English Language IIA

Debate 7: Drug-Alcohol Abuse

Owner:

L-LIIA-G7-1

Members:

ST-LIIA-G7-1
ST-LIIA-G7-2
ST-LIIA-G7-3
ST-LIIA-G7-4
ST-LIIA-G7-5

Discussion Leaders:

DL-LIIA-G7-1
DL-LIIA-G7-2

 

 

·        L-LIIA-G7-1

 

FORUM debate 7/Drug – alcohol abuse
STEP 1
Group Name: MAIN-MINABE
Group members: ST-LIIA-G7-1, ST-LIIA-G7-2, ST-LIIA-G7-3, ST-LIIA-G7-4 & ST-LIIA-G7-5

Discussion leaders: DL-LIIA-G7-1 & DL-LIIA-G7-2

Step 1:
Individually, write and post an introductory paragraph about yourselves together with four icebreaking questions to get started. Make sure you answer some of the questions posted by the other members of your Google+ community.

 

·         DL-LIIA-G7-1

Hi everyone, my name is DL-LIIA-G7-1, I am 21 and from London. I study German and Spanish at the University of Bristol and am here for 1 semester as part of Erasmus. Before coming to Spain, I worked as a German translator in Hamburg (also as part of Erasmus). Here I live with 5 other students near the Blasco Ibanez campus. So far I am really enjoying Valencia and am looking forward to Las Fallas in particular. It would be great if everyone could post a little about themselves so I can get to know you too. Would you all like to do a Erasmus semester? What do you like best about living in Valencia? Feel free to ask me anything you want to know!

 

·         ST-LIIA-G7-2

Hello!! My name is ST-LIIA-G7-2, I am 18 years old and I am from Villena, which is a small town near Alicante but nowadays I’m living in a flat in Valencia with two friends as we’re studying here but I go back to Villena every weekend, I really miss my family and my home!
I would describe myself as an open-minded person, reliable outgoing, empathetic and also a person who loves meet new people (especially if they are foreigners and I can practise my English and know their cultures and customs as well).
The thing I enjoy the most is spending time with the people I love: friends, family and my boyfriend. I love dancing, especially funky, but I didn’t have the opportunity to develop myself as a dancer. Nowadays I go to the gym because I like to feel myself fit and healthy.
In the future I would like to be an English teacher because it is my real vocation.

I’m looking forward to finding out a little more about yourselves!

My questions will be the following:
– Where would you like to live in the future?
– Do you use new technologies to study or to improve any language or do you prefer books and traditional methods?
-Do you think that the role of teachers is important to like or dislike a subject?
-Which is your favourite film or book? Why?

 

·         ST-LIIA-G7-2

+ DL-LIIA-G7-1 Hello DL-LIIA-G7-1, nice to meet you!!
Well, regarding your first question, I’m not so sure about doing or not an Erasmus because I know that when I finish my degree I will live abroad several years, I will try to find a job there and also improve my English, therefore, I am not sure if it is worthwhile to do an Erasmus which is just several months abroad and sometimes there are difficulties with the validation of subjects. On the other hand, it could be a first experience abroad in order to see if I like it or not.
What would it be your advice? I hope you are enjoying your Erasmus here in Spain!

 

·         DL-LIIA-G7-2

Hey everyone! My name is DL-LIIA-G7-2, the other discussion leader for this debate! I’m here in Valencia for the year as my Erasmus year and I’m really enjoying it. In England I study Politics and Spanish. In response to ST-LIIA-G7-2: after my degree I would love to continue living abroad because I love getting to know new cultures and people. I think the role of the teacher is really important because having an inspiring teacher can really help capture the interest of the student, as with new teaching technologies.

I’d love to know more about you all. What’s your favourite thing about Valencia?

 

·         DL-LIIA-G7-1

+ ST-LIIA-G7-2 Hi ST-LIIA-G7-2 thank you for your post and nice to meet you! How are you finding life in Valencia? Is your boyfriend here with you or do you see him when you go home at the weekend? It is good that you know you want to be a teacher! I am 21 and still don’t know what job I want to do in the future! In response to your questions, I would like to stay living in Spain, life here is much more relaxed in comparison to living in London where I am from. And it also has the benefit of the beach and weather haha. To help with learning languages I like watching tv shows and films in the target language and with subtitles. Even if I do watch something in English I find it helpful to have Spanish subtitles just to keep the vocabulary fresh in my mind. What about you? What do you find useful? And yes I think teachers are very important in influencing a student’s interest in a subject. An enthusiastic teacher with a range of teaching methods goes a long way! And lastly my favourite film is titanic, I don’t know why but I could watch it again and again and never get bored. Which is your favourite film?

 

·         ST-LIIA-G7-3

Hi!! My name is ST-LIIA-G7-3 and I am 18 years old. I am from Benigànim, a little village in the south of the Comunitat Valenciana. I am living in a flat with two friends here in Valencia but I usually go back to my town every friday like Bea.
I like going to the cinema but I actually prefer Netflix. I love going out with my friends, travelling, spending time with my family (especially with my little cousins)…
I would like to go abroad and do an Erasmus semester but I don’t know where yet. I think that Erasmus is an opportunity for us to improve our command of the language, to know more about other cultures and to meet new people. Besides, I want to become an English teacher so I believe living abroad is a good chance to learn about another educative methods.
My questions are:
– Do you have any advice for the ones who want to do an Erasmus semester? Any personal experiences?

– What did you surprise the most about Spain or Valencia?
– If you had the chance, would you choose another city instead of Valencia now that you already know the city?

 

·         ST-LIIA-G7-2

+ DL-LIIA-G7-1 Well, I’m finding life in Valencia very interesting, I’m meeting new people, I like all my classmates but, especially, I like the opportunity of being able to meet erasmus people and the fact that I can meet with them and improve my English. Living in a big citty is something new for me as I come from a small town and here you can do everything you can imagine. Moreover, the nightlife is amazing, I love going clubbing and as in my hometown there is no disco I’m going out here, but not as much as I would like…
In response to your question about my boyfriend, he has been studying in Valencia for 2 years (he is 2 years older than me) and during that time I could only see him at weekends and sometimes it was hard, but now, as I decided to study in Valencia, I can see him whenever I want!
I’m glad that both of you are enjoying your time in Spain!
I absolutely agree with your answers, the role of the teacher is very very important, in fact last year I came to hate english classes because of the teacher (imagine how was the teacher that a student who loves english did not want to go to her classes!! they were too boring)
I’m also seeing all the series in English, it is a good way to improve it, now I’m watching «Vampire diaries» I strongly recommend it!!
Finally, I have to say that my favourite film is the same as you, DL-LIIA-G7-1 haha, it is the best film ever!! I love it because of the fact that it was a real event and it is very emotional, as well as the social issue that is treated and of course because of the love story!

·         ST-LIIA-G7-5

Hi everyone! My name is ST-LIIA-G7-5 and I am 18 years old. I live in a little town called Albaida, which is close to Benigànim, where ST-LIIA-G7-3 is from. I am currently living here in Valencia, in a flat with 4 more students. I am studying English Studies in the University de Valencia, but I have to say that I am not sure whether I like it or not… We’ll see how this semester goes. I love seeing such passionate people like Bea, who knows what she wants to do in the future, but in my case, I have no idea haha. I initially wanted to study Translation and Interpreting but that didn’t turn out the way I wanted, so I decided to do this degree, which is not that bad actually.

My questions are:
– Why did you choose Valencia as the city where you were going to do your degree or your Erasmus?

– Which season do you like the most?

– Which are your expectations on this year’s Fallas?

 

·         L-LIIA-G7-1

Dear all,

Here’s DL-LIIA-G7-1 previous post which for some reason had been removed:

DL-LIIA-G7-1: «Hi everyone here is an article containing information on alcohol consumption guidelines in the UK and a recent survey carried out in France linking excessive alcohol consumption and dementia to get us started.

BBC News from 21 February 2018
, «Alcohol and dementia: What’s the truth?»

To what extent do you think articles such as these influence the actions of the readers? Do you think they act as a deterrent?

Do you have alcohol consumption guidelines in Spain? If so, what are they?

And some other questions to consider:

What is alcoholism?

Do you think alcohol is a drug?

 

·         DL-LIIA-G7-1

Please go on youtube and watch a video from a British tv show called “My name is… and Im an alcoholic” concerning alcoholism in the UK (v=VGXHdeTkHBY – please type this into the search bar on the Youtube website to find the video). For those who don’t know, this is the stereotypical introduction for an Alcoholic’s Anonymous group where people go to find help for alcohol addictions. The people speaking do have a variety of accents so just try your best to understand as much as you can.

Questions to consider when watching:
Do these figures surprise you?
Do you know how much alcohol is in beer/wine?
How addictive do you perceive alcohol to be?
Do you have any experience with alcoholism?
How easy is it to become addicted to alcohol?

Any other thoughts and ideas that come up when watching the video are also welcomed.

 

·         ST-LIIA-G7-2

After reading the article, I’d like to say that it is very important the function of the articles and, in general, the function of the media in order to make the population aware of the dangers and consequences of alcohol abuse, and, in my opinion, what they do is not enough and they should give much more information about the great harm that alcohol does to the mind and the human body, especially, they should do that because nowadays young people start drinking alcohol much earlier and in larger quantities.

For me, Alcoholism is a disease that makes a person depend on alcohol to live, however, the type of people that are addicted to alcohol, they usually do not recognize it. A big problem is that the alcohol is not considered as a drug among the society, therefore, they do not considered themselves as an alcoholic. For me, even though the alcohol is more normalized because we are used to seeing our parents drink beers or wine, it is absolutely a drug and it should not be so easy to access it.

 

·         ST-LIIA-G7-2

I have just watched the video and I am socked. It is so surprising how these people can worry more about alcohol than their own family. I can not really understand it. It is also shocking the fact that they are normal people without bigs problems in life: they have their jobs, their house, their family… I would not imagine that they are alcoholic if I see them on the street. Definitely there are no stereotypes.

Unfortunately, it is very easy to become addicted to alcohol in this society because it seems that without alcohol you can not have fun and also because in every party, in every meeting, in every dinner, in our daily life there is alcohol. For this reason, we sould have the mental force to know when we have to stop.

 

·         DL-LIIA-G7-1

+ ST-LIIA-G7-2 Yes ST-LIIA-G7-2 I agree with you – for me this video really highlights how alcohol is an addictive drug that can affect anyone at any stage in their life. What are other peoples thoughts?

 

·         DL-LIIA-G7-1

Please read an article posted by Sky News online with the title ‘Government ‘defending the indefensible’ over Alfie Dingley’s request for cannabis treatment’ dated Tuesday 20th February 2018.

Some questions to consider are:
– Do you consider alcohol a drug? If so can it be compared to tobacco for instance? Or any other drugs such as marijuana?
– Do you think there are any benefits of marijuana consumption?
– Do you think that marijuana should be legalised?

 

·         DL-LIIA-G7-1

Dear All

As we are nearing the end of the ITecla period I thought it would be a good time to summarise the discussion we have had throughout the month.

We began with a BBC article that reported a link between alcohol consumption and dementia. ST-LIIA-G7-2 made an interesting point by stating that these articles are useful as a warning to the general population although she believes that the media need to use their position and do more to make people and especially young people aware of the consequences.

The next discussion topic was a YouTube video that showed how ‘normal’ people with ‘normal’ lives can become addicted to alcohol just like anyone else and the key difference to enjoying alcohol and becoming an addict is knowing when to stop. ST-LIIA-G7-2 made the point that when it comes to addictions, there are no stereotypes and anyone can be affected and that maybe addictions are so common nowadays because alcohol is often present at every social event.

Next, we read an article published by Sky News that detailed an individual case of using marijuana for cancer treatment. It raised the point that marijuana can have health benefits and therefore is an argument for the legalisation of Marijuana.

