser.

Another example of a different state’s definition of drug offender is Ohio’s definition. Ohio has four different definitions of what a drug offender is. According to LAWriter Ohio Law and Rules, one of the definitions is “(B) ‘Drug dependent person’ and ‘drug of abuse’.” In other words, in Ohio someone who abuses drugs is indeed a drug offender. Although all states have many different definitions of what a drug offender is, most of the definitions somewhere along the lines include being a drug abuser.

With that being said, the DTAP’s mission is to clean up their streets by preventing drug offenders or drug abusers from falling back to their old life styles. People who choose DTAP as their alterative are less likely to return to prison and are also more likely to be employed. The plan gives drug offenders the opportunity to led their life in a more positive direction.

Sources:

New Jersey Statutes Annotated Title 2C:35B-3 Definitions

LAWriters Ohio Laws and Rules

Hamilton Jr., Charles. “Expanded Road to Recovery Project to Reduce Drug Crimes.” New York Amsterdam News, Nov. 2003. Web. Mar. 2012.

Posted in x Definition Essay | 4 Comments

Definition Essay- Brett Lang

Posted on March 6, 2012 by langer278

Everybody wants to feel and look good with their shape and body. People go on large diets, workout for hours, and take different supplements to get a better looking body that they prefer, and feel looks good to them. When you walk into GNC and you see tons of dietary supplements that say, Huge weight loss, best weight loss supplement out there, lose weight in eight weeks on our product, and etcetera. They all sound completely wonderful and just what you need, but with further research you find these “amazing” supplements actually cause terrible health issues such as high blood pressure, heart attacks, seizures, death, and more. This gets you to wondering how these products get out on the market like that and causes you to ponder to yourself, what is a dietary supplement? A dietary supplement to me seems to be an herbal based product made to help one with a healthy benefit, which is followed along by a bunch of loose and seemingly dangerous regulations that causes it to be a danger to the user, but Congress defines it a little differently. According to Congress under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, it says a dietary supplement is and I quote “a product (other than tobacco) that is intended to supplement the diet;contains one or more dietary ingredients (including vitamins; minerals; herbs or other botanicals; amino acids; and other substances) or their constituents;is intended to be taken by mouth as a pill, capsule, tablet, or liquid; and is labeled on the front panel as being a dietary supplement,”(“Dietary Supplements”). Now according to all this information this is what makes a dietary supplement a dietary supplement, so how does an Ephedra based product, Ephedra being banned by the FDA for use because of its highly catastrophic side effects and cause of death, such as Metabolife356 meet these requirements?

Metabolife 356 was a very popular Ephedra based product. The ingredients of the product is as follows: Vitamin E (as di-alpha tocopheryl acetate) (6 i.u.), Magnesium (as Magnesium Chelate) (75 mg), Zinc (as Zinc Chelate) (5 mg), Chromium (as Chromium Piccolinate) (75 mcg), and a proprietary blend (728 mg total) of the following: Guarana (seed), Ephedra (Ma Huang) extract (ephedrine group alkaloids) (aerial part), Bee Pollen, Eleuthero (Siberian Ginseng) (root), Ginger (root), Lecithin, Bovine Complex, Damiana (leaf), Sarsaparilla (root), Goldenseal (aerial part), Nettle (leaf), Gotu Kola (aerial part), Spirulina, Royal Jelly. Other ingredients: Citric acid, glycine, caffeine, croscarmellose sodium, protein hydrolysate, silica, modified cellulose, magnesium stearate, dextrin, dextrose, sodium carboxymethylcellulose, sodium citrate, ascorbic acid (“Metabolife 356”). Taking a look at each component lets see how it meets the requirements under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act.

A dietary supplement is intended to supplement the diet, and this product claims to do exactly that and help with weight loss. Having vitamins in a dietary supplement is essential and we know it has at least one with Vitamin E. Along with Vitamins, minerals are just as important to be included in the product, which the Metabolife has with zinc being included in its ingredients. The main banned component of the Metabolife 356 completes the criteria for a herb or botanical component. Ephedra being a herb coming from the plant also named Ephedra is what makes this requirement met(“What is Ephedrine?”). The plant is a shrub located in desert region areas such as Asia, which they extract and create into the Ephedra component found in the Metabolife356(“What is Ephedrine?”). After that you must have an amino acid component in the mix of a dietary supplement. One of the amino acid compounds found in this product is glycine which completes the requirement of at least one amino acid being included in the dietary supplement. Based on the qualifications for ingredients the Metabolife 356 has met all the needed requirements set. When looking at the website on the product it clearly states to take the product dosage and calls the product “caplets,” which checks off another restriction on what dietary supplements must be taken as (“Metabolife356”). The product is also clearly labeled as a dietary supplement too.

