Did you know that the percentage of underage drinking in Canada is at a all time high of 75.1%. Children from the age 15-18 who drink have a higher chance of date rape, sexual abuse, violence, traffic accidents, impaired driving and alcohol poisoning. Althought less Caucasian High School students drink, more then 12% of white students will admit the drive regularly after drinking. But white students are less likely to drive with a drunk driver then African Canadians. Children who drink before age 15 are 4 times more likely to develop alcohol dependence than those who begin drinking at the age of 19. 26% of young male drivers involved in fatal crashes in 2000 were drinking at the time of the crash, compared with 13% of the young female drivers involved in fatal crashes. More than 40% of individuals who start drinking before the age of 13 will develop alcohol abuse or alcohol dependence at some point in their lives. 4% of all current drinkers are age 13. (Resource: MADD.ca). Underage drinking is at a all time high, what are we going to do?
The age of minority should be highered to 21. I know your thinking "what will that help they'll drink underage either way?". Approaching a 21 year old would be much harder for the majority of teens, they aren't in our schools, they are mature and may consider what they're doing to be illegal. Nineteen year old's are in our schools, friends with our brothers and sisters, around town, our facebook friends, easy to access with little fear of being rejected.
The government change laws to affect everything else that minors do so why is it still so easy for us to obtain alcohol and even cigarettes? The government tax both alcohol and cigarettes very highly so why would they want the sale of them to decrease, we aren't aloud to to drive after 12 until we're were 18 and police take marijuana possession by teenagers very seriously. Could that be because they can't tax either of those things? Just something to think about.
Another reason to make the age of minority age 21 is because at age 19 you are still in high school or in your first year of secondary schooling, were your studies are very important and alcohol could seriously take away from study time. By the time your 21 depending on what your taking you would be nearing finish of schooling. Also 21 year olds should be mature enough to know that there is study time and a time for fun. At are 19 fun is the priority.
I don't see any adults apposing this, even if some do, they are the parents that will by there kids alcohol no matter what the age of minority is. So whats it to them really? The only other person apposing this would be teenagers and really its obvious why we would be against this as a law am I right?
The high rates of teenage drinking need to be lowered, and in my own opinion making the drinking age higher is the only way to solve this.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Monday, October 19, 2009
Persuasive Essay Format
I choose to read a article called "The Question of the Legality of Marijuana". I found this article on Teen Ink, the writer did not leave his/her name. The thesis sentence of this article is "It is possible to legalize marijuana and put an end to the negative stigma associated with it." Located in the first paragraph, last sentence. After reading the first paragraph I was intrigued because it seemed evident that the writer did her research and was very opinionated about the subject.
This ten paragraph opinion piece was well put together and all paragraphs relate closely to the thesis. It was evident that she researched the subject because she had quotes such as " As former president George Washington once said: “Make the most of the hemp seed. Sow it everywhere"'. Also the writer had lots of statistics relating closely to the thesis like "With this new system in place [legalization of marijuana], the government could let go of the 57% of federal prison inmates that are imprisoned on marijuana-related charges (U.S. DOJ, BJS, Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics 2000), 88% of which were arrested on simple possession charges. Once they’re set free, the taxes Americans are paying to keep them housed and comfortable (23,000 USD per inmate according to S.R. Donziger, 1996) could be used for education, which is currently at only 8,000 per child. (D.A. Olsen, May 4, 2000) ".
The writer did briefly mention that marijuana is a gateway drug and that could be why it is illegal, in the third last paragraph. I feel it could of been discussed further but I think her mind was made up already. She did not convince me that it should be legalized no. Mainly because she didn't consider the reprocutions of things she said. Like the statistics above say, if all inmates arrested on charges involving marijuana there would be people that thought that it was okay to disobey what the government said and make there own laws back out on the street. Also I'm sure a lot of criminals in jail on charges of possession of marijuana if you look back through there record they most likely have numerous other charges on there plate, like Distribution Of A Dangerous Drug, and Violation of Probation. These people chose to disobey the laws of marijuana so what are they going to do when its legal, find another way to "give it to the man" do something that remains illegal, Distribute harder drugs maybe? She didn't thing everything thought completely I do not believe.
