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Drinking Problem
How do you tell if someone has a drinking problem? It is often a judgment made after assessing the persons drinking habits,
how much and when, the effect on him emotionally and physically also family members, friends, employers, and the law.
Although there are some ways to find out whether or not someone has a drinking problem, there is also no single set of criteria, which defines the problem drinker.
You can ask whether the drinking has affected the person�s physical and emotional well being.
Has his relationships with his family and friends been affected? Has the persons job been affected, missing work because of drinking, been reprimanded by his employer?
Has the person been in trouble with the law because of drinking? In more areas where alcohol has had an effect the more likely the persons drinking is problematic.
Here are some definitions on different types of drinkers. First the moderate drinker.
This type drinks occasionally or a relatively small amount of alcohol with some regularity.
Such people are ones who have a cocktail before dinner or wine with their meal.
Second is the heavy drinker. This is one who drinks everyday for at least a year.
Also every week or two during the year a heavy drinker will drink more than six drinks at one setting.
An important part of this definition is that no problems are reported as a result of the drinking.
Last we will discuss the problem drinker. This type drinks as much as the heavy drinker, but drinking has caused problems in their lives.
Which may include drinking to deal with lifes pressures and disappointments. he problem drinker has not crossed the line that separates problems drinking from alcoholism.
The line between problem drinking and alcoholism is when the problems related to his drinking become more specific and less general.
The person seems to have lost control of his drinking, friends and families disapprove of the persons drinking, and the drinker has experienced trouble outside the family.
Everybody who drinks doesn�t necessarily have a problem. People are different.
Different ages, genders, and races. Most people would say that Native Americans have more problems with alcohol than other races.
I think that it�s maybe the chemical composition of Native Americans. Although there is many different types of tribes across America Native Americans have basically the same chemical make-up.
My particular tribe is the Colville tribe, located in the Pacific Northwest. It is in the eastern part of Washington state. You will also find the Spokane, Welpenit, and Yakima reservations.
These tribes lived on salmon, cod, and shellfish.
They also hunted game and collected berries in the nearby woods. These tribes developed crafts and artistic skills also much social and religious systems.
This region is an isolated one being separated by the mountain ranges. Access to the area was possible by people using boats. Most of these tribes engaged in frequent raiding and warfare.
Men on these war parties fought with clubs, bows and arrows, daggers, and spears.
In almost all the tribes the people had a significant religious life full of rituals, dances, and ceremonies.
They believed in many spirit beings such as the eagle, beaver, raven, bear, whose protection they continually sought.
The first whites to reach the northwest coast were Russian fur traders in the eighteenth century. They introduced ironware. Many of the Indians perished in conflicts with the traders or from diseases, which the whites introduced.
In time the culture degenerated and disappeared. A few have tried to keep alive or revive old skills but it�s usually done today as an attraction for tourists or for non-Indian purchasers, although there are some well known beliefs and ceremonies.
- Smoking
One out of three people who use tobacco will die from it. Nearly 3,000
young Americans each day become regular smokers. Of these, 1,000 will die early
from tobacco-related diseases. More Americans die due to complications from
smoking than from any other major killer such as AIDS, car accidents, drug abuse
and homicide. Why do so many people continue to smoke when they know the
possible risks involved? Many have become addicted to cigarettes because of the
addictive substance, nicotine, which cigarettes contain. How much did tobacco
companies know about this addictive substance, and what is their defense for
making addicts of their customers? Also, do people realize how much money they
are actually spending on cigarettes? These reasons and many more are the reason
tobacco is so addictive (www.tc.bmjjournals) Nicotine, the chemical substance
found in tobacco leaves, is recognized as a highly addictive drug. Tobacco
originated from the Western Hemisphere and eventually spread to Europe by
explorers such as Columbus.
In the early 1600's the colonists introduced tobacco
to America, and eventually it became one of the major crop and trading
commodities of the Jamestown colony. Unfortunately people were not aware of the
adverse affects of tobacco until the 1960's. Since the public has been informed
about the possible health risks of smoking, over 38 million people have quit
smoking. Matherne 2 However, 50 million Americans, regardless of the medical
research, continue to put their health at risk. (www.historian.org) The
cigarette manufacturers used a series of unscientific techniques to make people
be skeptic about the addictivness of nicotine. The manufacturers invented a
definition of addictiveness, which said, addiction is "intoxication,
tolerance and a physical dependency that was manifested by
withdrawal"(www.tc.bmjjournals). Because smokers are not intoxicated, the
industry argued that it was ridiculous to concur that nicotine was addictive.
