Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Last Blog: Relfection

This semester I can honestly say I've been the best student I can be. I am 100% sure I have all A's and B's in all 8 classes. That all came from hard work, focus, determination and concentration, all of which students need to have if they want to become auspicious. Not only due to the homework policy but due to my determination of wanting to do good, doing homework has not been a problem this year. Being a senior, I learned the best way to complete things and get an A on them, is by basing your project, paper, or essay off the rubric. If you follow the rubric and what needs to be done, it's guaranteed you'll get a great grade on it. I organized my homework by depending on what day it was due, instead of making my plans first, I would make my plans around my homework. Everything I've done this semester was able to make me succeed and I'm going to continue my work ethics for the second semester, and get the grades I want. Everyone can control their own grades, it's up to them.

Having three separate writing classes, teaching completely different things, I would definitely say I have excelled in writing a lot. One of the things I had a little bit of trouble with was writing the letter. I didn't know exactly what to say, but to make it better, I read it over and over again and re-wrote it to make it sound better. When I have a weakness in something, I try to correct it by making it the best I can. By doing that it becomes a strength instead of a weakness. The only way to get better at something is to practice so you can succeed. Success equals happiness, and that should be everyone's main goal in life. I also need to remember when ever I'm writing a paper, to have an introduction, body, and conclusion. I know I learned it when I was in like 2nd grade, but I still forget it every now and then and just randomly write all of my thoughts out with no organization.

Considering we focused on our topic for so long, I have so much information stored in my brain about ecstasy. I know I'm not going to forget it for a long time, so when I can I want to use it in context and let people know. The part that sticks in my mind is how deleterious it is to your body, your body is such a sacred place and you only get one of them, so you should take care of it and love it. Your body is a magical thing and has wonders of it's own, sometimes it can heal itself, other times it cannot. DonProxy-Connection: keep-alive
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7t take the risk, be smart and have fun the safe way. It still amazes me that ecstasy (MDMA) itself, is not addictive, it's all the other chemicals and drugs it's based with, that are highly addictive. Since it was discovered on an accident, who knows some scientists might discover something like it. Something like ecstasy, same affects, but not as harmful. I don't know if I'm going to continue to research my topic, because I know anything and everything about ecstasy that there is to know. I still feel the same as I did in the beginning of this process, ecstasy is very very bad if you abuse it, but hey if you use it once, I believe everything is good in moderation. Although, that's the catch with drugs, you can't really do them once and not want to try them again because the different reality they take you too.


I loved doing this project, because when you're given the freedom to chose something you want to learn about for a couple months you can't really go wrong. It makes the work easier, and helps you become more motivated about it. :]

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Book Title: Incredibly Disgusting Drugs

For my book essay I chose to read a book called Incredibly Disgusting Drugs: Ecstasy by Tamra B. Orr. It's one of five books in the series, and they are short but excessive amounts of information are contained through-out the book. The book was written to inform people about the dangers of ecstasy. Tamra B. Orr has a very negative outlook on drugs which was her reason for writing this book. After reading this book, it really made me understand why she is so against it. So yes, she did meet her intended purpose and the feeling I got after reading this was intense. It made me feel sorry for the people that are addicted to ecstasy. "Some ecstasy users have run temperatures of 108 degrees before they began to literally melt from the inside out." That's extremely dangerous because when you're sick with a fever of 104, that's deadly and if it gets any higher than that, usually you'll be immediately rushed to the hospital. When your temperature is 108, you have no water in your body and that can be considered as an over dose. Reading that little piece of information was probably the thing that stuck in my head the most, because I can't believe people would want to risk their lives just for one night of fun.

This book was very organized and it was organized in four different sections. The first section had the introduction and the dangers and dirty business of making ecstasy. The second section talks about your body on ecstasy. The third section involves information on your brain on ecstasy. And the last and fourth section talks about many different things: a world of trouble in one small pill, glossary, the bibliography and the index.

The introduction has a couple stories about teenagers who have overdosed and died, and teenagers who have only taken one pill and have died. This proves that even if you're only doing it one time, it's still deleterious and it only takes one time to lead to death. It also gives a little bit of background history of ecstasy, and I knew most of it, because of the previous blogs I looked up research for. I'm sure many parents appreciated when they gave the street names of ecstasy, because a lot of teenagers don't call it ecstasy.