In the end I did like the article just because I'm a teenager and for majority of teenagers the legalization of marijuana would be a wonderful thing, make sneaking behind your parents a lot easier wouldn't it but I just don't think that its that easy. The writer did do a great job writing her opinion piece even if her and my opinion are a little different, I think that she probably spent a lot of time researching and writing this piece because there were few if any grammatical errors.
This ten paragraph opinion piece was well put together and all paragraphs relate closely to the thesis. It was evident that she researched the subject because she had quotes such as " As former president George Washington once said: “Make the most of the hemp seed. Sow it everywhere"'. Also the writer had lots of statistics relating closely to the thesis like "With this new system in place [legalization of marijuana], the government could let go of the 57% of federal prison inmates that are imprisoned on marijuana-related charges (U.S. DOJ, BJS, Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics 2000), 88% of which were arrested on simple possession charges. Once they’re set free, the taxes Americans are paying to keep them housed and comfortable (23,000 USD per inmate according to S.R. Donziger, 1996) could be used for education, which is currently at only 8,000 per child. (D.A. Olsen, May 4, 2000) ".
The writer did briefly mention that marijuana is a gateway drug and that could be why it is illegal, in the third last paragraph. I feel it could of been discussed further but I think her mind was made up already. She did not convince me that it should be legalized no. Mainly because she didn't consider the reprocutions of things she said. Like the statistics above say, if all inmates arrested on charges involving marijuana there would be people that thought that it was okay to disobey what the government said and make there own laws back out on the street. Also I'm sure a lot of criminals in jail on charges of possession of marijuana if you look back through there record they most likely have numerous other charges on there plate, like Distribution Of A Dangerous Drug, and Violation of Probation. These people chose to disobey the laws of marijuana so what are they going to do when its legal, find another way to "give it to the man" do something that remains illegal, Distribute harder drugs maybe? She didn't thing everything thought completely I do not believe.
In the end I did like the article just because I'm a teenager and for majority of teenagers the legalization of marijuana would be a wonderful thing, make sneaking behind your parents a lot easier wouldn't it but I just don't think that its that easy. The writer did do a great job writing her opinion piece even if her and my opinion are a little different, I think that she probably spent a lot of time researching and writing this piece because there were few if any grammatical errors.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
The Circus
"I love the circus! I had so much fun Frank, I want to live there. Lets run off to the circus!" I shouted with forceful glee in my voice. Because I didn't really like the circus, it smelled like elephant poop and the carnys made me uncomfortable and were rude to my mother. I didn't like them the most. But in all honesty I didn't really like Frank, so I was going to leave him at the circus! So he would stop following me around as if he was my little puppy dog.
"Seriously Greg, everybody I've ever talked to always said the circus was scary and the rides were dangerous," as he questioned my lie. I became nervous. What if this didn't work out and he still acted as my unwanted tail.
"No, NO! come along" I smiled reassuringly.
As we walked to the circus entrance he questioned me again, about the broken down sign, with only half the letters remaining red and bright, with the other half, lights broke out and dead flys gathering at the bottom of the letters in a small lip of plastic, graveyard of flys. I too if I was him, would question.
He remained hooked to my back side thought, not willing to turn back now, we payed our 22 dollar entrance fee and cautiously offered our hands to the lady carny with red and black hair. It almost resembles a rats nest, scared of what might crawl out of her hair we rushed the process and only received one bracelet.
Frank wore the bracelet questionably. I decide to stop at the fortune tellers, a yellow and red tee-pee with a piece of Bristol board reading "Mystic Jess". The inside made of black and purple sparkly velvet, with a quiet dark skinned girl with long brown hair that fell forward into her face. A face decorated with high half moons covering her eye lids, the color mom wore in pictures from high school, really blue. Her cheek bones looked huge covered in the reddest of reds, and her skin seemed older then she did. Gold and silver jewelry hanging all over her body. She was scary but seemed friendly almost.