When going over all the qualifications the Metabolife 356 checks out in every single category perfectly. It has at least one of the vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and herbs, such as our banned substance Ephedra, that it must require to be determined a dietary supplement. It meets the labeling and claims of supplementing the diet and being called a dietary supplement on the front of the container. It’s also clearly taken as one of the recommended ways of dosage as a caplet and checks out there. It was so easy to mark off this product as a clear dietary supplement based on the qualifications of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act that were presented. A very dangerous Ephedra product that caused many terrible heart problems, high blood pressures, seizures, and even caused deaths to people is easily classified as a dietary supplement when checking out the ingredients and labels.

The product was so easily checked out to definitely be a dietary supplement in every way and form from ingredients, to labeling, and claims. It puts a real question mark to the regulations and requirements that are set up on supplements as to how they are manufactured, regulated, and determined a good dietary supplement. If people could easily have made products such as the Metabolife 356 with the Ephedra component being included, that had caused death to some users, then why wouldn’t someone be able to put a worse and more dangerous herb or other component in the mix. The classifications of a dietary supplement is very weak and set around many rules with loop holes in them. A dietary supplement may be what it is as the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act defines it as, which the Ephedra product Metabolife 356 meets, but A dietary supplement is also a very poorly regulated, quite frightening, and dangerous health risk to any user that does not know what they are really paying for in the end.

Works Cited

“Dietary Supplements.” Background Information: — Health Professional Fact Sheet. Office of Dietary Supplements National Institute of Health, 24 July 2011. Web. 05 Mar. 2012. <http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/dietarysupplements/&gt;.

“Ephedra.” StreetDrugs.org. 2011. Web. 05 Apr. 2012. <http://www.streetdrugs.org/html%20files/Ephedra.html&gt;.

“Metabolife 356.” Netnutri.com. Netnutri.com, 2005-2009. Web. 05 Mar. 2012. <http://www.netnutri.com/browse.cfm/4,2386.htm&gt;.

“What Is Ephedrine?” Ephedrine (Ephedra) Legal Advice: Speak to Lawyers Handling Injuries Associated Ephedra. Ephedrine Legal Advice. Web. 05 Mar. 2012. <http://www.ephedrine-ephedra.com/pages/what_is_ephedrine_1234.html&gt;.

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Evaline ~ Beneath the Fire

Posted on March 6, 2012 by tonyshilling

Can’t go a day without listening to this.  Great song.

Posted in My Music | Leave a comment

Evaluating Arguments

Posted on March 6, 2012 by davidbdale

The criteria we use to evaluate evidence are in large part the same criteria we use to evaluate arguments. If mnemonic devices help you remember things, remind yourself that Sufficiency, Typicality, Accuracy, and Relevance spell STAR.

Briefly, we’re not likely to be convinced by evidence or arguments that are not Sufficient to prove themselves beyond a reasonable doubt. Furthermore, like those “regular guy” endorsements for miracle weight-loss cures, results that are not Typical aren’t enough to convince us that we’ll achieve similar results. Such promotions for diet products are also fond of bragging that their participants lost 41 inches, for example, which could be impressive or entirely inaccurate, depending on where and how the measurements were achieved. (Did the testers measure the skull, wrists, ankles, toes, height, forearms, calves, and biceps and add the results?) Such evidence might fail for both Accuracy and Relevance if my hope in starting the program is to reduce my waistline and not my hat size.

When gathering our own evidence, we need to test the quality of the material on these four criteria at least. We’ll also be interested in the Authority of the source, the Replicability of test results, the Objectivity of the maker of the material, and other characteristics, but for today, let’s focus on S, T, A, and R.

