Will give my personal opinion on some ofthe issues and controversies in our country. My first issue is about drugs

chemicals found in tobacco. These drugs can hurt youand those who surround you. I don`t understand why would anyone go through therisk of dying of overdosed and just the fact of addiction is a nightmare thatmany choose to live every day of their lives. Drugs bring me to my next issuewhich is why some people think that alcohol and tobacco should be illegal. Letme start by saying that millions of lives would be safe if smoking and drinkingwas illegal. Is it fair for innocent people to die because of a drunk driver orbecause of second hand smoke? How much do we value the lives of others and ourown?. You don`t need to drink much alcohol before your ability to dive becomesimpaired. The more heavily you drink, the greater the potential for problems athome, at work, with friends, and even with strangers. One of my family memberwas an alcoholic and I know that they face a lot of problems like arguments withthe family or friends, loss of employment due to absences or decreasedproductivity, committing or being the victim of violence and also alcohol cancause a range of birth defects, the most serious being fetal alcohol syndromeF.A.S. (physical abnormalities, mental impairment). Children born withalcohol-related birth defects can have lifelong learning and behavior problems.Some problems, like those I mentioned above, can occur after drinking over arelatively short period of time. But other problems such as liver disease, heartdisease, certain forms of cancer, and pancreatitis often develop more graduallyand may become evident only after long-term heavy drinking. Women may developalcohol-related health problems after consuming less alcohol that men do over ashort period of time. Some drinkers develop alcoholic hepatitis, or inflammationof the liver which can cause death if drinking continues. If drinking stops,this condition often is reversible. Alcohol also causes cirrhosis which is notreversible and causes death unless you stop and you`re chances of survivalimprove considerably. Moderate drinking can have beneficial effects on theheart, especially among those at greater risk of heart attacks, such as men overthe age of 45 and women after menopause. It wouldn`t be so bad if alcohol wasillegal and you could only get it like most legal drugs with a medicalprescription. Long-term heavy drinking increases the risk for high bloodpressure, heart disease, some kinds of stroke, and cancer, especially cancer ofthe esophagus, mouth, throat, and voice box. Women are at slightly increasedrisk of developing breast cancer if they drink two or more drinks per day.Drinking may also increase the risk for developing cancer of the colon andrectum. The pancreas helps to regulate the body`s blood sugar levels byproducing insulin. The pancreas also has a role in digesting the food we eat.Long-term heavy drinking can lead to pancreatitis, or inflammation of thepancreas. Alcohol had a great effect on body, and it does more damage than good.Tobacco is another drug which I think should be illegal. Tobacco containsnicotine, an addictive drug that makes it very difficult for users to quit. Oneout of every three smokers dies from tobacco related disease. The tobaccoindustry main targets are teens, minorities, and women. Nicotine has bothstimulant and depressant effects upon the body. Stimulation of the centralnervous system may cause tremors in the inexperienced user, or even convulsionswith high doses. People who use tobacco products frequently depend upon itproviding the side effects, some of them are the stimulation of the memory andalertness, alleviation of boredom to help them accomplish certain tasks atspecific levels of performance. Tobacco is believed to have an addictivepotential comparable to alcohol, cocaine, and morphine. There are manyassociated health risks. In general, chronic exposure to nicotine maycause anacceleration of coronary artery disease, peptic ulcer disease, reproductivedisturbances, fetal illness and death. Tobacco and its various components havebeen associated with an increased risk for cancer of various body organs likecancer of the oral cavity, esophagus, lungs, kidneys, pancreas, stomach, cervix,and bladder. Another big problem with smoking is second hand smoke. Many peoplewho have never smoked once develop cancer faster than a regular smoker. Some ofthe health risks in children are: increased frequency of respiratory infections,asthma, and decreases in lung function as the lungs mature. We all know thereare many good reasons to stop smoking or never start. Tobacco can also causebrain damage, there is strong link between smoking and strokes; it increasescholesterol and decreases the vitamin C levels in your blood. Smokers have ahigher lifetime frequency of substances abuse, severe depression, anxietydisorders, and other psychological problems. Smoking can also make you lookolder. Heavy smokers have nearly five times as many wrinkles as theirnon-smoking peers. Since more people get connected to the Internet every day,pornography