25. November 2009 by student.

  Ever wonder how much money is being spend on non reusable plastic bottles? Bottled water is a $100 billion a year industry. The price people pay for tap water is highly subsidized, which means most people pay directly and indirectly for water.

   America is shipping one billion water bottles a week around the U.S. in ships, trains, and trucks, when we have clean water at our homes. Imagine the money spent on shipping all of that bottled water. This is also a major problem for the worlds land fills.  38 billion water bottles a year are dumped into landfills and in excess of $1billion worth of plastic. A surprisingly 24% of the bottled water purchased is tap water repackaged by Coca-Cola and PepsiCo.

I feel that every one should purchase an at home water filters because it can save the average person about $150 a year. One re-usable, BPA free bottle only costs about four dollars. Most home water filters guarantee even better quality, better then the bottled water.

BPA is a chemical  poison that is being consumed when drinking or eating from plastics that contain it. BPA is a chemical which real name is  Bisphenol - A, which is an environmental pollutant with estrogen activity, and a building block that is used primarily to make polycarbonate plastic and epoxy resins. Which i discovered from Bisphenol-a.org.

I feel that non recyclable/ reusable bottles are a problem to society, because not only is it affecting the environment but this product affects the humans using them.

- Dara Kobrin

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25. November 2009 by student.

It is estimated that 20.4 million Americans over the age of twelve are current drug users. This represents 8.3% of the population. It is estimated that drug use casues Americans over $484 billion annually, encompassing health care costs, lost job wages, car accidents, criminal justice costs, etc. Some believe that addiction to drugs is a disease, while others argue that addiction is a choice.

Dr.  Jeffrey Schaler, a professor at John Hopkins University, claims that drug addiction is not a disease of the mind, it is a choice. “Addiction means you like to do something,” he said. The key element of the addiction is the behavioral choice, not the object of the addiction. Withdrawls are a effect of the love of the drug. If you choose to come clean, and mean it, it should be easy.  In a test that Dr. Schaler did of soldiers returning from Iraq that were addicted to heroine, 87% of them were easily able to give it up, with no withdrawl and no treatment. They simply decided to stop once they came home. He also did a test of people who were on the East Coast during a long power outage. They became restless and impatient, and showed symptoms of withdrawl from electricity. He concludes that “Addiction isnt a disease, its a way of life.”

The other side of the spectrum claims that Addiction is a brain disease that develops over time.  Drugs change the chemical makeup of the brain so that the brain circuits are rerouted. Once the illness is confirmed, they treat it like any other brain illness. If drug addiction is viewed as a disease instead of a choice, it will stop society viewing criminal justice and health care as opposites. 50-70% of those arrested are addicted to illegal drugs.  The view that addiction is a disease does not erase the personal responsibility of choosing to do or not to do drugs. Until the addiction starts, full responsibility lies on the individual choosing to use them.

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