SUFFICIENCY OF EVIDENCE
How much evidence we need to prove our case depends on the rhetorical context of our argument. Settling claims among friends may be easier (or harder!) than proving a similar case in court. For the purposes of a college academic paper, we have to presume our audience is actively skeptical not easily convinced. We need to be thorough enough to avoid hasty generalization from a single case or two, while at the same time avoiding tediously long recitations of similar sorts of evidence.

As you evaluate the White Papers on the blog for today’s assignment, ask yourself whether there is sufficient evidence in the world to prove the claims their authors propose to prove. If so, what sort of evidence would it take to convince you? Has the author even proposed to provide evidence of that sort?

In your comments, either criticize the work so far in evidence or recommend a category of evidence you think is needed, or both.

TYPICALITY OF EVIDENCE
Whatever the source of our evidence and whatever claims we make, our readers need to believe that the material we present proves an argument worth proving, one with broad social implications generally applicable to common experience, not an extreme case that, even if proved, changes nobody’s perceptions about the world. Stephen Hawking’s particular experience prove nothing about how long a person stricken with ALS is likely to survive or how his condition will track. But Stephen Hawking’s particular presentation of ALS symptoms might be used to prove precisely that he either doesn’t have ALS or that he has a rare type worth studying or at least categorizing differently than everyone else’s.

As you evaluate the White Papers on the blog for today’s assignment, ask yourself whether the evidence so far mentioned will help us draw conclusions about anything more than a narrow particular case. If not, does the author promise to prove more than the evidence can support?

In your comments, either criticize the work as too narrow to be typical or recommend a narrow but valuable proof that can be supported, or both.

ACCURACY OF EVIDENCE
As ethical authors, we can’t conscientiously use evidence we know or suspect to be inaccurate, tainted, biased, tampered-with, distorted, unscrupulous, or just innocently botched. Nor can we be expected to field test the results of studies or experiments we find persuasive. Our responsibility is in the middle ground, to find the best evidence from reliable sources that proves a claim and to use it professionally by applying it carefully to prove only such claims that it reasonably can support.

As you evaluate the White Papers on the blog for today’s assignment, ask yourself whether the author appears to be depending on sources or evidence that will convincingly support the thesis on offer. Keep in mind, at this stage the author is not expected to have gathered all the evidence and the White Paper needn’t contain all the necessary evidence to be convincing.

In your comments, either question the value of the evidence the author appears to be depending on or recommend a source you think would be more accurate, or both.

RELEVANCE OF EVIDENCE
Good evidence is wasted on arguments it can’t prove. Returning for a moment to the claims made by weight-loss supplements, the manufacturers might well conduct studies that correlate the weight loss of study subjects with use of their product without beginning to prove that the products caused the weight loss because of a failure of Relevance. They could, to take a simple example, provide unlimited supplies of their supplement to the casts of Jersey Shore, of The Biggest Loser, and of Survivor Desert Island. Odds are, the cast of Survivor will lose far more weight during their six weeks of hard labor and deprivation than the cast of The Biggest Loser no matter what they do. And everybody will lose more weight than the cast that lives on Red Bull and tequila shots. But the results will be utterly irrelevant to the argument of whether the product caused the weight loss of the Survivor cast.

As you evaluate the White Papers on the blog for today’s assignment, ask yourself whether the evidence the author wants to find will prove what it’s supposed to prove. This relevance evaluation is different from an evaluation of the sufficiency of evidence, in which the question is whether there will be enough evidence. Here the question is whether any amount of evidence could do the job. If one study is irrelevant, one hundred similar studies still won’t persuade a clear thinker.

In your comments, either point out why the evidence the author has found or seeks doesn’t actually contribute to a proof or recommend the sort of evidence that would actually be relevant to the argument, or both.

The Exercise in Brief

By the end of class, read and evaluate the White Paper of at least one classmate and, in the Reply field, make helpful evaluative comments in all four categories, Sufficiency, Typicality, Accuracy, and Relevance.

contestants.

Posted in Assignments, David Hodges, Evaluating Arguments, In Class Exercise, Professor Posts | Leave a comment

Definition Essay – Joe Mleczko

Posted on March 6, 2012 by joeymleczko

In March of 1961, President of the United States, John F. Kennedy signed the Affirmative Action Act. As an attempt to eliminate discrimination in the work place and in places of higher education, the policies that defined affirmative action (and still do) established guidelines for recruiters to follow for the recruiting process. The policies require that a recruiter does not make any decisions with regard to race, religion, or gender. For the time that affirmative action was created, it provided the necessary balance that minorities needed to establish themselves as equals among a predominantly white nation.