has become a very discussed issue in our society. Constitutionalrights freedom of speech and expression do not factor in to the risk of harmcarried by pornography. There is pornography protected by the First Amendmentand illegal pornography which is not. Pornography use is a choice, and is likean addictive drug; a little can get you hooked and too much can damage yourlife. Pornography aside, sex is selling for businesses that aren`t even sellingsex. The mere existence of the advertising industry and the billions of dollarsspent on advertising are proof that visual images persuade. I do think thatpornography is psychologically and socially harmful and should be illegal in allforms. Pornography shapes attitudes and the way people view relationships andsex roles, specifically by normalizing aggression towards women for some men insexual and other interpersonal encounters and increasing the tolerance foraggression toward women in the larger culture. Sexual interest and sexual actsof any kind are mistaken for acts of love. Sex gives the illusion of being lovedand appreciated. In the absence of love, people seek intimacy through porn andsex. Casual sex is portrayed as exciting and desirable outside of a committedrelationship. Beauty is measured by proportion of body parts, shapingunrealistic expectations of what a woman`s body should look like. Pornography`smessages about sex and sexual fulfillment are misleading. Pornography also hurtskids. Teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases like Aids are completelynonexistent in porn, giving a false believe that there is no adverseconsequences to behaviors depicted in pornography. Teaching that sexualexperimentation with anyone, anywhere is a major theme considered fun inpornography. Pornography teaches that women enjoy being stripped, forciblyabused and even raped. Other messages in pornography are drug addiction,prostitution, exhibitionism and voyeurism are branded in the minds of childrenas normal behavior. One such message is that women are sex toys readilyavailable for sexual fulfillment by anyone and are devoid of value, worth andfeelings. These messages found to hurt adults have an even greater impacts onkids. Child pornography consists of photographs, video tapes, books, magazines,and films that depict children in sex acts, all of which are illegal. Child pornhas become a sophisticated multi-million dollar black market industry. Hard corepornography of adults is legal to posses but illegal to distribute. My lastpoint of discussion is the choice women have of abortion. There are for optionswhen a women is pregnant with a child. First the option of having and raisingthe baby, thus bearing responsibility if she could have helped conceiving thechild, in cases where the pregnancy was due to consensual sex. The other optionis to have the child and raise it, thus showing love to the child where thewoman isn`t responsible for the pregnancy, she was raped. The third option is tohave the child and gave it away for abortion, regardless of how the child wasconceived. The last option is to have an abortion. The morality of abortiondepends upon the nature and identity of the thing being aborted. I do think thatabortion should be illegal except in cases where the baby had a defect or thewoman was raped. I do believe abortion is the taking of a human life, beingmorally equivalent to murder or manslaughter. The issue of the identity of theunborn (is it human or not?) is prior logically to the issue of the woman`sright to choose. There is no morally relevant difference between a fetus and aviable child who is outside the womb. Fist the size of the fetus doesn`tdetermine its humanness; the level of development which would mean that a 25year old man is more human than a 13 year old boy; the environment, so if I stepout of the house, do I become less of a human being? also the degree ofdependence, appearance and function, many people have hardly any functionalabilities at all but they are still considered humans. Abortion is permissiblein the case of rape. Rape is bad. There is no doubt about this. But if abortionis taking the life of a human being, then adding murder or manslaughter to analready existing rape hardly solves the problem. We have four logicalpossibilities concerning abortion. First the unborn is a human being and we knowit. Second the unborn is a human being and we do not know it. Third the unbornis not a human being and we know it. Fourth the unborn is not human and we donot know it. To me abortion turns out to be the intentional killing of a humanbeing, which should e considered murder. If the case abortion is not murder. Butit is not okay either. Abortion turns out to be manslaughter. For manslaughteris the unintentional killing of a human being. What lives in the womb is a realchild, a small person, a human being essentially like us, in the first phase ofhis or her existence. Our society will never be perfect and I think that`s ourmain goal. I have discuss some of the more controversial issues in our societytoday but it is impossible for everyone to agree on one solution.