How does drugs affect our society?

The drugs that are beneficial to humanity may also be the same drugs that are detrimental to mankind. It is of no argument that drugs are created to cure diseases and to alleviate human condition; however people may misuse over-the-counter drugs and this is called drug abuse. It has become a social problem because it has afflicted the family, the economy and the community.

Drug abuse can be a source of problem to the family. First, the treatment for drug abusers is expensive. In a study conducted by Barnard, she found out that parents of drug abusers experience health deterioration due to stress and that family relationship become strained. At risk also are the siblings who may follow the same path due to exposure to mind-altering substances. They may also manifest denial behaviors to cope with the problem. Clearly, the family members struggle from their experiences in living with someone who misuse drugs.

Aside from the family, drug abuse also affects another segment of society and that is the economy. The amount spent on drugs can be used for the establishment of businesses and provide for more employment opportunities, it will boost the economy of a country. In addition, drug abusers may turn in poor quality work due to absences and inability to function normally, thus, affecting the overall output of businesses.

The wider community is also gravely affected by drug abuse. There are a number of HIV/AIDS cases due to injection drug use. In the United States alone, it accounted for one-third of the cases. Moreover, drug abuse has been associated with crime and violence. In Brazil, for example, drug abuse was identified as one of the causes of almost 30,000 homicides.

While drugs are envisioned to advance the welfare of the people, it can be a source of complicated social disarray if left uncontrolled. The government and other social groups should, therefore, strengthen their programs to curb this problem.

National Service

  National service have various of benefits depending on how the person views it. There's various motives, some youths wouldn't want to attend National Service because of various reasons, some do really want to go because it has been their life dream to go for National Service.

  The youths who doesn't want to go for National Service would have not expect a lot of things from it, but rather than just army drills and constant discipline. When the youths have no interest in coming, will there be any benefit for them? Yes, surely! In National Service, their mindset will be change because it will be very new to them and the culture is different from home. Their comfort zone will perish as they first set foot on the bus. The youth will have to adapt to the new culture and what benefits for them is that they learned more how to be more discipline and more dependent on themselves. 

  Youth usually depend their life on parents or maids to do their work. After youth have return home from National  service their normal life is change and they will start to do most of chores themselves. Their lives will be more discipline and in order as they also learn to be more dependent on themselves. 

   The youths who are more willingly to participate National service are more ready to expect anything. That doesn't mean nothing will benefit them because they are well prepared. It will give them a harder push in life. Where life is never going to be easy and things will get harder when you are older. National Service is not to bring your confidence down but to help youths to realize that there's more than just a simple basic life that everyone goes through. There will always be ups and downs in unexpected times youths will learn how to handle it. 

  The most important thing that everyone will learn from National Service is that we truly learn the true meaning of One Malaysia. Where you mix with different races and know their background. The youths will learn to love and care not just for themselves but friends and family. 

Family

Family is the single most important thing in many people’s lives. From the moment of their birth, children rely on their families to provide for them and make sure their needs are attended to. The most important learning process of a person’s whole life takes place in their earliest years and their main teachers at this stage of their lives will be their parents.

The importance of family can be seen very clearly in the impact it has on people who are not fortunate enough to have a loving family during their childhood years. People who suffered abuse, neglect, or had one or both of their parents missing from their lives during their childhood usually suffer some negative effects throughout the rest of their lives. Children who were brought up badly are much more often to grow up to be criminals, drug addicts, or suffer from mental health problems. Even children brought up in good foster or care homes are more likely to have such issues than other children, suggesting that growing up with your biological or at certain cases adopted family is important.

Family is important as you get older because people of all ages need a good support network around them. Many people rely on their parents or other older relatives for advice about a variety of topics, even when they have grown up and have their own children, because these family members have more life experience and have probably been through many of the same things before. When a woman has her first child, for example, one of the most important people in her life is often her own mother. Many women want their mother to be present at the birth and be available for support, particularly during the first few weeks, because their mother has done it all before with them.

Another reason that family is important is that a loving and supportive family will be there for you no matter what. Friends may leave your side when things get very tough, or if you mess up and do something wrong or something to hurt them. Many families however, will stick by a person no matter what they have done, because they love them unconditionally. This kind of unconditional love can only be found within a family unit and is most commonly found from a parent to their child.