She spoke softly when she said "May i see your hand young child"
Reluctantly Frank gave her his hand she held it firmly with both of her hands, her long red finger nails seemed to engrave into his skin. Giving me the shivers, I looked at Frank, sweat beading down his forehead gathering at his eyebrows. My chance.
"Frank I'm going to run to the bathroom, if you don't mind," before his answer I opened the curtain door and squinted into the daylight. Thankful to be outta there. I ran and ran to the entrance in my far view, like tunnel vision it was all I could see. The lady with red and black hair looked oddly at me running so vigorously. I didn't see the branch few strides away, "CRACK" I heard it. As I tumbled to the ground I tried to scramble to my feet without losing anytime.
The lady at the entrance roared loudly "HEY YOU! You alright kid?" for a second she paused then said "and where's your bracelet!?"
There was no chance now. I was caught by a evil carny, what could I do but roar for the main reason I came here "FRANK! FRANK! FR-R-R-ANK! HELP ME!" I glared hopefully at the tee-pee waiting for the curtain door to fly open and him run to my rescue. Then after the longest seconds of my life it happened, he came running to my rescue, a much better friend then I could ever be. He ran hard and fast, grabbed my arm and without asking any questions continued running through the entrance and didn't stop until the broken down letters of that awful sign were completely out of view.
"Seriously Greg, everybody I've ever talked to always said the circus was scary and the rides were dangerous," as he questioned my lie. I became nervous. What if this didn't work out and he still acted as my unwanted tail.
"No, NO! come along" I smiled reassuringly.
As we walked to the circus entrance he questioned me again, about the broken down sign, with only half the letters remaining red and bright, with the other half, lights broke out and dead flys gathering at the bottom of the letters in a small lip of plastic, graveyard of flys. I too if I was him, would question.
He remained hooked to my back side thought, not willing to turn back now, we payed our 22 dollar entrance fee and cautiously offered our hands to the lady carny with red and black hair. It almost resembles a rats nest, scared of what might crawl out of her hair we rushed the process and only received one bracelet.
Frank wore the bracelet questionably. I decide to stop at the fortune tellers, a yellow and red tee-pee with a piece of Bristol board reading "Mystic Jess". The inside made of black and purple sparkly velvet, with a quiet dark skinned girl with long brown hair that fell forward into her face. A face decorated with high half moons covering her eye lids, the color mom wore in pictures from high school, really blue. Her cheek bones looked huge covered in the reddest of reds, and her skin seemed older then she did. Gold and silver jewelry hanging all over her body. She was scary but seemed friendly almost.
She spoke softly when she said "May i see your hand young child"
Reluctantly Frank gave her his hand she held it firmly with both of her hands, her long red finger nails seemed to engrave into his skin. Giving me the shivers, I looked at Frank, sweat beading down his forehead gathering at his eyebrows. My chance.
"Frank I'm going to run to the bathroom, if you don't mind," before his answer I opened the curtain door and squinted into the daylight. Thankful to be outta there. I ran and ran to the entrance in my far view, like tunnel vision it was all I could see. The lady with red and black hair looked oddly at me running so vigorously. I didn't see the branch few strides away, "CRACK" I heard it. As I tumbled to the ground I tried to scramble to my feet without losing anytime.
The lady at the entrance roared loudly "HEY YOU! You alright kid?" for a second she paused then said "and where's your bracelet!?"
There was no chance now. I was caught by a evil carny, what could I do but roar for the main reason I came here "FRANK! FRANK! FR-R-R-ANK! HELP ME!" I glared hopefully at the tee-pee waiting for the curtain door to fly open and him run to my rescue. Then after the longest seconds of my life it happened, he came running to my rescue, a much better friend then I could ever be. He ran hard and fast, grabbed my arm and without asking any questions continued running through the entrance and didn't stop until the broken down letters of that awful sign were completely out of view.
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