To conclude I would say we have decided that alcohol is a drug since it is addictive, however, it is not as harmful in the short term as other drugs. All drugs can have negative impacts on both mental and physical health and should be consumed with caution. Although there are potential medical benefits to smoking marijuana, the debate surrounding legalisation is going to continue because of the harmful side effects and the difficulties that come with regulation. And although there should definitely be punishments for drug dealers, the death penalty is too harsh and all consumers must be responsible for their own actions to some degree.

Thank you for your contributions to the discussion.

Enjoy your Easter holidays and I hope to see you in class when we return 🙂

 

·         ST-LIIA-G7-5

+ ST-LIIA-G7-2 I also agree with you ST-LIIA-G7-2, the first thing that came to my mind when I first saw the video was that they look like regular people. You would not think of them as alcoholics if you saw them on the street. What I cannot quite understand is how people need to drink alcohol to do their daily tasks, or to do their job – why cannot they do it while they are sober?

They begin with one glass, they continue with the second and maybe while they are drinking they are think that one or two glasses will not do them any harm, but it actually is the other way round. That is how you start becoming an addict. The feelings you have with only two glasses of whatever, you cannot get it after several months of drinking, you need more. And this could be also applied to tobacco or marijuana. If I start smoking marijuana once a week, at first I will not need more, but after several weeks of doing so, I would not be able to reach that state of mind marijuana put me through the first time I smoked. And that is how you get addicted.

I personally have never tried tobacco or marijuana, but I have drink alcohol at some parties and that is what have happened to me. At first I only needed one or two glasses to get little drunk, but now I need more than that.

In the case of drug addicts, the most important thing is the people around them. They have to help that people because they will not notice they have a very serious problem themselves. The quicker they receive psychological help, the better to get over this as soon as possible.

 

·         ST-LIIA-G7-2

+ DL-LIIA-G7-1 Once I read the last article posted by Sky News, I realised that the legalisation of drugs is a very difficult issue and it will always have people in favor and people against.

On the one hand, it is known that between 119 and 224 milion people smoke marijuana around the world. This means that, even though smoking marijuana is not legal, a great amount of people keep doing it. It is neither as common nor as easy to get it as alcohol, even though it is also a drug, but if someone want to smoke marijuana, he or she can buy it with just a phone call to someone they know. As a result, I consider that the government could earn a lot of money with the legality of this substance and it may no increase the people who smoke marijuana because people who want to smoke, they do it equally and also illegally and strengthen the black market as well.

On the other hand, all governments watch over the health of their citizens and absolutely their security is over the money it could win with the legalisation of the marijuana. Therefore, if there is just 1 percent of the population that does not smoke because it is illegal, it is worth it. As it is said in the article, marijuana has good effects to cure some diseases and any family woul do anything to prevent their relative from suffering, however, if doctors do not consider it as a medicine is because it has negative effects as well that can produce worse diseases in the future.

To sum up, as far as I am concerned governments should not legalise the consumption of the marijuana in order to prevent it from becoming a normal activity, especially among the youth. Moreover, they could regulate the sale of alcohol and tabacco because they are as harmful as marijuana.

 

ST-LIIA-G7-3

+ ST-LIIA-G7-2 I totally agree with you ST-LIIA-G7-2, the legalisation of drugs is really a problematic matter and there is always going to be supporters and opposite opinions.

Due to the fact that alcohol is standardised in nowadays society, we see very common that young people who are underage drinks alcohol. People are so used to see this type of situation that most of them would say that alcohol is not a drug.

Nevertheless, alcohol has very similar consequencies to other drugs like marijuana for instance. It can become an addictive habit and even make you end up in the hospital even thought the rate of people who end up in the hospital because of marijuana is higher than the alcohol one.

It is said marijuana actually helps patients in some particular cases. I think that if it is demonstrated ans doctors prescribe marijuana for their patients in oder to help them and if the patients do not misuse it, it could be an option the legalisation of marijuana.

A huge amount of people smoke marijuana even though it is illegal so as ST-LIIA-G7-2 said, it would not increase the marijuana consumers but in fact it would increase the money that governments earn. It could be an option that governments use the raised money of the legalisation of marijuana in prevention campaigns in order to avoid young people consume it.

To conclude, I would say it is a very difficult decision to legalise marijuana or not. I personally would not do it in order to prevent the consumption of marijuana becoming bigger. However, governments could take actions and prevent youth one way or another.

 

English Language IIB

Debate 7: Drug-Alcohol Abuse

Owner:

L-LIIB-G7-1

Members:

ST-LIIB-G7-1
ST-LIIB-G7-2
ST-LIIB-G7-3

Discussion Leaders:

DL-LIIB-G7-1
DL-LIIB-G7-2
DL-LIIB-G7-3

 

·        L-LIIB-G7-1

 

FORUM debate 7/Drug – alcohol abuse
Group Name:
Group members:
Discussion leader(s): DL-LIIB-G7-1 & DL-LIIB-G7-2
STEP 1:
Individually, write and post an introductory paragraph about yourselves together with four icebreaking questions to get started. Make sure you answer some of the questions posted by the other members of your Google+ community.

 

·         DL-LIIB-G7-2

Hey! We’re DL-LIIB-G7-1 and DL-LIIB-G7-2 from the University of Bristol in the South West of England. We’re studying in Valencia as part of our Erasmus year and really enjoying it so far! I (DL-LIIB-G7-2) study Politics and Spanish, and DL-LIIB-G7-1 studies Spanish and German.
What do you guys study and where are you from?
What is your favourite thing about Valencia?
What would you like to do when you finish your degree?
What made you want to learn English?
Please, introduce yourselves! We’d love to get to know you all a little more.

 

·         DL-LIIB-G7-1

Please go on youtube and watch a video from a British tv show called “My name is… and Im an alcoholic” concerning alcoholism in the UK (v=VGXHdeTkHBY – please type this into the search bar on the Youtube website to find the video). For those who don’t know, this is the stereotypical introduction for an Alcoholic’s Anonymous group where people go to find help for alcohol addictions. The people speaking do have a variety of accents so just try your best to understand as much as you can.

Questions to consider when watching:
Do these figures surprise you?
Do you know how much alcohol is in beer/wine?
How addictive do you perceive alcohol to be?
Do you have any experience with alcoholism?
How easy is it to become addicted to alcohol?

Any other thoughts and ideas that come up when watching the video are also welcomed.

 

·         DL-LIIB-G7-1

Please read an article posted by Sky News online with the title ‘Government ‘defending the indefensible’ over Alfie Dingley’s request for cannabis treatment’ dated Tuesday 20th February 2018.

Some questions to consider are:
– Do you consider alcohol a drug? If so can it be compared to tobacco for instance? Or any other drugs such as marijuana?
– Do you think there are any benefits of marijuana consumption?
– Do you think that marijuana should be legalised?

 

·         ST-LIIB-G7-1

Hi everyone! My name is ST-LIIB-G7-1. I am 18 years old and I am studying English Studies at University of València. I am from a town near Xàtiva that is named l´Alcúdia de Crespins.

My hobbies are:
– listening to music.
– reading.
– stay with family and friends.
– travelling.
I am a lover of animals, especially cats and dogs.

I am studying English Studies, because when I finish my degree I would like to become an English teacher and travel to another country to teach Spanish, too.

I think that alcohol and drugs are very dangerous to our health, especially for young people, who is nowadays, more in contact with this substancies and they are very young people.

I don´t like alcohol and of corse I don´t like drugs. I think that if you go to a party or you are celebrating something you do not need to drink to have fun, I do not drink and when I go to a party I enjoy it. I think that alcohol brings us good things is a myth. Of corse, is the same point of view in drugs.

The same happen if you are suffering a lot you don´t have to drink to break out from your problems or taking drugs.

I totally consider that alcohol is a drug, because if you abuse you could feel the same as if you consume marijuana. You are not in the same conditions as if you are drunk, and you could be cheated or manipulate to do things that you don´t want. For example, a lot of sexual aggressions happened, because of the victims had ingested a substance that they do not know they had it in their liquor.

I think that drugs are very dangerous and there are lots of people that uses to rap women, abduct or rob.

PERSONALLY, I think that if somebody consume drugs has a very big responsibility and if someone drinks alcohol is very important to know the risks that have.

·         DL-LIIB-G7-3

Hello ST-LIIB-G7-1, many thanks for your comment. What do you think should then happen with legal drugs such as tobacco or caffeine? Would you rather make them illegal?

 

·         ST-LIIB-G7-1

+ DL-LIIB-G7-3 Hi DL-LIIB-G7-3. I think that tobacco is very dangerous for all the people especially for passive smokers, because they could suffer problems of health, like smokers.But, to be honest smokers assume their responsibility that they hurt their health, and passive smokers, can´t stop it, because smokers make a lot of excuses. So, I think that factories of tobacco are solding a drug that hurts a lot of people, so I think that this way of making money isn´t right. So, in my point of view I THINK that tobacco should be forbidden.
It is normal that in periods when people don´t have any knowledge of how dangerous is for people, people consume it, but nowadays, when people know how dangerous is for them and other innocent people who don´t smoke isn´t right that the people want kill them.

However, caffeine COULD BE BAD if you drink a lot of coffee and you don´t control it. But I think that is not as dangerous as tobacco is, because nobody damage the health of other people.
BUT, for example, drinking caffeine with energetic drinks is another thing that I consider very dangerous.
THE SAME HAPPENS, when you want, for example, to study at night and you are exhausted and you abuse of drinking coffee and energetic drinks. I THINK, that the best option is sleeping a little and back to study.

 

·         DL-LIIB-G7-3

You raise a great point about tobacco. In fact, with a public healthcare system, everyone is subsidizing health care for smokers, which could also be considered unfair. The government brings in a lot of money via indirect taxes to tobacco, but it would be interesting to see how much of that is actually used to finance the public health system. However, and going back to the point, caffeine and alcohol are legal drugs and many, many people use them for recreation and even work without great problems arising. I think forbidding substances, as a general concept, is not a good idea. People should be free to enjoy whatever they want to do with their time and their body. Sports can also be very harmful to the body but we encourage and celebrate them. So I think we need to find a balance.

 

·         ST-LIIB-G7-2

Hi everyone,

My name is ST-LIIB-G7-2, and I’m from Segorbe, a town near Valencia. I am in first of English Philology at the University of Valencia.

Alcohol abuse is one of the most present issues in adolescents. More and more teenagers start drinking alcohol and using drugs, not only when going out, but also every day.

On the one hand, as I have said before, the issue of drugs and alcohol is very common in young people. When teenagers go out to party, many of them get drunk and also use drugs. In many cases this happens because they believe that by doing so they are more cool or older. And yet, the only thing they do by doing that is to kill their health, and they can even have serious problems or diseases, one of them is death.

On the other hand, the issue of drugs also occurs in cases of families that do not have a job and get into this world to earn money. For example, in the El Niño film, which deals with the issue of drugs, it is reflected how this adolescent passes the drug of Morocco along the strait to the coast of Cadiz. Clearly, the issue of the drug would be less if there were not so much unemployment in places like the coasts of Cadiz, where the majority of citizens are unemployed and this area is a critical point of the passage of drugs.

In general, alcohol and drugs would have to be more controlled and not let sell them as well. In the case of alcohol, you would have to be more controlled when buying it and not let people with the minority age buy it. Also, the issue of drugs I think that would have to have more police controls and therefore more vigilance with these substances.

It is a topic that not only affects the people who consume it, but also all citizens, since in the case of alcohol, they then leave all the bottles on the floor, dirtying the streets. and both people who consume alcohol and those who use drugs, then you find them lying there, almost having lost consciousness and in most cases, with an aggressive attitude.

To sum up, in my opinion I think you can go out partying and drink alcohol moderately, without the need to get drunk or to the point of losing consciousness. And of course the issue of drugs, these substances should not be consumed in any of the cases. Consuming this we are killing our health, when we should take care of it to be healthy and live as long as we can.