The second section described the title of the book perfectly, Disgusting Drugs, and I think many people who try ecstasy go wrong when they do it before researching it. "If you happen to already have high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, epilepsy, or panic attacks, the stress placed on your body will be even greater, and the effects more severe and dangerous." Before trying anything new, I believe research is needed to make sure what you're putting into your body is safe. Ecstasy might not be deadly, but if you have a medical condition, it very well could be. Towards the end of the section it explains the dangers of a pacifier. Ecstasy has a chemical in it, that makes people clench their jaws and makes them want to chew on things, so teens suck on pacifiers so they don't chew their mouth apart. "If someone uses pacifiers, it can cause orthodontic problems." "If you hold it in the front and it pushes on the front teeth, it has the effect of thumb sucking." Personally, I believe a smile is the most attractive thing on a person, and it's what catches peoples attention. If you're teeth are ruined because of a pacifier, I think that's an extremely huge loss, just for one night of fun.

The third section follows up the one before it talking about your brain on ecstasy. "While under the influence of the drug, users may sometimes experience confusion, disorientation, anxiety, panic attacks, depression, insomnia, depersonalization, derealization, perceptual disorders and hallucinations, paranoia, and psychotic phenomena. Suffice to say, it's extremely dangerous." I don't even know what most of those things are, but if they can be caused by a tiny pill, that's not even the size of a dime, that's saying something about the severeness of it.

The thing in the last section that left a lasting impression on me, was the part about getting caught with ecstasy. "If you are charged with the possession of one ecstasy tablet, you face up to a year in prison, or a $1,000 fine and three years probation." Most people would not get caught with only pill, because it would be easy to hide. More than likely they would get caught with a large amount, and if one pill equals all those chargers above, think about getting caught with 100. "If you are older than 6, your name will be published in the newspaper." Prison would be terrible, but getting your name in the newspaper it's so embarrassing. Everyone and anyone would look down on you, and ecstasy is something people don't take sitting down, and you would probably not be forgiven by a large amount of people. You would lose friends, maybe family, and the respect from hundreds. Making money illegally is not worth any of that.
The way the information is placed through-out the book, the information really stuck in my brain. It goes from bad to worse, and it's all extremely negative information that would scare anyone away from the drug.

I chose to read this book because in the back of it, it gives background information on the author: Tamra Orr. She's published over 100 nonfiction books, which makes her writing legit. I think her motivation for writing this nonfiction books, is her oldest daughter. She works for social services and tells Tamra stories about drug-addicted patients every day. From the stories and experiences people have told her, Tamra has a very in depth understanding of drugs, and the statistics she writes about to try to keep as many children as safe as possible are backed up with research. She has 26 credible sources in the back to show where the information in this book came from.

The main conclusion that this book comes to, is that in one little pill could lead to a world of death. Teenagers are too caught up in the moment and don't think about the long terms effects in life. It's sad because if the kid had someone to tell them what the dangers of ecstasy are, I'm sure that would stop many kids before trying it. They hear from their friends that's it's the best feeling ever, and when you're a teenager there is so much drama, it seems nice to escape for a night. Although, there are other ways to escape than drugs. They just need to be introduced.

The style of this book, it kind of like a kids book. It's short, has colorful pictures, and not very many words. Although the information in this book is far from a childrens' story. Some of the words I have never heard before, but in the back of the book there is a glossary which is very helpful. There's a variety of short and long sentences, as well as punctuations. Most all of it is expository text, explaining the dangers of ecstasy.

Reading this book answered all of my questions I had from the beginning of this unit. I'm surprised I did not use it earlier as a source, because everything I researched I found in here. I enjoyed reading the book, but when I was finished with it, it gave me a funny feeling in my stomach. It was not a very good feeling, but I think it's cause I was reading about a depressing subject. I know I'm not the only one that felt this way after reading it, and I bet it had more of an impact on other people who have friends or loved ones addicted to the drug. I would recommend this book to everyone. Considering it scared me, I know it would scare many other people and if that's what it takes to make people not take drugs, so be it. :]

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

For this week’s blog, I am choosing to write about the rave culture. Raves are where ecstasy is mainly taken, and I am interested to find background information about it.

