Marijuana a no-no

Marijuana is a plant that contains  delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, a chemical that releases dopamine into the brain and gives the user a "high" feeling. THC, otherwise known as  delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol works on the parts of the brain that deal with memory, thinking, sensory and movement. The most common method of using marijuana is by smoking it. This brings the air into the lungs and then quickly disperses the drug throughout the body. Not only can this drug damage lungs, but it can also become addictive. Nearly 9% of people who use marijuana are addicted. Daily users are more likely to become addicted with their chances being at 25-50% compared to the 9%. What marijuana does is increase the heart rate for nearly three hours after use. A study has shown that this can cause a nearly 4.8 fold increase of the chances of a hear attack because of increased heart rate after the first hour of use. Marijuana contains nearly 50-70 percent more carcinogenic hydrocarbons than what tobacco contains. This can also cause an increased chance of cancer because of the high amount of  carcinogenic hydrocarbons. Nearly 15.7% of eighth graders have used marijuana in the last month, four years later that percentage jumps to 32.3% and two years later nearly 42% of twelfth graders have used marijuana in the last month. Marijuana use is a obvious problem within the teenage scene considering that nearly half of teenagers use marijuana which is an illegal drug. Although the uses of marijuana seem to do very little bodily harm, marijuana has shown to have a significant amount of effect on a persons social life. Many users of marijuana have shown that they have a harder time reaching life goals, impaired their chances at reaching higher points in their careers, social life, and cognitive abilities. Work has also shown that people who take marijuana take more sick days, have increased amount of tardies and work related accidents, and even a greater job turn over rate. One thing that many websites do not bring up are the amount of people that die because of drugs. Many people die in drug wars over marijuana and one way that I have heard of thinking about this is  from my band director. He said: is it really worth it to take that hit, impare your judgement? Is it really worth it to take that hit and let the people who die in the drug wars, the family members, children and others who die in those wars for you to take that hit?" something to think about...

Dumb Debt

America is quickly falling into debt. This should not be a problem in the long run, if America decides to pay off its debt quickly or when it has time, there should be no problem with it. Yet America is getting into the habit of borrowing money and not paying it back, something that many citizens of the US are doing too. Some citizens believe that they can go out and take a credit card to buy everything that they want. They then max out their credit cards and the card will not allow them to buy anything else. People that max out one credit card then move onto another carrier because they see it as being allowed to use 10,000 dollars and only paying 100 dollars a month, something very easy to do. Yet as they max out credit card after credit card it can become overbearing and then the person who began this trend cannot pay all the first payments on all of their credit cards, they begin to have late payments and interest too. This is very similar to the problem the US Government is having. The US keeps using money on its programs and to help out the US, and they have to be loaned money either from the public or foreign investors in order to keep up with their bill. Yet this is not the only kind of debt that the Government is in, it also has been taking money out of other programs and using it for the now, thus putting a debt into certain programs that are promised a certain amount of money such as the Social Security program.
The debt back in 1940 was 2 Billion. In 1950 it was quarter of a trillion. In 1960 it was just under half a trillion. in 1970 it was just above half a trillion. In 1980 it was one trillion. In 1990 it was three trillion. In 1995 it was five trillion. In 2000 it was 5.6 trillion. And today in 2013, it is 16 trillion dollars in debt.
There is a trend to this spending and it has not changed in over sixty years. If America wants to get out of its debt then there must be a change in policies. Yet this does not seem like it will happen because the US debt department as guessed that in 2016, the US will be in nearly 22.5 trillion dollars. This trend has to end and soon if America is to still exist.