A component of  affirmative action is the quota system that has been instituted. This system requires that in a place of employment or higher learning, all races be “equally” represented. This does not necessarily mean that the number of caucasians must match that of black and hispanic; however, it means there must be adequate numbers of each. To the creators of affirmative action, if each race, gender or religion is adequately represented, they had successfully given everyone an equal opportunity for a position(s).

Fifty years after the introduction of affirmative action, the general consensus of the affirmative action policies has changed. That is not to say affirmative action has not achieved greater parity in hiring and college admissions, because it certainly has. Instead, the problem of over representation of minorities and under representation of the majority has become a common theme.

Initially the policies of affirmative action sought to eliminate discrimination, but in turn has created discrimination of a different group of people. It is now common to hear the term “reverse discrimination,” which is exactly what it sounds like. Before affirmative action, for example, an employer could very easily reject an applicant for simply being black. Now that employers are required to hire specific numbers of minorities, but there is still a majority looking for the same position, it is possible to see a white person eliminated from the hiring process for not being a minority. Arguing the fairness of reverse discrimination over the fairness of regular discrimination is the tricky part. Which is more unfair?

Perhaps the correct question to be asked is whether or not more members of the majority are negatively affected than minorities would be without the protection of affirmative action?

Not only has the view of affirmative action changed greatly over the last fifty years, but the United States of America as a whole has changed dramatically. There was well defined need for affirmative action at its time of birth, being at the center of the civil rights movement. Since then, we have seen racism decrease significantly, and it is arguable that the United States could have already been a truly “color blind” nation without five full decades of affirmative action. Those that believe the nation would go back to its old ways without affirmative action are ignorant to the changes the country has seen.

Instead, the nation watches as the underrepresented majority misses out on job opportunities and admittance to universities. In an article by Amara Phillip, two such examples are outlined. In 2003 the University of Michigan was sued by multiple white students claiming they were denied due to being white. In the one case, a well qualified white female sued the law school for being denied solely because there was not enough room for more white females. After the case was seen by the Supreme Court, the ruling was that basing admittance off grades, test scores, recommendations, and race was well within the legality of affirmative action. In the second case, two white applicants were denied and as a result sued the school, claiming the point system that the University of Michigan uses for admittance was unconstitutional. This point system assigned a certain number of points to each part of the students application. A student of minority status would receive more points for race than a student of majority status. After the application had been fully assessed, students with sufficient points were admitted, and those that did not meet the mark were rejected. Even students that showed better grades and test scores than minorities were rejected because they received less points in the race category. Fortunately, the Supreme Court ruled that this point system was unconstitutional; however, there is not much difference between the first case and the second (Phillip).

The overall reason why the minority status is more “point worthy” than majority status is that the university is required to fill seats with minorities even if it means not admitting more qualified individuals.

Another example of reverse discrimination of those in the majority is outlined in a study done by two Princeton sociologists. The study they preformed revealed a very interesting fact about how elite schools weigh SAT scores for applicants. African Americans that scored above a 1500 (1600-point scale) received an equivalent of 230 SAT points and hispanics received an additional 185 SAT points. The study concluded that this was an attempt to “level the playing field,” but in reality, if a test represents academic ability, receiving extra points makes that person under qualified for the final number they receive (Espenshade and Chung).

The multiple circumstances in which minorities are given an advantage due to the fact they have the minority status are a direct result of affirmative action, because recruiters use it to justify accepting less qualified minorities over more qualified caucasians. The reverse discriminatory factor here is simple. Caucasians are less “enticing” because they simply are not a minority.

Reverse discrimination now causes other problems in society, and whether or not hatred is directed at the correct people is irrelevant. According to Ernest van den Haag, racism can actually come out of decisions based on affirmative action. If a well qualified person is denied a position so the recruiter can fill a quota with a minority, that rejected person may develop animosity towards the minority, which can stem out into hatred (van den Haag). In reality, the energy fueling that animosity could be used to attempt to change the affirmative action policies, but that is much easier said than done. Another example of misdirected animosity comes from an article written by authors David Sacks and Peter Thiel, where admissions officers at Stanford have been unfairly labeled as racist for denying caucasians (Sacks and Thiel). These admissions officers, perhaps black men, perhaps white women, were unfairly accused of racism against caucasians for correctly following mandated affirmative action policies. So not only is rejection because of being caucasian unfair, but so is unjustly labeling someone as a racist for simply following regulations imposed by the government.