Raves originated in Europe in the 1980's where ecstasy was slowly being to be abused. A rave was when thousands of people gathered around techno music and they were held either outside or in large warehouses. After a short amount of time, raves were then moved into established clubs and to the police were known as "Drug Taking Festivals." Later in the 1980's, raves moved into the United States with big entertainers and promoters. In the mid 1900's, raves were spoken of in chat rooms heavily, and it was known that dance clubs had an extreme growth and the usage of ecstasy had increased. People found out that they didn't have to be on drugs to go to raves, but then things like rape, property damage, drug sales and pharmaceutical division took place.

Raves are advertised by fliers, papers, telephone, radio, the internet, and some audio stores. They advertise the headliners, which are dj's, bands, and/or groups. At a rave, it includes loud techno, huge bass speakers, psychedelic lights, videos, smoke, fog, fire, and sparks. A rave usually consists of a large dance room, or maybe more depending on how big the capacity is, which is accompanied with a "cool down room" as well as a VIP room. If you want to be a part of the VIP room, you have to buy more expensive tickets. Curfew restrictions have changed due to raves being held at random times such as 6:00pm-4:00am. Odd things kids use at raves are: Vicks vapor rub, menthol nasal inhalers, eye drops, surgical masks, glow sticks (because peoples' eyes shake when they're on ecstasy and seeing the lights intensify the feeling) lollipops, pacifiers (because people grind their teeth, and if they don't want to chew up their mouth, pacifiers are in need) water (it's easily to get dehydrated) and drug testing kits (because people go there sober looking for drugs, and they don't want to buy bunks ones.)

MDMA usage has increased so much it's inevitable to try to cease it. The security and police at raves have ignored the drug use and mainly worry about the distribution of drugs, and weapons.
The only way people get caught at raves is if the police have some suspicion they're selling drugs or they see someone take a pill or inject something into them selves.

I'm glad I researched this because it's really interesting and if I knew how to put a video of one up here I would. Raves sound extremely out of hand and dangerous.




"DEA Ongoing Programs, Shoulder-to-Shoulder Press Conferences, Raves." PE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd" Welcome to the United States Department of Justice. Ed. U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Web. 16 Dec. 2009. .

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Annotated Bibliography

1. Duhaime, Lloyd. "Police Station Cocaine." Duhaime.org - Bringing Legal Information To The World. Web. 24 Oct. 2009. http://duhaime.org/LegalResources/PoliceStation/LawArticle-51/Cocaine.aspx.

This article informs people about the drug cocaine. The first paragraph shows how it's made and where it comes from while the rest of the article tells what cocaine does to your body, if it's dangerous and how your body becomes addicted to it. It shows a picture of cocaine, and has other links that answer questions asked about cocaine.

The information that is concealed in this article is very descriptive and easy to read. I'm sure all most of high school students know a lot of this information because kids talk and things get around. I think the text is more meant for adults trying to inform their kids about the dangers of drugs.

I used the information in this article that shows what cocaine does to your body as well as how you can become addicted to it. I think those are the most important pieces in this text and the parts that people would be interested in reading and learning more about.


2. "Ecstasy Side Effects." Ecstasy Effects and Addiction Information. Ed. Get Help Now. Web. 14 Dec. 2009. .

This is a website that informs you about all the side effects and dangers of ecstasy. It's also a "get help" website, and if you need help from the addiction they have a contact link to get help. Who ever wrote this website strongly believes that ecstasy will kill you and if you know someone who's doing it, to contact them so they can help you help them.

It's all really good information because it's strongly believed in. And when something is strongly believed in, they have convincing statistics and tactics to get you on their side. This is a great website to refer too and I have read it over and over again to get information for various blogs.


As I said up above I used most all of the information on this site, it's easy to read and very credible. It's all really helpful and I'm glad I found this website for my blog. I would tecommend this site to people wanting to know anything about ecstasy.