 

·         DL-LIIB-G7-3

Thank you for the comments, ST-LIIB-G7-2. You mentioned something akin to how minors should not be allowed to purchase alcohol, but as you probably can imagine, prohibition is not effective against consumption because teenagers can always ask one of their older friends to go buy them the alcohol. Also, I have never ever seen a cashier in Spain ask for ID when young people buy alcohol. Do you think harsher limitations to purchase alcohol would curb consumption, or would it make it more desirable for minors because it is perceived as a more forbidden or taboo activity?

 

·         ST-LIIB-G7-2

+ DL-LIIB-G7-3 Hi DL-LIIB-G7-3,

Yes, I think harsher limitations to purchase alcohol would curb consumption because as you have said before, in very few supermarkets or stores ask for identification about age. They do not care if they are minors or not in order to earn money.

On the other hand, I think that if more measures were taken, the minors would stop buying alcohol or they would not try to buy it since they would surely fear the criminal punishment that this act could bring them.

In conclusion, more measures should be taken not only to protect the health of these children, but also to improve the society and the environment that surrounds us.

 

·         ST-LIIB-G7-3

Hi everybody, I’m ST-LIIB-G7-3, a first-year student of English Studies in the University of Valencia. I’m from a little village which is more or less at 50 minutes from Valencia called Chelva.
I don’t really have so many hobbies but I love reading, listening to music or going out with my friends.
I chose this grade because I love English and, in my school class, I have been good at it. I have always wanted to explore the English culture and be a professional of its language so, here I am, trying my best in the degree.

About this topic I think it is everything said but I’m going to strengthen some of the points discussed.

From my point of view, alcohol and drugs destroy lives. We are tired to see these scenes in films, books or even in real life: Homeless people that when they have one coin, they waste it in a beer instead of in something they could eat, that’s deplorable. Of course that these are really extremely situations but it happen, really, although it seemed really far from us.
Everything is good in a measured way but what happens to these people is that they hadn’t found the limit in their life. In some occasions this is due to problems in the family ground, others because you are unemployed and you think that you could not find another job, there are a lot of reasons, but the solution is never the huge consume of alcohol or what’s worse, drugs.
Sometimes, this issue starts in the youth. Your friends discover the “good” effect that drugs, such as Marihuana, makes on them. So, as you are surrounded of people who do it, you try it and you start smoking it only in the parties. Later on, you meet with your friends to buy weed and smoke once or twice a month. Then, you like it much and start smoking every week and when you want to realize that you need that drug every day, it is too late.
(Well, this doesn’t happen like that in all the situations but it is likely to be in our times)
As I was saying before this “parent-speech”, the measured consume is not bad at all. We know that alcohol and tobacco are drugs but, are legal drugs. Also, some Scientifics encourage people to drink one beer or a glass of wine every day at lunch because their properties are good to our health. My grandfather has done it his entire life and now is 92 and he’s still alive, so it really works.
The effect of the alcohol or tobacco is not as big as other drugs and you can buy them in specialized stores if you are more than 18 years old.
That is another issue that ST-LIIB-G7-2, as I have read, talked about, the selling of alcohol. Being honest, mostly all of us have drink alcohol at 16 or 17 because we had some cousins, brothers or older friends that have bought it us. Of course that they are commiting an illegal act but I think that 16 year-old people are consciousness and they know how much they have to drink. So, as a result, I would teach teenagers the consequences of the abuse of alcohol and then, I would let the selling of alcohol at people from 16 years old but having in mind that they are sure that if three glasses are enough for them, they don’t need to buy the fourth.
It is logic that people drink a bit when they go to parties, I do it too, measured, for sure. The fact is that we see really strange the one that doesn’t do it, but I really appreciate that kind of people, because, when I am losing my neurons and wasting money, they are having fun and enjoying, and at the next day, they are able to remember everything that happened the night before and most of the drinkers can’t do it.
Why young people likes the alcohol in parties is because of the effect it makes in your behaviour: When you drink a little, you are less shy, more opened to meet someone or talk with people you didn’t do it before.
On the other part, there is the bad consequence of alcohol too, as I have mentioned before, the alcoholism or the diseases it can cause like cancer of stomach, pancreas or included the death in extreme situations.
As a conclusion, after explaining my experiences and my little knowledge of life, I want to emphasize that the consumption of alcohol is not really bad, but in a measured way, as well as other drugs. The difference is that drugs had worse effects in bodies and, in most of the cases, we are not as informed of their consequences as we are with the alcohol.

 

English Language II E

Debate 6: Drug-alcohol abuse

Owner:

L-LIIEG.4-G6-1

Members (G.4):

ST-LIIEG.4-G6-1
ST-LIIEG.4-G6-2
ST-LIIEG.4-G6-3
ST-LIIEG.4-G6-4
ST-LIIEG.4-G6-5
ST-LIIEG.4-G6-6

Discussion Leader:

DL-LIIEG.4-G6-1
DL-LIIEG.4-G6-2

 

·         DL-LIIEG.4-G6-2

Hey! We’re DL-LIIEG.4-G6-1 and DL-LIIEG.4-G6-2 from the University of Bristol in the South West of England. We’re studying in Valencia as part of our Erasmus year and really enjoying it so far! I (DL-LIIEG.4-G6-2) study Politics and Spanish, and DL-LIIEG.4-G6-1 studies Spanish and German.
What do you guys study and where are you from?
What is your favourite thing about Valencia?
What would you like to do when you finish your degree?
What made you want to learn English?
Please, introduce yourselves! We’d love to get to know you all a little more.

 

·         L-LIIEG.4-G6-1

 

FORUM debate 6/Drug – alcohol abuse
Group Name: Level-up

Discussion Leader(s): DL-LIIEG.4-G6-1 & DL-LIIEG.4-G6-2

Group members: (G.4):
ST-LIIEG.4-G6-1
ST-LIIEG.4-G6-2
ST-LIIEG.4-G6-3
ST-LIIEG.4-G6-4
ST-LIIEG.4-G6-5
ST-LIIEG.4-G6-6

STEP 1: Breaking the Ice:
– Write and post an introductory paragraph together with four ice-breaking questions. Make sure you answer some of the questions posted by your group mates and the discussion leader(s).

STEP 2: Initiating the Discussion:
– With the guidance of the discussion leader assigned to your group, write 4 or 5 posts of about 200 words each during this month (try to write at least one post a week).

 

·         L-LIIEG.4-G6-1

Dear all,

Here’s DL-LIIEG.4-G6-1 previous post which for some reason had been removed:

DL-LIIEG.4-G6-1: «Hi everyone here is an article containing information on alcohol consumption guidelines in the UK and a recent survey carried out in France linking excessive alcohol consumption and dementia to get us started.

BBC News from 21 February 2018
, «Alcohol and dementia: What’s the truth?»

To what extent do you think articles such as these influence the actions of the readers? Do you think they act as a deterrent?

Do you have alcohol consumption guidelines in Spain? If so, what are they?

And some other questions to consider:

What is alcoholism?

Do you think alcohol is a drug?

 

·         DL-LIIEG.4-G6-1

Please go on youtube and watch a video from a British tv show called “My name is… and Im an alcoholic” concerning alcoholism in the UK (v=VGXHdeTkHBY – please type this into the search bar on the Youtube website to find the video). For those who don’t know, this is the stereotypical introduction for an Alcoholic’s Anonymous group where people go to find help for alcohol addictions. The people speaking do have a variety of accents so just try your best to understand as much as you can.

Questions to consider when watching:
Do these figures surprise you?
Do you know how much alcohol is in beer/wine?
How addictive do you perceive alcohol to be?
Do you have any experience with alcoholism?
How easy is it to become addicted to alcohol?

Any other thoughts and ideas that come up when watching the video are also welcomed.

 

·         ST-LIIEG.4-G6-4

I have read the BBC article and I actually think it is useful to have articles like that one because they warn us about the possible impact that could have in our future the things we do now.
I believe articles such as these and all the announcements that governments throw trying to concern us about following a healthy lifestyle cause an effect on the readers and make us think about if we are doing the wrong or the right things.
Regarding to the second question, I don’t really know if here in Spain we have alcohol consumption guidelines. It is true that people under 18 are not allowed to buy and consume alcohol. There are some TV advertisement campaigns thrown by the department of health of the government that warn us about the bad effects of drugs and alcohol, too.

 

·         ST-LIIEG.4-G6-4

+ DL-LIIEG.4-G6-1 Hi! I’ve seen the video and I am going to answer your questions:
The people in the video had surprised me because of their stories. I think it is really difficult to recognise that you have a serious problem such as alcoholism (one of them has admitted that alcoholism is something that everyone but you know you are sufering). What is more, if I feel they are brave because of going to the TV to tell their stories maybe beacause they want to help other people.
I have never thought about how much alcohol is in beer/wine but I have just searched it on the internet and I discovered a can of beer has a 5% of alcohol on it and a bottle of wine a 13.5%. (I don’t really know if it is too much alcochol but I suppose it depends on the person who drinks it).
– I think alcohol is really addictive because it makes you feel better sometimes, and everyone likes to feel good. One person on the video said that he always find an excuse to drink and that he never thought it was a bad moment.
– I had never been in touch with a serious case of alcoholism. However, I have experienced a situation in which someone I know has ended up at the hospital because of alcohol. Obviously, that person has never got drunk again.
– As I’ve said before, I think alcohol is actually addictive and it is easy to become an alcoholic. I don’t really think you are going to become an alcoholic just because of drinking some beer sometimes (that’s something we all do) but the problem comes when you don’t know when you have to stop and you always find it a good moment to have a glass of wine or some drinks.

The video has made me think about how some people can lose everything they had (their job, their family…) just because of an addiction.

 

·         DL-LIIEG.4-G6-1

+ ST-LIIEG.4-G6-4 thank you for these statistics regarding the percentages of alcohol in beer and wine, it is something that many people don’t consider when they consume such beverages. And yes I do agree with you when you say that the problem occurs when someone doesn’t know when to stop drinking – just like any other addiction it is very easy to quickly loose control.

 

·         DL-LIIEG.4-G6-1

Please read an article posted by Sky News online with the title ‘Government ‘defending the indefensible’ over Alfie Dingley’s request for cannabis treatment’ dated Tuesday 20th February 2018.

Some questions to consider are:
– Do you consider alcohol a drug? If so can it be compared to tobacco for instance? Or any other drugs such as marijuana?
– Do you think there are any benefits of marijuana consumption?
– Do you think that marijuana should be legalised?

 

·         ST-LIIEG.4-G6-4

+ DL-LIIEG.4-G6-1 After reading the article I am going to answer your questions:
First of all, I want to say the theme the article talks about is really controversial.
– I think alcohol can actually be regarded as a drug because of its effects and how addictive it is. However, I don’t believe it is as harmful as other drugs such as cocaine. Alcohol short-term effects are not as lasting as other drug’s. Regarding to its long-term effects, they are not so hard. Relative to how addictive they are, I think it is easier to quit alcohol than other drugs.
– I think that if in some countries it is used to treat some diseases it has to be beneficial in small quantities because if not it could have bad effects and I believe it could create and addiction.
– In my opinion, if marijuana can help treating atients that can’t be treating with other medicine it should be legalised. Clearly, there is a lot of reasearch left to do in order to know if it is actually helpful or, by contrast, it is not.
I have to add that although I reckon it can have side effects if it is not in controlled quantities, in cases such as the one described in the article I would definetely allow its consumption.

 

·         ST-LIIEG.4-G6-1

+ DL-LIIEG.4-G6-2 Hi! I’m 19 years old and I’m from Valencia.
I’m studying Translation at the University of Valencia. I like this city so much but with no doubt whatsoever the thing I prefer is the beach and the good weather during the year. I chose this degree because I want to improve languages I know as English and French and also I like to begin with new languages. In the future, I will want to work as teacher or translator.