Allowing underprivileged people to reach just as high as those who are fortunate, is something that all governments should always be concerned with. Unfortunately, the United States bases this assistance off of race where not everyone is represented equally. With the greater good of the American people in mind, the brilliant minds that govern this country should provide a better solution for the underprivileged.

Works Cited

Espenshade, Thomas J., and Chang Y. Chung. “The Opportunity Cost of Admission Preferences at Elite Universities*.” Social Science Quarterly 86.2 (2005): 293-305. Print.

PHILLIP, AMARA. “The Diversity Imperative.” Diverse: Issues In Higher Education 28.18 (2011): 16-17. Academic Search Premier. Web. 5 Mar. 2012.

Sacks, David, and Peter Thiel. “The Case Against Affirmative Action.” The Case Against Affirmative Action. Web. 06 Mar. 2012.

van den Haag, Ernest. “Affirmative Action And Campus Racism.” Academic Questions 2.3 (1989): 66. Academic Search Premier. Web. 5 Mar. 2012.

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For-Profit Prisons 2

Posted on March 3, 2012 by davidbdale

Remember my rant about for-profit prisons? No?

I said in print and in class that “The very phrase ‘for-profit prison’ should raise a red flag for anyone on the lookout for counterintuitivity. Prison populations have increased seven-fold since the 1970s. Yes, that means for every one inmate in US prisons in 1975, there are now seven US prisoners. That’s a real growth business! And, as such, it has attracted plenty of big investors who offer to build and administer new facilities to states, promising big cost savings and new jobs to towns that sorely need them.

“All that money and profit tied so closely to the number of inmates the state can provide to the owners of the prison creates far too many conflicts of interest to count. Dig into this topic for a couple of hours and you should be able to find counterintuitivity with your eyes closed.”

Now here’s another doozy of a link to a story from today about the rules Pennsylvania has had to enact to prevent judges from doing what Mark Ciavarella did–collecting more that a million dollars of kickbacks from for-profit prisons in return for sending them juvenile offenders (customers) he convicted routinely and with very little justification. The media have called it the “kids for cash” scandal.

Posted in Counterintuitivity, David Hodges, Professor Posts | Leave a comment

White Paper—Tikeena Sturdivant

Posted on March 1, 2012 by sturdi36

Topic/Background: In an interview conducted by Yahoo’s Shutdown Corner regarding the National Football League’s lockout, Minnesota Vikings running back, Adrian Peterson referred to himself as a “modern day slave” and continued by implying that, “… owners [of sport teams] are trying to get a different percentage, and bring in more money.” Peterson then inferred that he was a “40 million dollar slave.” During the National Football League’s many players lost their position on their football team due to the decrease in funding being made possible by the owners of football teams. Because of the funding being cut many players noticed a large decrease in salary for those affected seasons. Peterson justifies his comments by comparing owners of football teams to slaves and slave owners.

Counter-Argument: One could argue that Peterson’s perceptive is exaggerated because being forced to be a slave and being a running back for the National Football League is completely different. Slaves were made to work for hours on end without pay, very little food and worked in horrible working conditions whereas a professional running back is paid millions of dollars and is not forced to work, if they no longer want to play they can pay a fee and terminate their contract. Peterson’s comment can be seen as insensitive because it seems as though he is down- playing the hardships of what the enslaved went through by comparing them to celebrities. One could also argue that Peterson could leave the team at his leisure; if he wanted Peterson could transfer to another team instead of feeling as though he was a “modern day slave.”  Slavery was abolished in 1863 after Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation since then blacks have faced many obstacles such as discrimination, segregation, racism and unequal rights. Blacks did not have the right to vote nor did they have the right to eat or work where they pleased, how could this be compared to having a forty million dollar contract and being looked up to as a pillar of a community while having celebrity status.