3."Hallucinogens: LSD, Peyote, Psilocybin, and PCP - InfoFacts." National Institute on Drug Abuse - The Science of Drug Abuse and Addiction. Ed. National Institutes Of Health. Web. 24 Oct. 2009. http://www.drugabuse.gov/Infofacts/hallucinogens.html.



This article holds the information upon 4 types of hallucinogens. It tells you exactly what they are, how they're abused, how they affect the brain, how they affect your health, and the treatments that are available. At the bottom it even shows you a chart of 8th, 10th, and 12th graders in 2008 that have tried hallucinogens to give you an idea of how high schooler's abuse drugs.


This article was very informational because even the things I didn't wasn't looking for, I found out. Although the vocabulary was more advanced so I had to look up a lot of the words to understand the text. Therefore, this article wasn't mean for younger kids and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone younger than a senior.

I used bits and parts of this article in one of my blogs, but I haven't needed the information for anything else. The way I used it in my blog I think it puts a picture in people's mind. I also put all the harder words in lameness terms so it was more readable since my peers were the ones reading it.


4. "Herbal Ecstasy." District Attorney Home Page. Ed. Dever DA. Web. 11 Dec. 2009. .

This website holds everything and anything about ecstasy. It's the Denver DA so all of their information is credible. It had some information that the other websites didn't, it shares what the consequences are if you get caught with it, and the different consequences for different ages. On a couple different pages it displays what ecstasy looks like, and explains how it can be all shapes, sizes and color.

The information on the website was easy to read and understand, I feel like all policemen know this information and are taught it if they are in the drug area. They have to know what it looks like if they search someone or their cars so they know it's not candy, it's ecstasy.

I used this site many many times for different articles, various things I needed to find for blogs I found in this website. I like this website because it's easy to understand and very helpful. I also like knowing the consequences so I can warn the friends I have, that having one pill can be 5 years in jail and that it's not worth it.




5. "Methamphetamine, crystal meth effects at SAMHSA's NCADI." Drug and alcohol abuse, treatment, prevention at SAMHSA's National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information. Ed. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Web. 24 Oct. 2009. http://ncadi.samhsa.gov/GOVPUBS/PHD861/.


This article gives more information that kids would be interested in. It gives the street names of meth, how it's used, the side effects, and how it destroys your body. It doesn't give too much information on each of those things, but it gives you enough to scare you away from the drug. The last part talks about how you know if someone you know is giving meth and the way they should be acting.


It offers a lof of street names, which is really good for adults so they here one of the code names from kids they know exactly what they're talking about. Some of the things it does to your body are disgusting, which makes people not want to do it, so I believe the scare tactic is very useful. I think they could've added a little more information for each topic discussed about meth, to show a more deadly affect.


The main thing I grabbed from this article was the street names, but other than that I didn't take much information from this article. I think more adults should be informed about them, because they are used all the time. I would recommend this article to all adults and other kids who think their friends are users of meth, because it's simple and easy to read.




6. "NIDA - Research Report Series - MDMA (Ecstasy) Abuse." National Institute on Drug Abuse - The Science of Drug Abuse and Addiction. Ed. National Institutes Of Health. Web. 24 Oct. 2009. http://www.drugabuse.gov/researchreports/MDMA/MDMA4.html.


This article is all about MDMA and what parts of the brain it affects and the after effects after the usage of ecstasy. It compares studies done on animals and humans with a dosage of MDMA. It shares with you the recorded results of the brain and the behavior from both the human and the animal. The last thing this article had in it was other kinds of drugs people tend to do that have similar effects as ecstasy.



This article was extremely helpful because of its statistics and facts about the brain. It's very extreme when it talks about how each part of your brain is affected and it can have a dramatic affect on readers if they are users, because not only is the information true but it's scary. This article is convicing and it's a good source to refer too.



I found this article very helpful in what I was looking for, and this information could easily be included in a health class because of it's statistics. Others who read this article would know a lot more about the deleterious effects of ecstasy and know the different areas of your brain that it effects.