The tobacco industry also falsely claimed that because smokers can quite on
their own that it is impossible to be addictive. However, they failed to note
that no scientific authority on addiction ever considered being able to quit on
your own an attribute for a non-addictive substance (www.tc.bmjjournals).
According to the FDA, "many heroin addicts become abstinent by themselves,
and more than three-quarters of recovered alcoholics in a recent survey achieved
success without formal treatment� (www.tc.bmjjournals). Another erroneous
statement made by cigarette companies is that because smokers do not use
"ever-increasing amounts to achieve a desired effect," than nicotine
does not influence tolerance. Despite the manufacturer's feeble attempt to
manipulate the facts, the truth is that over a third of occasional users do
become daily smokers. To attach further information that nicotine is an
addicting substance, a new study shows that nicotine stimulates the "reward
system" in the brain (www.news.bbc.co). This area of the brain is proven to
be targeted by such drugs as cocaine, amphetamines, and morphines. Results from
research on this new documentation suggest that some methods used to treat
cocaine addition may be useful Matherne 3 for smokers as well. Hopefully smokers
will have enough money to afford help if they didn't already spend on their
cigarette addiction.
(www.http://cnn.com) The cost of cigarettes lately is
outrageous. One pack is almost four dollars. If you smoke two packs a day, in a
week you might have spent over thirty-five dollars or more. That�s money that
could be used to pay car notes, or insurance. Many people do not realize the
amount of money they spend on healthcare due to cigarette smoke. �Nationally
it cost 72.7 billion dollars a year to treat smokers who suffer from
smoking-related diseases� (www.health.state). That is a lot of tax dollars
that�s going to people who are only hurting themselves. All you are really
paying for by smoking is an early ticket to see God. Most smokers are not aware
of the possible damage smoking can cause to their health. In women �smoking
increases your risk of cervical and rectal cancer.smoking worsens your
period�.smoking damages your fertility�.and smoking can affect your unborn
babies� (www.cnn.com). If all women smoker�s knew the actual effects smoking
has on them and their future offspring, there would be many soon-to-be
nonsmokers. Men aren�t off the hook either.
In a man � smoking increases the
chance of impotence�.smoking impairs sperm mobility�.and smoking changes the
shape of the sperm, which may be related to a greater incidence of miscarriages
and birth defects� (www.health.state). So all the myths about �it�s the
women�s fault for miscarriages� is false. Men who smoke have a 50%
responsibility for the absence of a newborn child. Even though all this
information on smoking is out there, people continue to smoke and increase the
chance of destroying another life. Matherne 4 Lies by the tobacco companies,
your money, and your health do not compare to the biggest problem with smoking.
The biggest problem with smoking is that it flat out kills people. �According
to recent figures smoking is responsible for approximately 3.5 million deaths
worldwide every year-or about 7% of all deaths (news.bbc.com). Just like
those new commercials say, tobacco kills one-third of its users.
I hope
that you�re smart enough not to be hoping to be that one. Humans just aren�t
that lucky. You are basically throwing your life to chance on a 3:1 odd that you
are going to die from smoking. Most gamblers would bet it all and say, Let
it ride.
- Drugs
What do we know about drugs? What do we imagine when we say this word? White powder or a young person, wiping out any possibility for his future to grow, killing himself slowly.
Drugs came in our life and destroyed any relations between parents and children. I say "any" because this is the word, defining exactly what happens when a child starts taking drugs.
Ignorance. Ignorance from the rest of the world, living in a world with no real friends, no sun, no flowers, no stars, no tears or laughter^ no love.
The only friend of the drug addict is the syringe. And nevertheless, there are people who manage to emerge from all this, to overcome their dependence from drugs and let their life change, continue, develop or whatever word you're comfortable with.