Slave Attributes: Slaves were “drafted” based on there intelligence, physical strength, skills, and state of health. Before football players are drafted by any NFL team, they must give team owners an insight on their strengths and skills. This is done at the combine, which is the “pre-drafting stage” in which the inspiring football players receive their very last chance to be seen. These football players are drafted based on the same attributes of a slave.

A Slave making millions of dollars: Slaves made very little money if any, compared to a NFL football player. Before reading the article I was already led to believe that Adrian Peterson’s comment had more to do with the way he was being treated and not how much he was making. A slave making millions of dollars is unheard of.

Current state of research paper: If I’m not careful my paper will consist of multiple opinions instead of actual research. Researching the history of slavery to better my understanding will help me see where Adrian Peterson’s comment might have came from. I plan on looking into details concerning a athlete being compared to a slave.

Posted in Archived White Papers | 1 Comment

Sample Definition Argument

Posted on March 1, 2012 by davidbdale

No, I didn’t write an actual sample for you, but you may recall one day I came to class claiming to have heard a very heated Definition argument on the radio on my way to school that equated doctor visits with rape.

The conversation was about requirements some states are placing on doctors to perform a more invasive ultrasound on women requesting abortions than the benign “jelly on the belly” technique we all recognize. The procedure now required involves an instrument insertion civil rights advocates are characterizing as “state-sponsored rape” of the women who must submit to it or carry their pregnancies to term.

If you think Definition Essays are vapid academic exercises in semantics, take a listen to the passion raised by this definition problem.

Here’s a link to the summary and transcript if you need it to write your introduction.

Posted in David Hodges, Professor Posts, x Definition Essay | Leave a comment

My White Paper – Evan Horner

Posted on March 1, 2012 by horner53

Topic Background: The War on Drug is making more problems in America than helping solve the enormous drug problem. The United States today is trillions of dollars in debt, with a substantial amount of the country living blow the poverty line with no jobs. Our country is over run with drugs and drug addicts, and illegal dealing of these drugs leads to violence. Yet we remain to throw money into this “war” on drugs that has not shown enough reward for all its efforts except for more drugs and people using them than ever before, and prisons overflowing with non-violent drug users who have a serious problem and need to be in treatment centers instead of drug/violence infested penitentiaries. This country would be better off without the war on drugs.

The War on Drugs Has Failed:”Just as prohibition of alcohol failed in the U.S. in the 1920s, the war on drugs has failed globally. Over the past 50 years, more than $1 trillion has been spent fighting this battle, and all we have to show for it is increased drug use, overflowing jails, billions of pounds and dollars of taxpayers’ money wasted, and thriving crime syndicates. It is time for a new approach.”

Race’s Factor In The War on Drugs: “The drug war has produced profoundly unequal outcomes across racial groups, manifested through racial discrimination by law enforcement and disproportionate drug war misery suffered by communities of color. Although rates of drug use and selling are comparable across racial lines, people of color are far more likely to be stopped, searched, arrested, prosecuted, convicted and incarcerated for drug law violations than are whites.”

Essentially Harmless Drug Possession Fueling Drug War:“Today, as in past years, the so-called ‘drug war’ remains fueled by the arrests of minor marijuana possession offenders, a disproportionate percentage of whom are ethnic minorities,” NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano said in a prepared statement. “It makes no sense to continue to waste law enforcements’ time and taxpayers’ dollars to arrest and prosecute Americans for their use of a substance that poses far fewer health risks than alcohol or tobacco.”

Drug Addicts Deserve Different Treatment:”If we want to solve our nation’s drug problems, we need to focus less on obtaining convictions and more on preventing addictions. We should be treating people with addictions, not handcuffing them.”

Counterintuitive Note: Most people believe that the war on drugs is a necessary thing in this country. Helping to stop an enormous problem in America, Drugs by supplying drug enforcement agencies with all kinds of state of the art equipment and man power because they are putting the manufactures and dealers of these drugs in prison to get the eventual eradication of drugs and no one will be able to use these controlled substances. My paper will be on how the war on drugs is essentially a war that can’t be won, and it’s using a lot of money and resources in the process. Also how there are other better ways to fix the Drug Problem in America.