 

·         ST-LIIEG.4-G6-1

+ DL-LIIEG.4-G6-1 I read the BBC article and I think this kind of news and advises are really interesting and very useful.
In my opinion, these articles don’t have a great impact in the society; they are «famous´´ for one day but after people forget the instructions and the messages, so I am in disagreement with my teammate ST-LIIEG.4-G6-4.
In Spain, it is typically the announcement of the risk of alcoholim in traffic campaigns. They want to prevent accidents on the road. In spite of this fact, I think it is easy to buy alcohol in a supermarket or in a shop not being over 18 years old.
For me, alcoholism is a drug. I define it like a drug related to the precocity of consumption and the repeated use.

 

·         ST-LIIEG.4-G6-1

+ DL-LIIEG.4-G6-1 Hi DL-LIIEG.4-G6-1! I have just seen the video on YouTube and I have reflected about your questions.
I know that there are people who have a problem with alcohol due to their abuse but when you see protagonists telling their testimony is so impressive.
Referring to the alcohol’s quantity in a beer or wine, I won’t tell you exactly hoy many contains but I have the idea that it is more or less 10% – 15%.
Other important issue is the addiction. For me, it depends a lot of the person: the weigth, the habits, if he/she is capable of having control… I am lucky I haven’t any bad experience with alcohol and other kind of drugs, so I haven’t a great knowledge about it. However, I have friends who had a problem with alcohol one night and they must have gone to the hospital.
Finally, in comparison with the article, I think this is more persuasive because you are listening examples of this disease and these patients want to help you to avoid this problem.

 

·         ST-LIIEG.4-G6-1

+ DL-LIIEG.4-G6-1 I read the article published in Sky News online about the cannabis treatment and I am going to consider your questions.
As I said in other answer alcohol is a drug which it is increasing year to year. I always consider tobacco like a «minor drug´´. I explain this: on the one hand, it is so harmful, especially to the lung and in the future can cause cancer. On the other hand, alcohol and tobacco are not comparable to other drugs like marijuana. Why? There is a simple answer: the prohibition of the government. This is the main reason to consider marijuana like a «major drug´´.
I support the point of view of Alfie Dingley, although I understand the governments’s statement. If marijuana is used to treat cases like Alfie’s epilepsy or therapeutics uses, it will be legalised. The problem is that they can’t supervise if people take advantage of marijuana only for treatments or other medical uses and no for other uses.
I find this question very important and it is a pending subject. Therefore, it is a difficult decision and the government have to analyze with a lot of calm.

 

·         ST-LIIEG.4-G6-5

+ DL-LIIEG.4-G6-1 + DL-LIIEG.4-G6-1 Hi DL-LIIEG.4-G6-1, I´ve just watched the video that you mentioned and now I am going to answer as good as I can to your questions.

I have really surprised about the people of the video because of their tragical stories, because I have never thought that alcohol could cause these kind of damages in a person´s life, and I am really impacted. This is really surprising because people with alcoholism don´t realise at first that they have a problem (like a man in the video has said) but when they realise, they go to therapy to get well and pass trough their addiction and they can be a support for people that have the same problem by telling them their story and how they overcome the situation.

I honestly don´t know how much alcohol is in beer or wine, but I have searched it on the internet and I have discovered that a can of beer has 5% of alcohol and a bottle of wine has approximately 14% of alcohol, so I think it is a considerable quantity if you are responsible enough consuming it.

I think that alcohol is really addictive because it makes you feel so good and it takes you the shame to do things that you would never do in normal conditions.

I had never been in a extreme situation with alcohol because I always do a responsible consume of it to avoid this situation, but a friend of mine ended once in the hospital with an ethyl coma, and since then, she is more responsible when she drinks.

As I said before, is really easy for anyone to become addict to alcohol because of how this substance makes you feel, so you have to know how you must stop drinking.

 

·         ST-LIIEG.4-G6-5

+ DL-LIIEG.4-G6-1 After having read the article published in Sky News, I´m going to answer your questions:

In my opinion, we can consider alcohol as a drug because of the effects that produces in people and because is really addictive, like other drugs. Nevertheless I think that is less harmful than other drugs, such as hachís, which causes really bad impacts in people´s lifes. Other argument to support it is that alcohol´s effects don´t last as long as other drugs and haven´t got such a bad impact, so I think it only can be compared with tobacco.

I think that marijuana can be beneficial in fields like medicine, as in other countries, to reduce patients´pain and treat some illnesses that can´t be treated with any medicines, but if it were legalized, it must be consumed in small quantities and always with these therapeutical purposes, because if not, it can cause an addiction and become a serious problem.

To conclude, I must say that I have found this article really helpful and interesting.

·         ST-LIIEG.4-G6-5

I have just read the BBC article and I think that is very interesting and useful.

To express my opinion I have to agree with my teammate ST-LIIEG.4-G6-1, because I think that these articles haven´t got impact enough nowadays in the society, although they are talking about serious problems that happen really often, and that affect a lot of people; so I also disagree with my other teammate ST-LIIEG.4-G6-4.

It is clear that the government have to announce the dangers and risks of alcoholism, because they want to prevent accidents of any kind, especially traffic accidents, but people often ignore them and drink equally.

Answering to the second question I have to say that here, in Spain, we have the alcohol guideliness that people under 18 years old are not allowed to consume alcohol, but as ST-LIIEG.4-G6-1 have said, it is quite easy to buy alcohol in spite of don´t have the age, because they can go to a 24 hours shop and they sell it to them, and also because they can ask to an older person to buy it.

 

·         ST-LIIEG.4-G6-3

I have just read the BBC article and I think articles like this are very interesting and useful to warn people about all the risks that consume alcohol carries and how it damages ourselves. Although this articles impact people when they are reading them, they don’t make people change their drinking habits and they continue drinking as much as before, so on this point I don’t agree with my teammate ST-LIIEG.4-G6-4 and I agree with ST-LIIEG.4-G6-1 and ST-LIIEG.4-G6-5.
Answering to the second question, here in Spain it is forbidden to drink or buy alcohol if you are not an adult, what it is considered at the age of 18. It is true that there are many pubs or discos that if you haven’t got the age they don’t let you to consume alcohol there. Apart from that, although lots of supermarkets ask you your identity card when you try to buy alcohol there are many others that don’t care about if you are 18 or not, they simply sell it to everyone. In my opinion this is something that should change because if government makes thousands of campaigns but there isn’t a control in places such as discos or supermarkets this problem won’t never be solved.
Finally, in my opinion, alcohol is a drug because its effects and the dependence that can make in some people when they have an excessive use. However as alcohol is legalized it is not as bad seen as for example other drugs like cocaine.

 

·         ST-LIIEG.4-G6-3

+ DL-LIIEG.4-G6-1 I have just watched the video and the first thing I have to say is that for me all that people who have appeared there telling their stories and all what they have suffered are very brave because not everybody would go to TV to show their stories to help others with the same problems and warn other people about the danger that alcohol has. I think this kind of videos have more impact in the society than the article posted in the BBC because when you see someone telling you a true story and the repercussion that it has had in their life, for me it impacts more than an article telling information and showing percentages.
I knew that depending on the beer there are some with a higher quantity of alcohol, like the golden beer that has about 10% of alcohol, and there are others with a lower quantity of alcohol, like the black beer that has about 3-5% of alcohol. What I didn’t know was the quantity of alcohol that wine had and after having searched it on internet I have found that it has about 15%. Not everybody knows this and it is very important to know that because there are people that think that beer or wine don’t affect their capabilities and they are affected more than they think.
According to the next point I think that the addiction with alcohol depends on the person and its metabolism, as my teammate ST-LIIEG.4-G6-1 has said before. It doesn’t affect equally to a person with a high weight than to a person with a low weight. It also depends in the times they have drunk alcohol before because if it is the first time you drink alcohol it will affect you more than if it is the tenth time.
I think everybody has a bad experience with alcohol in their lifes, not necessarily to end at the hospital but to end vomiting because you have drunk too much.

 

·         ST-LIIEG.4-G6-3

+ DL-LIIEG.4-G6-1 I have read the article posted by Sky News and I’m going to answer your questions:
As I said in an answer before, for me alcohol is considered a drug because it has got malignant effects on people and it can make people addictive to it. But as I have said before too, as it is legalised it is not as bad seen as other drugs like marijuana.
I think alcohol can’t be compared to tobacco or marijuana because they are drugs totally different, I mean, all of them are drugs and all of them have bad effects on people but I think the effects of the tobacco, and sometimes the effects of the marijuana, aren’t as serious as the effects of the alcohol. It is true that tobacco and marijuana can produce you many types of cancer and its effects are in the long term malignant, but the effects of alcohol are immediate and you can suffer an ethyl coma on that exact moment of drinking.
Although the most part of the people see marijuana as a bad drug it has got its good benefits. For example when you consume marijuana you feel better with yourself and you get relaxed for a moment, and you also feel very happy. But the real benefit of marijuana is that it can be used like medicine and cure people from diseases like epilepsy, like the boy of the article.
In my opinion I don’t know if marijuana should be legalised, I mean, it would be perfect to be legalised by topics of medicine because it could really help some patients with their diseases, but if marijuana was legalised I think its price would rise a lot and maybe the treatments with it will cost a lot, and also the state will keep all the money for them.

 

·         DL-LIIEG.4-G6-1

Hi everyone thank you for your interesting opinions and comments on the source material I have posted and for engaging with each others opinions successfully. It seems that we all agree on the fact that alcohol is a drug but there are many other factors that contribute to how dangerous the effects of alcohol consumption can be.

The debate surrounding the legalisation of marijuana is an interesting one. As we have seen in the article there are potential health benefits, however, it would be good to consider the effect it can have on mental health. Do you think people with depression or other mental illnesses should smoke marijuana?

Additionally another good point to consider is whether marijuana is a gateway drug (a drug which supposedly leads the user on to more addictive or dangerous drugs). What do you think?

There has been a lot in the news this week surrounding Donald Trump’s views on how drug dealers should be punished.
Please read the article «President Trump’s claim that drug dealers who kill ‘thousands’ just get 30 days in jail» published online by the Washington Post on March 23rd.
How are drug dealers punished in your country?
Do you think the punishment should be stricter?

As always any other opinions are welcomed 🙂

·         ST-LIIEG.4-G6-3

+ DL-LIIEG.4-G6-1 Hello! Firstly I am going to answer to your questions about the consumption of marijuana, I think that people with mental illnesses shouldn’t smoke marijuana because it can affect more to their brain and instead of producing them good sensations, they get more depressed. But I also think that it depends on the person because, maybe, if you are on a depression and you smoke marijuana you can feel better with yourself for a moment, but in my opinion this situations are few.
Answering to the second question, I think that the fact that marijuana is a gateway drug depends on the person too. Usually, people don’t start taking strong drugs from the beginning, I mean, they don’t take cocaine, for example, before taking other soft drugs; but this doesn’t mean that the fact of smoking marijuana will make you take other more dangerous drugs in the future, I think it depends on the volition of the person. Also, there are people that don’t smoke marijuana or have never smoked marijuana and take strong drugs. So, I think that marijuana is not the cause of taking drugs.
Secondly, I am going to answer to your questions related to the article you have mentioned before. I have just read it and I think it is very interesting to find out this facts. Sincerely, I didn’t know what the punishment in Spain for drug dealers was and after having researched it on the Internet I have found that it depends on the quantity and type of drug. If you are dealing a soft drug you go to prison between 4 years and a half and 10 years; and if you are dealing a strong drug you go to prison between 9 and 12 years. You also have to pay 4 times the value of the drug. Apart from the drug dealers, the leaders of the band have a strong punishment: if they are dealing strong drugs they go to prison between 12 and 18 years, and if they are dealing with soft drugs they go to prison between 10 and 15 years. In my opinion, this punishment shouldn’t be stricter, I think it’s okay, or maybe some more years in prison, but in general it’s okay.
To conclude I want to tell that today I have seen on the news that a man who lived in Alicante has been arrested in Malasia because of dealing 450 grams of cocaine and his punishment is the death penalty: he is going to be hanged. It seems that in Malasia all the drug dealers are punished in the same way but I think this punishment is exaggerated. I would put the death penalty to abusers, rapists or killers because they make people suffer a lot and they take away lives, but I wouldn’t kill a drug dealer because it is not only his guilt but also it’s the consumers guilt.