Siblings can also be very important to many people. Children growing up as an only child can be lonely during childhood and they don’t learn vital social skills from an early age, like communicating and playing with other children and dealing with conflict. Many people are very close to their brothers and sisters when they grow up, even if they fought as great deal as children, and there are lots of people who consider their brother or sister to be their best friend. Siblings are usually a fairly similar age and have had similar experiences, so if there is a difficult time as a family a sibling may be the best person to talk to.

Stress

Teenagers nowadays are going through a lot of stress. Stress is a body’s way of reacting to challenges. It has a wide range of effects on emotions, mood and behaviour. For example, the person may have chest pain, palpitations, rapid pulse, obsessive or compulsive behaviour, social withdrawal and isolation.  There are many factors that contribute to this problem such as family problems, school, relationships and also financial issues.

Divorced and broken families affect the children mentally even if the parents do not realize it. There will be constant arguments or even fights between family members. Some children may even have the thought that their parents argue and divorce because of them and often put the blame on themselves. This causes them to lose focus on their studies.

Other than that, school may also cause stress in teenagers. There are many cliques in schools nowadays, especially high schools and there are also many students that do not belong to any of them. They usually have the need in them to belong somewhere and they often have stress trying to make themselves fit in. Not only that, students also tends to compete with their classmates and compare their grades which may be a good thing to push them to do better but may not be a good thing also. This is because they will feel stressed even if they tried their best but did not meet their expectations.

The King of Fruits

One of the many things Malaysia is known for is the various kinds of food. Many tourists come from all around the world just to have that taste of Malaysian food.  Durian, the king of fruits is most sought after but there are many who think that it has a bad scent. Thus, dare not have a taste of it. The smell has been described variously as rotten onions, turpentine and raw sewage. Yes, it has a very strong smell but it is pleasing to some. It has a taste like creamy custard. The durian is a seasonal fruit, unlike some other non-seasonal tropical fruits such as the papaya, which are available throughout the year in Peninsular Malaysia. The season for durians is typically from June to August, which coincides with the season for mangosteen, another fruit that compliments durian.  Prices of durians are relatively high as the demand for it is also very high. It varies with the species and different grades. This very fruit can be eaten by itself when it is ripped or it can also be used in desserts such as ice creams, cakes, puffs, dodol and cendol. These are just a few examples out of many. Durian is indeed a pride to Malaysia.

Freedom Writers

The movie "Freedom Writers" is based on a true story about a young teacher who goes above and beyond her call of duty to motivate her students to learn and excel in a society filled with prejudices. Erin Gruwell is the new English teacher at a recently integrated high school in Long Beach, California. Her students are divided along racial lines and have few aspirations beyond basic survival. Surviving to the age of eighteen is seen as an accomplishment in a society filled with gangs and racial prejudices. When she discovers how much of her students’ day to day lives are engulfed by racial prejudices she introduces them to books like the Diary of Anne Frank. Using the story of Anne Frank, she opens her students’ eyes. She encourages her students to start a journal, like Anne, and to write in it their innermost thoughts. After sharing these stories with each other, the students learn more about their classmates and the racial barriers begin to reduce.

The “Freedom Writers” also shows strong stereotypes within the minority community in the USA, which included African American, Latino, Cambodian, Vietnamese and Caucasian. They belonged to a segregated community. Therefore the issues that affect them the most include racism, violence, crimes, discrimination and drugs. The negative perceptions that surrounded the school environment triggered resentments and acts of violence. The students fate was changed after the arrival of the new teacher who advocated to change what the students believed.   

The Weather In Malaysia

Just this evening, I was playing a game of ultimate with my friends. When I arrived at the field at 5pm, the sun was shining brightly and it was scorching hot. Nevertheless, we started playing. After scoring a few points, the clouds started becoming dark and we could hear the sounds of the thunder. We knew that a heavy downpour was going to come our way but we still continued playing. At around 6:30pm, it started raining like cats and dogs and we had to run to the nearest shelter. We were waiting for the rain to stop so that we could go home as we did not have umbrellas but the rain did not cease so we had to run into our respective cars.

The weather in Malaysia is very uncertain. A minute it will be very hot and the next the rain will be pouring. In the first half of last year, our country was facing drought but after that season passed, the floods came. It did not stop there. About a month ago, it came out in the news that the water in the Selangor’s dam was below the essential level but thankfully we have enough water now. Too much rain will cause floods that will cause a lot of damage but too little rain will cause shortage of water. As water is essential in our daily lives, this can also cause a lot of trouble. Therefore, let's hope and pray that the weather in Malaysia will begin to stabilize.