Current State Of My Research Paper: My Paper is coming along I have found an array of qualitative and quantitative sources. I’m planning on talking about how much money is being used by the War on drugs and how if the War was stopped there could not only be the money saved from not having the war on drugs but also revenue from the eventual legalization and regulation of the safer drugs (ex:marijuana). I will discuss that War on Drugs causes minor users and drug addicts to be put in prisons where there is not even enough room for the violent offenders, and how these people abusing drugs do not belong in an unsafe drug and violence infested jail they need to seek treatment.

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White Paper- Tyson Still

Posted on March 1, 2012 by stillt27

Topic Background: There are plenty of children that live a life of crime, but there are more children specifically teens that are starting to live the life of being a gang member. Gangs are all around us and doesn’t seem to be getting reduced any time soon. The more common gangs such as the bloods and crips were first started in the streets of California but then spread worldwide. Teens who join gangs have some type of background that might have led them to that way of life. Teens with a broken household gave them the negative outlook on life seems to join gangs most commonly. This happens in all areas of the country. 32.4% of nations cities, suburban towns, and rural cities have had gang problems since 2008. It has been said that teens who live a life of crime at an early age will live the same life when they are older. That could be another reason why teens join gangs, because thats the way of life they are used to and doesn’t want to get out of it. Teens who specifically didn’t have any love or affection from their parents are coming to find gangs more appropriate to join. More teens today without both parents in their life are most likely to take up the life of being in a gang rather than accept the broken love they are given.

Counterintuitivity Note: Why are most kids joining gangs? Is it really because they have nothing else to do or is it because they come form a broken home?

Teens with divorced parents: Teens without both parents are living a hard life already. Most teens could become confused when their parents get divorced not knowing what a real household feels like. Teens look for communication from both parents where the love is equal, but do not have that because of the divorce. No child should have to go through a divorce but when they do they should be well taken care of by which ever parent they live with. A divorce is crucial in a child life because not only does it mess up the state of stability but it also breaks a sense of unity that a teen should be able to hold on to. A reason why they go in to the mindset of joining gangs to be accepted and have that full comfort of a family type love.

Females growing up without a father: A female without a father is much different than a male without one. The female needs the father to be a father fighure but also needs them to show her and tell her what men not to deal with with. Sometimes a female needs to hear things from a male prospective which is where the father comes in at instead of the mother.Even though you don’t hear about females joining gangs as often then males there are a lot of the women in there.

Males growing up without a father: A boy would like his father to be there to teach him how to be a man. There are just some things a man needs to tell his son to make him understand better than a mother can. Without that father figure in his life he looks towards gasngs sometimes because he sees the male bondage that he wishes he had if there was a father in his life. So older gang members tend to take in the boy into the gang showing them the type of male love that they desire.

Females growing up without a mother: As a female you need someone to follow behind growing up. A mother is suppose to be that guide, where you can follow in her foot steps to become a woman of character, but wqithout her some girls get lost in life. Even if they have a father they are still lost because they have to grow up trying to become a woman in which their father does the best they can but can not give them love like their mother can. They might even join gangs just to escape the hurt or pain the have botled up inside of them because their mother left or something happened to her.

Males growing up without a mother: One would think that a male without a father wouldn’t be so bad because it’s not like a father son bond. The one who would think that would be wrong as well. A mother plays a very important role in that she can give the man an inside look on how a woman wants to be treated but also more importantly she can give the boy a different type of love than the father can give. The father gives a more tough love and lets the boy find out certain things on how to be a man on his own, sort of like when he gets into his first fight. A mother on the other hand shows a more compassionate side to loving her son. She shows more of a comfort and understanding as in being more assertive on what happens in his life. Without this the male teen might become cnfused on how to live life with a female companion in it.

Topics for smaller papers: A couple different directions can be brought upon this topic, one being the facts about how many children actually join gangs that have divorced parents, or also I can talk about why don’t others who have divorced parents join gangs as well. I had a broad topic broken down but another way I could go with this is what else causes children to join gangs that has to do with household problems?

Current state of Research Paper: At ther present moment i have did research, and the white paper along with my proposal, with this being said I am in the process of furthering my research and obtaining a few more claims to help me. I plan on elborating on the points I have already made and continue to look into teens joining gangs as the effect of divorces on teens.

Hopefully I will get a better understanding of why teens join gangs and is it really a result of parental separation. I personally know teens who have made a poor decision on joining gangs, however I haven’t quite figured out why. But the goal of my research paper is to figure this out.

 

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