 

·         ST-LIIEG.4-G6-2

+ DL-LIIEG.4-G6-1 Hi, I have read the BBC article and I think it can be useful to people who is increasing their abuse of alcohol. But heavy drinkers won’t stop consuming alcohol if they read it because they are addicted and there are few solutions for them. However, articles such as these are very important to teenagers in order to concern them about following a healthy lifestyle and warn them about the risk they can get. Regarding to the second question, I had the opportunity to attend a talk about the drugs and alcohol abuse. I remember that it was very beneficial to us because some students had already tasted drugs and it could alert them. Actually, I don’t know exactly if there are more consumption guidelines but we watch TV advertisement about how bad is the abuse of alcohol. Moreover, there are campaigns wich help heavy drinkers to solve their addiction and they help them to get a healthier life. To sum up I think warning about the defect of alcohol is really important to prevent illnesses such as dementia or alzheimer.

Secondly, after reading the second article I consider that alcohol is a drug but it can be more dangerous depends of his consume. For example, if you drink alcohol in a short-term, it doesn’t cause the same responses. However, if you are a heavy drinker and you smoke at the same time or mix some drugs, the alcohol would be one more drug like others.

This article is poignant because of his story. I don’t really know if the marijuana consumption have benefits but I have listened by old people. In this article I have read that marijuana can help the child who is ill. On the one hand, I think that marijuana should be legalised because it is for a good motive. Alfie’s cannabis treatment can be made with marijuna and for this reason I think that it can be really helpful to prevent or treat strange illnesses. On the other hand, marijuna shouldn’t be legalised because people do bad use of it. They are addicted and it produce disorder in them. They can become aggressive. In my opinion, I would legalise marijuana only for important cases if it is truth that marijuana can treat some illnesses and can be beneficial too.

·         ST-LIIEG.4-G6-2

Hello, I’m going to answer your questions:

First of all, I think people with depression or mental illnesses should smoke marijuana if their doctors recommends it. But it should be a short-time because if you smoke every day or you abuse of it, ill people will be able to get worst instead of feeling better. In contrast to I think it depends on the person because each one is different and marijuana can treat some people because they believe it Works.

According to the second question, I think that fact depends on the person too. Because there are people who have tasted marijuana but not others. This fact happens because people think that others drugs are more dangerous than marijuana and they are scared of tasting it. They believe that marijuana have only benefits and it can’t affect them. Nevertheless, I think people begins to smoke cigarette and later they taste the marijuana. And later, they meet other people who is tasting others drugs and they do it too. This kind of people become drug-addicted because they think marijuana doesn’t produce the effects wich they hoped and they want more.

After reading the article, I think it is very interesting because I found out facts that I didn’t listen it. I don’t really know what punishment in Spain for drug dealers is. So I have been researching to get some information. I have found that private consumption is not sanctioned because it would go against fundamental rights, but the possession of any amount of marijuana is punished. The crimes are divided in different categories. The punishment depends on the person who has trafficed and depends on the crime. For example if it is a drug that doesn’t cause serious damage to health: imprisonment of one to three years and a fine. And if it is a drug that causes serious damage to health: prison for three to six years and a fine. In my opinion, I agree with the law of my country because I think that drug dealers must accomplish their punishment but they do not force others to buy their merchandise.

·         ST-LIIEG.4-G6-1

+ DL-LIIEG.4-G6-1 Hi! I think the debate surrounding the legislation of marijuana is interesting too.
About it consumption and mental illnesses I think, on the one hand, that people who suffers them smoke marijuana because they feel better. On the other hand my opinion is that they feel better for the moment of marijuana’s effect, but after they feel depressive again.
So, if I have an illness of this type I try to not moke marijuana or other kind of drugs.
Answering to the second question, I think drugs, in general, are addictive but the will of addiction depends a lot of the person. This will includes principally the frequency and also the quantity of the consumption. People often tend to put the blame on drugs but they are the guilties of their situation. They have solutions like going to a detoxification centre or to the doctor.
Now, referring to the article, I find it interesting. We don’t think about kills of people through the drug dealers. In my view, a drug dealer is responsible of a minor part of the death of a consumer. Consumers buy drugs having knowledge of causes and damaging effects, so the reliable responsible is the person who buy them, although the job of the dealer is totally bad.
In Spain, this question functions like in USA. When big dealers are caught they stay in prison for 10 years more or less and others dealers can escape. There is a problem that haven`t a firm solution and it is important to treat this as soon as possible. In case they are punished I personally support that the punishment should be stricted not like others issues like crimes, in which people who is punished leave the prison after a few months.
Lastly, I see a notic last week in what am actor of a famous series called »The Prince» hasd been punished with seven years and a half of prison as a consequence of drug trafficking. He was part of a criminal band in Cadiz, a city in south of Spain.

 

·         DL-LIIEG.4-G6-1

Dear All

As we are nearing the end of the ITecla period I thought it would be a good time to summarise the discussion we have had throughout the month.

We began with a BBC article that reported a link between alcohol consumption and dementia. ST-LIIEG.4-G6-4 made a good point by saying that articles such as these are good for warning people about risks related to drinking alcohol and ST-LIIEG.4-G6-2 added to this with her opinion that these articles are particularly useful for teenagers who maybe don’t know the effects yet. ST-LIIEG.4-G6-1 later provided a countering opinion whereby he stated that he thinks that these articles don’t have much effect on the general population. He also raised the interesting point of the alcohol/traffic-related campaigns in Spain. We then discussed a little about alcohol consumption guidelines in England and in Spain which led us to talk about how much alcohol is actually contained in each beverage.

The next discussion topic was a YouTube video that showed how ‘normal’ people with ‘normal’ lives can become addicted to alcohol just like anyone else and the key difference to enjoying alcohol and becoming an addict is knowing when to stop. ST-LIIEG.4-G6-5 made the point that when looking at these people you would never know that they were suffering from addiction. And I guess this is a good point related to the difference between mental and physical illnesses – you can’t see the struggle that someone is battling in their own brain and as ST-LIIEG.4-G6-3 said, videos such as these help people suffering from the same problem and she thought that videos like this were more influential than Newspaper articles. Additionally, we discussed some personal stories relating to alcohol consumption and although alarming, it seemed quite common in the discussion that we knew someone who had to go to hospital because they drank too much alcohol one night. This probably is common amongst young people who are still experimenting with alcohol and learning their limits.

Next, we read an article published by Sky News that detailed an individual case of using marijuana for cancer treatment. It led us to differentiate between drugs e.g. alcohol is no where near as dangerous as cocaine although as ST-LIIEG.4-G6-3 stated, alcohol is still a drug because of its addictive qualities. Having read the article, ST-LIIEG.4-G6-4 and ST-LIIEG.4-G6-5 then made the point that marijuana can have health benefits and therefore should be legalised for this purpose. However, like ST-LIIEG.4-G6-2 stated there are of course negative side effects to Marijuana that we must forget and in addition ST-LIIEG.4-G6-1 stated, it would be hard for the government to regulate and ensure that marijuana is only being used for medical purposes.

Lastly, we looked at an article in the Washington Post that discussed Donald Trump’s opinions on punishments for drug dealers. ST-LIIEG.4-G6-3 and ST-LIIEG.4-G6-2 gave us some good information about the laws in Spain which seem pretty similar to those in England. We then saw a case in Malasia where someone is receiving the death penalty in Malayisa for drug dealing which we all agreed was too harsh. ST-LIIEG.4-G6-1 then made the point that although the role of the drug dealer is wrong, the person buying the drugs are the ones responsible for themselves and they have made the decision to consume a potentially harmful substance.

To conclude I would say we have decided that alcohol is a drug since it is addictive, however, it is not as harmful in the short term as other drugs. All drugs can have negative impacts on both mental and physical health and should be consumed with caution. Although there are potential medical benefits to smoking marijuana, the debate surrounding legalisation is going to continue because of the harmful side effects and the difficulties that come with regulation. And although there should definitely be punishments for drug dealers, the death penalty is too harsh and all consumers must be responsible for their own actions to some degree.

Thank you all so much for your hard work and the time you have spent contributing to the debate. I hope you have enjoyed it and that you have found it interesting to analyse the sources provided.

Enjoy your Easter holidays and I hope to see you in class when we return 🙂

 

 

English Language IV

Debate 7: Drug-Alcohol Abuse

Owner:

L-LIV-G7-1
L-LIV-G7-2

Members:

ST-LIV-G7-1
ST-LIV-G7-2
ST-LIV-G7-3
ST-LIV-G7-4
ST-LIV-G7-5
ST-LIV-G7-6
ST-LIV-G7-7

Discussion Leader:

DL-LIV-G7-1
DL-LIV-G7-2

 

 

·         ST-LIV-G7-1

Hello everyone,
I’m ST-LIV-G7-1 (ST-LIV-G7-1).
As the chosen moderator, I guess it’s fitting for me to write first?
Anyway, I’m a 20-year-old Translation student, who dearly loves this language and has as of late become rather obsessed with P&P.

With regards to the subject we’ve been given, here I’ll leave our first four questions:

* What do you, in particular, think about drug and alcohol abuse?

* Do you think there are specific circumstances that may push people into doing drugs?

* Would you say drinking alcohol has been somewhat romanticized?

* Have you watched any movie depicting drug or alcohol abuse that left a long-lasting impression?

 

·         L-LIV-G7-1

Forum debate 7/Drug & Alcohol abuse

Discussion Leader(s): DL-LIV-G7-1 & DL-LIV-G7-2

Group members:
ST-LIV-G7-1
ST-LIV-G7-2
ST-LIV-G7-3
ST-LIV-G7-4
ST-LIV-G7-5
ST-LIV-G7-6
ST-LIV-G7-7

STEP 1: Breaking the Ice:
– Write and post an introductory paragraph together with four ice-breaking questions. Make sure you answer some of the questions posted by your group mates and the discussion leader(s).

STEP 2: Initiating the Discussion:
– With the guidance of the discussion leader(s) assigned to your group, write 4 or 5 posts of about 200 words each during this month (try to write at least one post a week).

·         L-LIV-G7-2

+ L-LIV-G7-1

Discussion Leaders: DL-LIV-G7-1 & DL-LIV-G7-2

Group members:
ST-LIV-G7-1
ST-LIV-G7-2
ST-LIV-G7-3
ST-LIV-G7-4
ST-LIV-G7-5
ST-LIV-G7-6
ST-LIV-G7-7

 

·         L-LIV-G7-1

Dear all,

Here’s DL-LIV-G7-1 previous post which for some reason had been removed:

DL-LIV-G7-1: «Hi everyone here is an article containing information on alcohol consumption guidelines in the UK and a recent survey carried out in France linking excessive alcohol consumption and dementia to get us started.

BBC News from 21 February 2018
, «Alcohol and dementia: What’s the truth?»

To what extent do you think articles such as these influence the actions of the readers? Do you think they act as a deterrent?

Do you have alcohol consumption guidelines in Spain? If so, what are they?

And some other questions to consider:

What is alcoholism?

Do you think alcohol is a drug?

 

·         DL-LIV-G7-1

Please go on youtube and watch a video from a British tv show called “My name is… and Im an alcoholic” concerning alcoholism in the UK (v=VGXHdeTkHBY – please type this into the search bar on the Youtube website to find the video). For those who don’t know, this is the stereotypical introduction for an Alcoholic’s Anonymous group where people go to find help for alcohol addictions. The people speaking do have a variety of accents so just try your best to understand as much as you can.

Questions to consider when watching:
Do these figures surprise you?
Do you know how much alcohol is in beer/wine?
How addictive do you perceive alcohol to be?
Do you have any experience with alcoholism?
How easy is it to become addicted to alcohol?

Any other thoughts and ideas that come up when watching the video are also welcomed.