Monday, December 7, 2009

Deadmau5
Virgin Records America, Inc.
150 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York 10011-4311

105 Shadowood Lane
Carbondale, CO 81623
Kelly Fisher


Dear Deadmau5:

I’m a senior at Roaring Fork High School and I’m writing to you because the past two months I’ve been learning about ecstasy. I know you play techno music and have concerts that kids come to rolling ecstasy and other various drugs. I want to get the point across to teens that ecstasy usage can lead to severe brain damage and I thought if you announced it, people would follow your thoughts since you are someone they definitely look up too. One of the main appeals of ecstasy is loud techno music because it increases the level of happiness by so much. A lot of them were also diffident, and they like the fact that when they go to raves they're loved by everyone and it increases their confidence. Studies shown in 2000 found that 4.3% of
8thgraders, 7.3% of 10th graders, and 11.0% of 12 graders have all tried it. Since then our world has had more drug out breaks, and I know that those numbers have highly increased. Teenagers live for the moment and don’t think about long term effects which are what matters in life. Once one of my friends started doing ecstasy, then all of them got into it and now they rave every week. I don’t want to see them enervating their bodies and going down hill because of a stupid addiction. I want to grow old and I don’t want to be going to their funeral at age 30. If I can get someone teens look up to and appreciate to have a strong opinion against ecstasy I think we could really make a difference. If you have the time I’d love to hear from you but if not best wishes, I love your music sober.

Sincerely,

Kelly Fisher

Tuesday, November 24, 2009





This graph shows the average use of ecstasy for boys and girls in grades 8th, 10th, and 12th during 1999-2000. It shows that boys used it more in 8th grade than girls as well as 10th grade. Although 12th grade girls used it more than 12th grade boys. This is really interesting to me, and I'm not sure why it the growth of ecstasy usage changed for girl in their senior year. If we get a blog that's pretty open to what we wanna write about, I'd like to investigate why this is.

This data is complete and would make people wonder more about senior girls after looking at this graph. This graph could definitely throw someone off if they just assumed boys did more ecstasy than girls like I did. I learned that you shouldn't judge a group of people because of their gender, race of anything you should get to someone for the kind of person they are. They could be churlish and a drug addict, but you'd never guess that because they dressed nicely, or they could look innocent, be diffident, and do great in school and also be a drug addict. I'm sure most of the girls that use ecstasy were good students and weren't obvious about their bad decisions.



Source

"Google Image Result for http://www.drugabuse.gov/NIDA_notes/NNVol16N2/MDMA.gif." Google Images. Ed. The National Institute on Drug Abuse. Web. 24 Nov. 2009.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Whats New?

Examining The Effects of Ecstasy Use In Young Adults

I found an article called Examining the Effects of Ecstasy Use In Young Adults on google, and the I chose it because it relates to what I've been learning about ecstasy. I've wanted to know what it does to your brain and how it turns kids diffident after they're happy, and this article talks about researchers wanting to find out the same information.

The researchers in this article are conducting an experiment on young adults to see how ecstasy use leads to brain damage. One of the facts in this article states that, "seretonin is a key neurotransmitter in the brain that is known for regulating mood and for playing a role in cognitive functions such as memory. Low levels of seretonin have been linked to anxiety and depression." I've already learned this and this is just a source to back up that thought. Another fact is that ecstasy is a chemically enhanced drug that is part hallucinogen and part stimulant that affects the seretonin system, which is very believable.

There's one opinion in this article I highly agree with. One of the researchers said,"Ecstasy use continues to be a major public health problem among adolescents and young adults." I believe ecstasy use continues to grow because none of the users are educated what it does to their brains and body. I think if there was a set agreement between researchers and scientists about the damage it causes and then posted on the internet, people would have a different outlook on it. Maybe not, but kids think it's not deleterious when it is. Researcher Medina also states, "It's not used all that often, but it can cause a lot of damage." I personally don't think she should be stating this without all the research, I know it's a man made drug and it does cause damage like every other drug but it might not be as severe as she thinks.

After reading this article, none of the information was really new to me considering we've been doing so much research on our topic. I would be interested to see if they follow up on this study to see what they find out, because every scientist has a different opinion, and I think if could be extremely beneficial to my blog if I determine what harmful effects ecstasy has on the human body.

Source :]

Fuller, Dawn. "Examining The Effects Of Ecstasy Use In Young Adults: UC Researchers Awarded Federal Grant." Medical News Today: Health News. Web. 20 Nov. 2009. .