Why? Why there are so many drug addicts? Why does a child become a drug fiend? There are people, who are more probable to start taking drugs, than others. People, who are more responsible, stronger and are always "in charge" of their own problems, these people "never" take drugs, as they say themselves. These people are able to obey someone, to entice someone, to listen or act for someone, but to get what they want, to get the joy they want. But there are weak people, who have "closed" and ignored themselves from the rest of the reality, people who live in their own world. They are usually not willing to solve their problems by their own, so they find a "friend" who "helps" them. And all this, because you don't need neither to obey, nor to allure the squirt. No, you just take it, and you get they joy you have been longing for so fervently, ignoring everything else around you. You get a false joy, and become unable to feel anything, as you try to get another dose^
- Cenema and Censorship
The freedom to read is essential to the democratic way of life. But
today, that freedom is under attack. Private groups and public authorities
everywhere are working to remove both books and periodicals from sale, to
exclude certain books from public schools, to censor and silence magazines
and newspapers, and to limit controversial books and periodicals to the
general public. The suppression of reading materials is suppression of
creative thought. Books and periodicals are not the only ones being
suppressed by pressures to the political and social systems. They are also
being brought against the educational system, films, radio, television, and
against the graphic and theatre arts. However or whenever these attacks
occur, they usually fall at least one of the following categories:
Religion
War & Peace (Violence)
Sociology & Race
Language
Drugs
Sex
Inappropriate Adolescent Behaviour
What is Obscenity? Clearly something hard to talk about constructively.
Obscenity is difficult to discuss honestly. After all, what makes a thing
obscene? It is Something too vague perhaps to be defined. It's an elusive
term we use, but can't explain. Different people often see things
differently. Some see obscenity in nude pictures, statues, paintings, etc.
While others find less obscenity in these things. All the same, obscene
isn't the same as wrong or bad. Clearly obscenity is not identical with
evil. It only covers a single segment of it. But what is that segment? A
look at the words obscenity and pornography suggests that it is a
segment that didn't worry people very much till relatively recently.
Though censorship was known in english law quite early on, it wasn't
for obscenity but for heresy and sedition.Undue exploitation of sex is
what criminal law in Canada prohibits. This is how criminal law defines
obscenity. But it is rather vague. It doesn't differentiate between
ordinary obscenity and hard-core pornography. The first denoting the
ordinary run of girlie magazines and the second denoting pictures ,
literature and so on that deal with rape, sadism, masochism, bestiality,
necrophilia and other perversions. People tend to object far more to hard-
core pornography. Another distinction unfortunately overlooked by our
criminal law is the distinction between isolated instances of obscenity and
the products of vast commercial enterprise.
There has been an increasing trend towards children's literature that
reflects a more realistic approach to the life both fiction and non-fiction,
with subjects that include sex, homosexuality, divorce, child abuse, drugs,
violence, etc. And they are these realistic books that have people outraged.
In school libraries, the most frequent complaints come from parents about
the school's selections. And in public libraries, parents were once again
the single greatest source of challenges to materials.
The world is filled with obscene things. And it would seem that
those parents are just trying to protect their children from the outside
world. But does it really help? These day, an average elementary school
student knows many things. They are influenced by a wide range of sources,
from television and other forms of media, their environment at home and
school, their personality and their background. Why they read does not
necessarily mean that they will follow. Literature is a valued source of
knowledge for these children, and should not be held back. So rather than
applying full censorship, it should be made an age-related censorship. Many
of the complaints that were issued were of the immaturity of the readers.
And younger children should be prevented from borrowing material intended
for an older age group. Controversial materials should still be held either
in reserve stock, available on request, or under a section for parents and
teachers who can decide for themselves whether the material is suitable or
not.
Our would is not perfect. We are a world filled with violence, sex,
racism, etc. Certain literature like hard-core pornography should be
censored to the general public. These types of explicit sex truly have no
meaning. They degrade the human race by increasing physical, mental and
sexual abuse against women, animals, and sometimes against men. These
inhuman treatments should not be shown to prevent other potential people
from experimenting these acts of disgust. Ordinary obscenity should be
censored closely, but with an objective view. They may also cause an
increase in the violence against women, so they must be reduced and kept
out of reach of the immature readers. To make a tree grow correctly, you
must start caring from the very beginning. You must not block its nutrients,
water nor sunlight, but allow it to move around a bit. We have a governing
social system that mainly frowns upon the violence against women. There
should indeed be access to most types of literature, but in varying degrees
of freedom, determined not by censorship, but by controlled access. Parents
are trying to protect their children from the harsh realities of life, but
are they really helping, or hindering?
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