 

·         DL-LIV-G7-1

Please read an article posted by Sky News online with the title ‘Government ‘defending the indefensible’ over Alfie Dingley’s request for cannabis treatment’ dated Tuesday 20th February 2018.

Some questions to consider are:
– Do you consider alcohol a drug? If so can it be compared to tobacco for instance? Or any other drugs such as marijuana?
– Do you think there are any benefits of marijuana consumption?
– Do you think that marijuana should be legalised?

 

·         ST-LIV-G7-5

Hello everyone! I’m ST-LIV-G7-5 and I’m 20 years old. I study English and French Translation at the University of Valencia. I love travelling the world to discover different cultures and ways of living. I think languages are the best way to get to know others, and when I realized I could help people communicate, I decided to study Translation. In a nearly future, I’d like to find a job as a language teacher but I also like translating and interpreting, so time will tell!

With regard to the questions based on the articles and the video proposed by DL-LIV-G7-1, I would like to start with a definition of «alcoholism». From a medical point of view, it is a pathology characterised by dependence on alcohol with several symptoms, such as dementia, cirrhosis of the liver, and decreased ability to function socially and vocationally. As the article from BBC News «Alcohol and dementia: What’s the truth?» says, frequent consumption of alcohol can increase the risk of suffering Alzheimer, apart from depression and other emotional and mental disorders.

I am conscious about the lack of awareness of alcohol consumption (I don’t exactly know how much alcohol is in beer or wine); in fact, around 8 million people are considered alcohol dependent in the UK, which really impressed me when I watched the video «My name is… and I’m an alcoholic.» In relation to that and in response to ST-LIV-G7-1’s question, there are specific circumstances such as parties that push people into alcohol abuse, such as partying, apart from diseases. From my point of view, in both cases alcohol can be considered as a drug.

On the other hand, the article «Government ‘defending the indefensible’», has prompted me to reflect about the curative use of marijuana. I cannot understand why this substance can’t be used to mitigate pain, regardless of the law and policy and considering that morphine, for example, is completely legal in Spain.

-Are we sufficiently aware of drugs and alcohol abuse nowadays?
-Is it possible to have fun at parties and festivals without consuming alcohol?
-What do you think about prescribing marijuana as a treatment for pain?

 

·         ST-LIV-G7-4

Hi, everyone!! My name is ST-LIV-G7-4 and I’m 20 years old. I study Translation at the University of València.

As discussed by some of you in your posts, I too do consider alcohol as a drug, and I think that it is one of the most dangerous ones just because we overlook its long-term effects on our bodies. There is also this notion that is that when something is legal somehow it is more inoffensive than when it is not. Just because a substance is reguladed does not mean it is harmless or healthy.

Regarding one of the questions asked by ST-LIV-G7-1, I definitely think that drug abuse is romanticized in popular culture, specially in this day and age. We are constantly told that we have to consume some type of opiates in order to have fun, and those who do not do drugs are depicted as boring, closeminded and not interesting at all. So I guess that we have to address both the repression and the celebration of drug consumption and also tackle the situations in which people may feel pushed into doing drugs. For instance, there are a great amount of studies that show that people in small and poor neighbourhoods tend to have issues with drug and alcohol addiction because these are easier and cheaper ways to scape from their immediate situations. According to some statistics, people that have had an alcoholic parent/close relative or that come from a dysfunctional household tend to be conditioned to do drugs and eventually abuse them. These are factors that may be taken into account when discussing this topic.

 

·         ST-LIV-G7-2

Hello, everyone! I’m ST-LIV-G7-2 and I’m 19 years old. Currently I’m studying English Translation at the University of Valencia.

As many of you have said, I also think of alcohol as a drug. As we can see in the Cambridge Dictionary, it is considered to be a drug “any natural or artificially made chemical that is taken for pleasure, to improve someone’s performance of an activity, or because a person cannot stop using it”. If we search alcohol’s effects and why it is used in our society, it fits perfectly in this definition.

With regard to one of the questions asked by ST-LIV-G7-5, I can assure that it is possible to have fun at parties and festivals without consuming alcohol. I agree with ST-LIV-G7-4 in the fact that nowadays those who don’t drink at a party are considered boring, which doesn’t have to be true. Having fun does not have to mean doing drugs.

However, based on the statistics of the Spanish government, the 75.1% of teenagers in our country have consumed alcohol before being of age, even though it is illegal to sell alcohol to underage. The increase of alcohol consumption in minors is mostly due to its psychoactive effects. They do drugs until they feel the improvement on their social skills. Even they drink in order to demonstrate that they are “old enough”.

Here I leave you some other questions:
– What do you think about underage drug abuse?
– Do you think the government has done a good job trying to stop underage drinking?

 

·         ST-LIV-G7-5

Hello again!

I have to say that I agree with you. Nowadays, alcohol and drug abuse is romanticized in our current society. That mix of mystery and excitement of doing something illegal consciously could be what leads people, also teenagers, to over consume alcohol and opiates.

With regard to the question that ST-LIV-G7-2 made, theoretically, buying alcohol under 18 in Spain is illegal, just as consuming toxic substances in public areas, but we all know that people do that and they are not fined up. Obviously, the main culprits behind underage drug abuse are adults. Most often, they are who sell and deliver that kind of substances to young people in order to get money. We unfortunately live in a society where money interests are more important than ethical questions.

So, how could we deal with this situation? In many countries, the price of alcohol is higher than in Spain. Probably, if it rose, people wouldn’t get large amounts of alcohol. From 1 May, prices of alcohol will raise in Scotland due to a government’s measure. (Minimum alcohol price will raise cost by up to 90% in Scotland, The Guardian, 14th December 2017) The intention is to stop the sale of cut-price high-alcohol drinks such as cider. On the other hand, governments could promote more awareness campaigns for all audiences. Raising awareness among children is also very important. From my point of view, if they were conscious of the long-term effects of doing drugs and they received information at school from the earliest childhood, they would probably be able to develop their own judgement about doing drugs before. Obviously, family circumstances are also relevant but receiving information is always beneficial.

-If the price of alcohol rose, would people reduce its consumption?

-What do you think about raising awareness among children at school?
·         ST-LIV-G7-3

Hello everyone!

My full name is ST-LIV-G7-3 and I’m 19 years old. I’m studying Transaltion and Interpreting in the University of Valencia and I think that the subject which is being treated here is very interesting. I will be pleased to answer the questions asked by ST-LIV-G7-5 and contribute with my opinion supported by interesing data.

To start with, I know that we’re all concerned about acohol and drugs consumption between young people, and I think legislation and tax icrement is an effective way to disuade youngsters from buying and consuming alcohol. What is more, as they don’t usually have much money, if prices rise, due to the new taxes, they will be less likely to get it because they won’t be able to afford it. Even though it is well-intentioned, There are more effective meassures to cut it down, and save lives by raising awareness. For example, the United States Surgeon General Dr. Jerome M. Adams, has asked all the Americans publicly to learn how use naloxone, a kind of drug whose injection can save lives endagered by an opioid overdose. After reading this news from The New York Times, I came up with two conclusions:

1. Medical community is making an effort to save people from the severe consequences of drug abuse (115 people dead per day) by making them aware of how they can help otehrs.

2. Some of these addictive and dangerous substances are contained in legal and widely distributed medicines through all the country even if they are only provided under medical prescription.

Finally, I woul like to ask these two questions:

– What do you think about some drugs which are as dangerous as some medicins being cosidered illegal?

– Do we really know what to do if someone’s life is endagered by an overdose?

nytimes.com – Surgeon General Urges Americans to Carry Drug That Stops Opioid Overdoses – The New York Times

Surgeon General Urges Americans to Carry Drug That Stops Opioid Overdoses – The New York Times

nytimes.com

 

·         ST-LIV-G7-4

Good afternoon, everyone!! As stated by all of you, I think that reducing teenagers’ pocket money would be a good way to restrain them from consuming drugs. But it is not a practical solution if we look at it carefully because if they want to do drugs, they will do drugs and they will find ways to have access to them. We also have to take into consideration that according to the statistics, between the age of 13 to 18, kids are more likely to be influenced by their peers than by their parents or family members. Peer pressure causes a big impact in everyone no matter the age range, however when we are young, we follow what everybody else is doing and if our friends and mates are doing drugs, we will probably end up at least trying them. That’s why I think that raising the prices is kind of tricky because it will push them into criminal activities and therefore doing more illegal things instead of keeping them from doing so.

And responding to ST-LIV-G7-3’s question, as he said, I do believe that we somehow overlook the effects of some medicines just because they are under doctor’s prescription. Even though there is enough proof to believe it. For instance, there are a lot of people who have become drug addicts because their doctor told them to keep consuming a substance that was bad for them, and I think that we need to start holding these people accountable for their actions. However, I think that considering some drugs legal and some others illegal is completely hypocritical and it just shows how our society likes to play with these double standards.

But I think that ST-LIV-G7-5’s proposal about raising awareness among children really hit the mark because at the end of the day we need to teach kids by example, otherwise it will make no sense.

 

·         ST-LIV-G7-7

Hello, everyone!

My name ST-LIV-G7-7 and I’m 19 years old. I am currently studying Translation and Interpretation at the University of Valencia. As you may have noticed from my surname, I come from eastern Europe, from Ukraine to be precise, and the topic about alcoholism and similar drugs is one I am woefully too familiar with.

As many of you have stated, I also consider alcohol as a type of drug, and certainly a dangerous one, specially because many people do not treat it as something that could ruin their life without them noticing. I would like to emphasise that the status and treatment of alcohol varies from country to country, that is to say, not all cultures view it as dangerously as others. This is extremely important, because if their behaviour towards alcohol is unconcerned and tolerant, it will be highly difficult for that culture take action against it.

What my partners have said above about incrementing taxes on alcohol and reducing teenagers’ pocket money are really good ideas, and they may work in some countries like Spain. But if it seems difficult to put those ideas into action in Spain, imagine how arduous it would be in other cultures like Ukraine.

As someone who has lived and spent time among a culture like that, I can assure you that in places like Ukraine alcoholism is viewed much differently than in western Europe. It is not strange to hear “I am not an alcoholic” from someone who drinks large amount of wine for lunch and dinner every day. Even the concept “alcoholism” is difficult to approach, you have to be drunk on a daily basis to be considered an alcoholic. Unfortunately, the stereotypical jokes about eastern Europeans drinking too much are not that far from reality. There are even some people who think that it is inevitable and consider this extreme drinking problem hereditary.

What do you think?

-Is alcoholism hereditary?
-Do you have any ideas about how to raise awareness among children and teenagers?

 

·         ST-LIV-G7-5

Good morning everyone!

It is really interesting reading your comments and opinions. As you say, a rise in alcohol prices is not a bad idea but, definitely, if people want to do to drugs, they will do drugs in one way or another, so the application of this measure would be more difficult than it looks.

On the other hand, drugs are both hazardous and addictive. I agree with ST-LIV-G7-4 that sometimes people overlook the side effects of some medicines just because a doctor prescribed them, but, as Nacho suggests, some of these substances, which are as dangerous as illegal drugs, are legally distributed in some countries. This is a complicated issue but, from my point of view, scientific studies should be based on the beneficial effects, and those drugs considered illegal that can help people to heal should be legalised under medical prescription. Obviously, there are a lot of disadvantages, such as become addicted, as you say. For that reason, further research should be done in order to prevent harmful consequences as much as possible.

With regard to what Nacho proposed, I think that naloxone injections can be very useful to save lives endangered by opioid overdose. As we have already discussed, raising awareness is very important and making people know about the existence of these options is essential.

Finally, answering the question made by ST-LIV-G7-7, I think that alcoholism can be hereditary as part of culture. In societies where alcohol consumption is more widespread, people consume it every day. As a consequence, some of those who grew up seeing this daily consumption will probably adopt this lifestyle.

-What do you think about creating a campaign for children and teenagers at school? How could it be effective? Have you got any ideas for its name?

-Do you think that new technologies could be useful in order to raise awareness? How?

 

·         ST-LIV-G7-2

Hello again, everyone!

Every single comment each one of you have written is certainly compelling. I also believe that a raise in the price of alcohol or tobacco would reduce their consumption but, as ST-LIV-G7-4 said, if people want to do drugs, then they will always find a way to get them.

Respecting ST-LIV-G7-3’s question about medicines that can be as detrimental as illegal drugs, there are plenty of cases in which patients have become addicts to sleeping pills that were prescribed by their doctor. Here is an article where Dr. George Zureikat, the director of the Mid Michigan Sleep Center, explains that “medications are never a first line treatment when it comes to getting better sleep” and a recovering addict shares her experience with sleeping pills addiction.

http://www.abc12.com/content/news/Recovering-addict-shares-inspiring-message-in-overcoming-sleeping-pill-addiction-472991003.html

What’s more, I find ST-LIV-G7-7’s point of view truly interesting. In my opinion, alcoholism is not hereditary per se, but the fact of living with alcohol addicts can make an excessive amount of drinking seem something run of the mill.

Many scientific studies conducted among children born in a household with alcohol addicts show that genes are not the only thing that affect the risk for alcoholism. How their parents treat them and how they act are also aspects that can contribute to an addiction. Here I leave you a publication of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism from the USA in which explains how can affect living in a family with alcoholism to children.

https://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/FamilyHistory/famhist.htm

Lastly, I will present you some questions:
– Do you think growing up with and addict can affect badly a child or a teenager?
– Are doctors giving a good use to medicines that can provoke an addiction?
·         ST-LIV-G7-3

Hello again, girls!

I have been reading, and I think that the questions you have posted lately are very intersting and, of course, there is worth answering them.

First of all, it makes sense that we wonder about if children or teenagers who grow with addict parents, siblings or other relatives, are more likely to consume drugs when they grow older. The sad true is that, in most cases, it happens in that way. According to an article which I have reacently red in The Guardian, the cases of babies and children who are in protection custody becase theywere
drug-exposed has increased a 200% in the last years. This situation is so critical that some caseworkers have break their silence to raise awareness about what is really happening and how this problem is spreading like a plague destroying a massive number of families. Some of these children witnessed how their parents died in front of them because of an overdose. Others had to live in dirty infested houses where there was no running water, because it had been cut off. As a result, children who go through this experiencies can get traumatised for their whole life. In addition, having this enormous handicap can be too hard for them leading to drug consumption, suicide or mental illnesses.

Secondly, not heroin, cocaine and the rest of the called hard drugs are the only guilties of causing all the problems mentioned before. In fact, many addictions start because some medicienes contain very addictive components like opium derivates. If they are not under strict control, patuents can vecome excessively dependent on them and be unable to control themselves. After saying this, it is obvious that I disagree with the suppoters of contemporary medicine which tries to overload our bodies whith piles of medications.

In my opinion, the main medical’s industry objective is making money at all cost, no matter how it affects families nor society. Now my two questions are:

-1 Is the pharmaceutical idustry responsible of elaborating dangerous madicines?

-2 What alternative activites could teenagers do to avoid drug consumption?
·         ST-LIV-G7-4

Hi, everyone!! I find your contributions to the forum really exhilarating and thorough. I just realized that I have not asked any questions yet, I just forgot about it in my previous posts.

First of all, I wanted to address ST-LIV-G7-7’s post because I found some of her points really interesting. I totally agree when she says that our societal definition of alcohol is pretty much loose and that sometimes leads to confusion because we really do not know what alcoholism really is. And what is considered alcoholism here in Spain may not be considered alcoholism elsewhere, so we must be careful when we make assumptions. When it comes to the question of whether or not alcoholism is hereditary, I kind of agree with ST-LIV-G7-2 when she says that it is not “hereditary per se” because you can be prone to become an addict when you have other addicts in your bloodline but I believe that more than genetics, class and societal conditions play major roles that cannot be ignored. But on the other hand, during the Crack Epidemic and the subsequent War On Drugs that took place in the US between the 80s and the 90s, many studies showed that pregnant addicts gave birth to baby born addicts and that soon became a big issue because not only were these people pushed into drugs but their offspring was also conditioned from the womb to continue the sickening cycle.

And last but not least, addressing ST-LIV-G7-3’s point, I do not think that we should put the blame on the pharmaceutical industry just because they create certain type of drugs, we should be able to hold them accountable for other alarming problems such as the prices of some type of medicines and we should focus on the upsetting patent laws that keep patients from controlling or curing their diseases. I also think that we as a whole should be blamed for both romanticizing and criminalising drug consumption because weak messages create bad situations and we must find ways to deal with that now without targeting the industry.

Do you think that some demographics are consciously pushed into drugs?

 

·         ST-LIV-G7-7

Hello again, everyone!

There are so many interesting comments about this topic that I don’t even know where to start! Thank you so much for sharing your ideas, this is an enthralling discussion!

Regarding your proposal about raising alcohol prices, I also believe it is a great way to reduce its consumption, even if initially it won’t motivate the whole population, it is most assuredly a good way to start to attenuate alcohol consumption, especially teenagers’.

In reference to ST-LIV-G7-2’s question, I do agree with Nacho’s response that growing up with an addict can severely affect a child or a teenager, as stated by an article published in TheRecoveryVillage “How growing up in an alcoholic home can affect children”, the repercussions of growing up in that kind of environment can largely affect the child’s future, relationships with others and children can even develop severe mental health problems.

ST-LIV-G7-4’s proposed question has caught my attention: are some demographics consciously pushed into drugs? I am not sure if I can answer the “consciously” part, but there are some demographic groups that are more prone to drug abuse than others. Let’s take the most evident one: “In 2013, adult men in the United States struggled with an alcohol use disorder at rates double those of women 0.8 million as compared to 5.8 million” (taken from American Addiction Centers “Statistics on Drug Addiction”).

Why do you think men consume more drugs than women?

This one is more philosophical: Why do you think that humans keep consuming something that they know is harmful and destructive?

 

·         ST-LIV-G7-6

Hello! It’s my pleasure to introduce myself. Well, my name is ST-LIV-G7-6, I am from Armenia. I have been living in Spain for 14 years. I am currently studying English Spanish Translation degree at the Valencia University. I am a good listener as well as good learner.I can hard work to achieve my targets in time. I am self confident,positive attitude and patience.

Sorry for being late in participating in this forum debate topic, which is very intresting and meanwhile is a very sensitive issue.
To begin with I can say that I have read all your posts .And to break the ice I would like to answer DL-LIV-G7-1’s question:
Do you have alcohol consumption guidelines in Spain? If so, what are they?
Regarding to it I have found this link where is shown alcohol consumption guidelines not only in Spain but also in the whole world.

iard.org – Drinking Guidelines – Data by Country – Worldwide
This table details recommendations for alcohol consumption (drinking guidelines) issued by government bodies in various countries. Generally, these recommendations apply to healthy adults. It is specified when other groups are the targets of the recommendations.
Drinking Guidelines – Data by Country – Worldwide

iard.org

 

·         ST-LIV-G7-6

Answering ST-LIV-G7-7’s philosophical question why we think that humans keep consuming something that they know is harmful and destructive there are many reasons.
Among them are:
Innate human defiance.
Need for social acceptance.
Inability to truly understand the nature of risk.
Individualistic view of the world and the ability to rationalize unhealthy habits.
Genetic predisposition to addiction.
When a behavior is socially accepted or even considered desirable people tend to reconcile the fact that it’s bad for them with the idea that «everybody’s doing it,»FromC MY viewpoint, people may use self-destructive behaviors to cope with or mask emotions and feelings such as:
Anxiety and inner conflict
Anger and bitterness
Self-hatred or hatred towards others
Self-pity or shame
Loss or grief
Sadness, despair, or hopelessness
A sense of loneliness and isolation
For others, it is a way to take control over uncomfortable thoughts and internal conflict.

Do you now feel you have strategies to help others stop drinking completely?

How to get someone to stop drinking alcohol or using drugs?

 

·         ST-LIV-G7-2

Hello again, everyone!

Every single question of yours is truly interesting and worth answering. It’s a pity that I can’t explain my point of view in each one, but I’ll try to do it in some of them.

First of all, I will answer ST-LIV-G7-3’s question about the pharmaceutical industry. Even though this kind of industry is famous for their urge to grow rich, we shouldn’t blame them for creating these dangerous medicines that are, like we were saying before, drugs. If they can produce them and sell them is because it is legal. This is the real problem. Why selling, for instance, cocaine is illegal but selling a medicine with similar effects is legitimate? In my opinion, the government should regulate better the consumption of this type of medications to prevent addictions.

Regarding ST-LIV-G7-7’s question about why men consume more drugs than women, I’ve recently read an article in the webpage of the US National Library of Medicine that it is possibly because of cultural influences: “For example, giving men but not women the license and tolerance to get drunk in public may be important to men in some cultural settings to symbolize men’s superiority to women in status and authority. Self-restraint of drinking by women in some cultural settings may demonstrate their roles as social guardians and restraining influences on male recklessness”. Furthermore, when women stop drinking because they are pregnant, they don’t usually resume drinking later on.

– Why is alcohol consumption so present in most cultures?
– Do we have to respect and continue traditions that can provoke drug addiction?

 

·         ST-LIV-G7-6

Hello!
As far as I remember there was a quiestion about gender differences in drinking .Concerning that question I would like to say that the existing studies provide a picture of great cultural variance in patterns of alcohol use among men and women. The gender differences in drinking behaviour have been shown to be linked with many aspects of biological differences between men and women leading to women’s greater vulnerability to alcohol, of women’s and men’s differing needs, reasons and motivations in relation to drinking, of gender-specific roles in other areas of life and of ways in which societies regulate peoples’ behaviour, often giving women the role of warden or moderator of others’ drinking.
To finish with i can say that the gender differences in drinking behaviour continue to be considerable and are found in all cultures studied so far. Several studies have argued for reasons underlying these differences, but they still remain largely unexplained.
Folowing the rules of this forum here I suggest some questions hoping they will catch your attencion and will be worth to answering them:

What do you think home remedies for drug addiction exist? If it so which one do you know and how efficent they can be?

 

·         ST-LIV-G7-6

You know today I came up with these intresting facts about our forum topic and I wanted to shere them with you.
Drugs were first used for medical purposes in history. Over the years, the reasons for taking drugs have changed significantly. Though using drugs is illegal in many countries, there are exceptional situations varying from country to country.
1. In Colombia, illegal drug trading is worth around 10 Billion Dollars each year.This amount equals to a quarter of the official legal trade inside Columbia.
2. 30% of world famous rock stars are dead because of extreme drug or alcohol use.ç
3. In Holland, there are official institutions that you can bring your own drugs to get their quality checked.
4. In Singapore, possessing or using narcotic drugs is punished by the death penalty.
5. A fish species called ‘Salema Porgy’ is known to cause hallucinative effects when it is consumed. The Salema Porgy is usually seen in Mediterranean Sea and around the depths of South America.
6. People who shoot professionally often use alcohol to increase their performance.Consuming a few ounces of alcohol makes the body calmer and slows down the heartbeat. This increases the chances of hitting the mark.
7. There is a special nail polish that was developed to detect drugs such as roofies in your drink!
8. Every year over 100,000 babies are born addicted to cocaine in the USA.
9. In North Korea, marijuana is legal and it is not considered to be a narcotic drug.
10. In 1994, 75 bundles of cocaine were thrown from the air in Florida. Surprisingly, the cocaine bundles were thrown to an area where a summit against crime was happening.
11. Only 1% of heroin addicts agree to go to rehab.

·         ST-LIV-G7-5

Hi everyone!

This is my last post and, first of all, I would like to say that discussing about this topic has been very interesting. It seems that people do not think about these present-day problems until they have to face one. Unfortunately, according to a UN statistics, 250.000 people are dead every year from an overdose and the annual number of alcohol deaths is higher that the number of deaths from AIDS, violence or tuberculosis, according to statistical data published by the WHO. These alarming figures evidence that there is something going wrong in today’s world. Finding a solution to reduce drug and alcohol abuse is difficult but it could be achieved by making small efforts.

As some of you discussed, medicines can cause addiction but I think that the pharmaceutical industry is just doing its job when elaborating these substances. However, further control measures should be taken by governments. In some countries, there are people who can’t afford their prescribed medicines as their disease gets worse while others have an excessive amount of medicines stored in a closet at home. You can read an interesting article about this problem by going to Fox News “Many Americans can’t afford to fill their prescriptions” – 13 September, 2012.

Finally, given that we have to propose a solution in this forum, these are my proposals. As we have already discussed, awareness campaigns at schools would be useful to know about the consequences of doing drugs but technology can help people as well. The “12 Steps AA Companion” is an app which calculate the length of sobriety and allows users to contact with people who overcome the addiction under condition of anonymity. In addition, there are web pages such as drugwise .org.uk where we can find very useful information about drugs, alcohol and tobacco.

-What do you think about it?

 

·         ST-LIV-G7-6

Hi, again!
Dear ST-LIV-G7-5, I quite agree with your suggested solucions,they are very objective, intelligent and efficient ones. Besides preventing drug abuse and excessive alcohol use increases people’s chances of living long, healthy, and productive lives.
So, having such a great range and usefull information I can mention other solucions and reccommendations:

1 Support state, tribal, local, and territorial implementation and enforcement of alcohol control policies.

2 Create environments that empower young people not to drink or use other drugs.

3 Identify alcohol and other drug abuse disorders early and provide brief intervention, referral and treatment.

4Reduce inappropriate access to and use of prescription drugs.

What Can State, Tribal, Local and Territorial Governments Do?

Maintain and enforce the age 21 minimum legal drinking age (e.g., increasing the frequency of retailer compliance checks), limit alcohol outlet density, and prohibit the sale of alcohol to intoxicated persons.

Require installation of ignition interlocks in the vehicles of those convicted of alcohol impaired driving.
Implement or strengthen prescription drug monitoring programs.

Facilitate controlled drug disposal programs, including policies allowing pharmacies to accept unwanted drugs.
Implement strategies to prevent transmission of HIV, hepatitis and other infectious diseases associated with drug use.
What Can Businesses and Employers Do?

Implement policies that facilitate the provision of SBIRT or offer alcohol and substance abuse counseling through employee assistance programs.
Include substance use disorder benefits in health coverage and encourage employees to use these services as needed.

Implement training programs for owners, managers, and staff that build knowledge and skills related to responsible beverage service.

What Can Health Care Systems, Insurers, and Clinicians Do?

Identify and screen patients for excessive drinking using SBIRT, implement provider reminder systems for SBIRT (e.g., electronic medical record clinical reminders) and evaluate the effectiveness of alternative methods for providing SBIRT (e.g., by phone or via the internet).

Identify, track, and prevent inappropriate patterns of prescribing and use of prescription drugs and integrate prescription drug monitoring into electronic health record systems.

Develop and adopt evidence-based guidelines for prescribing opioids in emergency departments, including restrictions on the use of long-acting or extended-release opioids for acute pain.

Train prescribers on safe opioid prescription practices and institute accountability mechanisms to ensure compliance. For example, the use of long-acting opioids for acute pain or in opioid-naïve patients could be minimized.

What Can Early Learning Centers, Schools, Colleges, and Universities Do?

Adopt policies and programs to decrease the use of alcohol or other drugs on campuses.

Implement programs for reducing drug abuse and excessive alcohol use (e.g., student assistance programs, parent networking, or peer-to-peer support groups).

What Can Community, Non-Profit, and Faith-Based Organizations Do?

Support implementation and enforcement of alcohol and drug control policies.

Educate youth and adults about the risks of drug abuse (including prescription misuse) and excessive drinking.

Work with media outlets and retailers to reduce alcohol marketing to youth.

Increase awareness on the proper storage and disposal of prescription medications.

What Can Individuals and Families Do?

Avoid binge drinking, use of illicit drugs, or the misuse of prescription medications and, as needed, seek help from their clinician for substance abuse disorders.

Safely store and properly dispose of prescription medications and not share prescription drugs with others.

Avoid driving if drinking alcohol or after taking any drug (illicit, prescription, or over-the-counter) that can alter their ability to operate a motor vehicle.

Refrain from supplying underage youth with alcohol and ensure that youth cannot access alcohol in their home.
As a conclusion by my point of view prevention is better than cure». It is better to stop something bad from happening than it is to deal with it after it has happened.
So let us follow all the sugested recomendations to avoind the need of cure.

 

·         L-LIV-G7-2

Dear all, please be reminded that only one solution should be chosen for the video-pitch!

 

·         ST-LIV-G7-4

Hi, everyone!! As I said in my last post I find your contributions really interesting and thorough and I have learned a lot from you and your different points of view regarding this very complex topic. Since this is my last post in this forum, I would like to answer some questions and also suggest some practical solutions.

Regarding ST-LIV-G7-7’s philosophical question, I think it depends on the approach but I do not think of drugs as something inherently harmful or destructive because they really are not (or at least the plant-based ones), but it is the way we use them and the narrative that we have created around them that is not healthy at all. My point is that drugs are not really the issue but an excuse to avoid the real problem or real problems that come within the culture that both celebrates and criminalise them. Also responding ST-LIV-G7-2’s second question I think it also depends on the context and the situation, for example, Rastafarian culture and some indigenous cultures in South America worship drugs that are tied to their religions and therefore to their worldview and even if I did not approve of that or if I was against that I would still not have the right to tell them that they are wrong and I am right, because it may not be fair. But when it comes to mainstream cultures I think that if the message they are sending is confusing and contradictory, we should by any means perpetrate that because it would make no sense to me.

Finally, in my opinion, one solution to the problem is education. As cliché as it is, I think that it is crucial, we must educate ourselves and try to understand those people who are struggling with addiction because chances are they are just victims of their circumstances. There should also be a shift in the narrative around drugs and addiction because if we do not change our mentality around the topic, we will only be mimicking the same discourse that has been around for centuries without a deeper understanding of the subject matter.

With this being said, what can be done to solve the problem in your opinion?

 

·         ST-LIV-G7-2

Good afternoon, everyone!

This will be my last post and I want to thank all of you for your contributions to this debate. Your ideas and points of view have enlightened me about alcohol and drug abuse and have made me reflect quite a lot on this issue.

As some of you have already discussed, finding a solution to this kind of problem is pretty difficult. Not every answer is going to help every single one of those who suffer an addiction. However, in my opinion we can manage to find a way in order to prevent alcohol and drug abuse in the long run. I want to emphasise on drug abuse, because through all the debate we have been talking about alcoholism and we have forgot that there is also a problem with drugs in general. For instance, focusing in our country, of those in treatment for drug addiction, 45 percent are being treated for cocaine. As we can read on the webpage narconon.org, Spain has suffered from the highest cocaine prevalence rates in Europe for the last decade. But there are not enough rehabilitation centres to treat it. Therefore, there should exist more of them.

Regarding the solutions, I agree wholeheartedly with every measure all of you have mentioned. As ST-LIV-G7-4 has said, education is a wonderful way to prevent addiction. Moreover, the app that ST-LIV-G7-5 has suggested is a quite effective tool to inform not only youngsters, but also adults of drug consumption.

 

·         ST-LIV-G7-3

Dear all,

I have red all the comments you have posted since tha last time I wrote here. I think taht many opinions have been given, all of them very well structured and supported with real information obtained from real sources, mainly prestigious newspapers like The Guardian, New York Times, etc. For this reason, I consider all of them as valid and very interesting to be taken into account. But sadly, this debate is about to come to an end and we have to make a decission about how to stop people destroying their with drugs.

As I said in one of my pevious comments, this problem can start when people are young, or even in their childhood. And where do children go five days a week? Exactly, they go to school, and they spend a long part of the day in this place learnig things that will be usefull to form responsible and well-educated citizens who contribute to improve the society we are living in. So, yes. I completely agree with you that education is the most effective way to avoid people from ruining their lifes. Lifes which can be led to a painfull end.

However, people who have comitted this terrible mistake deserve to be helped. In orther to aid them, I guess ivesting resources in reintegrating them would be a usefull idea. Instead of letting them fade into black, we can give them the opportunity to start a new life. The money to finance this reintegration programmes would be obtained from the taxes of alcoholic drink. It would be like fighting de fire with fire.

Do you think is a good idea?

 

·         ST-LIV-G7-7

Hello, everyone!

I have read a lot of your posts and let me say that each one was an eye-opener for me, I have learnt so much with all of you! Unfortunately, it’s time to close the debate and to reach a conclusion.

All kind of solutions have been proposed, thank you ST-LIV-G7-6 for that extensive list of solutions you have suggested, I find them really, really useful and practical. For the purpose of this debate, we must choose only one solution, and after reflecting on the given proposals, I have to agree with my fellow classmates.

Education is irrevocably the key. The young must be taught about the drugs since the first time they step on school, because as Nacho has said, it is the place that they spend more time and learn all sorts of knowledge that makes them into good future citizens.

But we also have to take into account that the educational system can only be made by adults and they are the only ones who can establish the kind educational system we need. So, in my opinion, we do not only have to educate the children, but the grown-ups too. Teaching children is easier than adults, because they have a lot of restrictions to access the drugs, and even less need for them. It’s the adults that need to be disciplined, at least this, our generation of adults, until the new healthy educated children become grown-ups and have reduced notably the consumption of drugs.

We have to think long term, if the newly educated children raised in an educational system with awareness about drugs do reduce its consumption, we will not have to be worried about those grown-ups, only the young. But for now, if we want this long term educational system to work, it is essential to educate the adults too.

What do you think?

 

·         ST-LIV-G7-3

Dear all,

This will be my last post and I want to make clear what think it should be the conclusion of this debate. All of us agree that education is the best way to prevent this problem from happening, but we need a more specific solution.

To start with, children should be taught the risks of consuming drugs through speeches given by experts and real witnesses who have experimented certain drugs or even dealt with the addiction. Listening to their experiences, children will be aware of what it means playing with them and the severe damage that their abuse can cause in their bodies, mind and social relationships. They have to understad that once they try them, they are taking the risk of not being able to stop and control themselves.

To make sure that these contents are included at school cycles, they must be included in subjects like biology, chemistry or even cerating a new one, like citizenship. Education ministries should take this into account when they are about to create new educational laws and programmes. We have to speak up for what we want. A world without harming drugs!

 

·         ST-LIV-G7-7

Dear all,

As this is my last post, I would like to make things clear, for many of us have agreed that the best solution to this problem is to improve the educational system.

For this reason, I completely agree with Nacho’s opinion. An educational system that places value on children’s knowledge about the risks of consuming drugs by all kinds of experts would definitely help to reduce its consumption in the future.

And regarding the education of adults, we have to make sure they are also constantly informed about the risks of consuming drugs. For that, the trade of alcohol and similar drugs that are legally sold nowadays must be notably reduced. My classmates above have also proposed increasing its prices, an app like “12 Steps AA Companion”, maintain the age 21 as the minimum legal drinking age, implement training problems for owners, managers and staff, identify and help the people who are currently suffering from drug addiction, and increase awareness with anti-drugs consumption campaigns.

To sum up, the main solution is to focus on educating people since they are young and to keep the adults from forgetting that nothing good comes with drug abuse.

 

·         ST-LIV-G7-4

Hi, everyone! Since we all have contributed in this forum with really insightful posts and the whole purpose of this debate is to eventually come up with a solution-based idea. I would like to wrap up the discussion so that we can make a pitch for the final video. We all agree that education should be the main focus when it comes to fighting drug addiction, because it is the foundation and also where all starts. Kids should know from a very young age about the effects drugs have in their bodies and that should be included in every school’s curricula. I think that we should also add some of the points you have brought up in the mentioned video. With that being said, it was amazing to share this forum with you, I have personally learned a lot from the information you all have posted.