Smoking And Society

In my past researches I had learned about smoking and what people is doing to prevent it, today, I will write about the opinions of society on smoking. The page were I took my information was at Wikipedia.

Religions and other cultures think that smoking is either good or bad. The religions I am talking about are against smoking, other cultures are in favor of it. Native Americans have a different view on smoking than the one people have. Tobacco for Native Americans is sacred; it is used for rituals, taken after the evening meal, and before going to sleep. Native Americans thought that tobacco was the ultimate sacred plant because they believed that it would take them to the heavens. Some Native Americans often operate some tobacco stores; they also use Internet to sell them. One fact people has discovered is that the tobacco grown in South America is much more powerful than the one grown in North America.

Before scientists discovered that smoking was bad, Christian preachers believed that smoking was a disrespectful habit because they believed that God had given people their bodies and they were not respecting them. In the Christian religion, smoking is a sin.

Yisrael Meir Kagan, a Jewish Rabbi, was one of the first Jewish who spoke against smoking. Yisrael couldn’t stand looking at people who smoke, he thought that smoking was a waste of time and that smokers should have never started to take cigars. Jewish prayers think that indoor smoking should be prevented knowing the other people are in danger too.

Smoking and Muhammed, the Islam Prophet, never lived at the same time. Islam has been adding principles to their religion and people had concluded that smoking should be forbidden. Muslims can’t stand looking at people smoking; however, smoking is more accepted than alcohol and other drugs.

People want to control smoking in their cities. Environmental groups, political groups, and other organizations are some of the people who want smoking to be ceased. There are some people who have manifested their opinions in favor of smoking, they stated that smoking isn’t as bad as alcohol and drugs, they say that tobacco calms their stress and feelings.

I am in favor of almost all the opinions saying that smoking is bad and immoral. Even though people have different ways of thinking, smoking is an issue most cultures want to stop. I feel happy that many people are changing their minds on smoking and that they really are doing something to stop it. I don’t agree with Native Americans who think that smoking is sacred, but I respect their beliefs. I know that there are people that don’t really follow a religion, but they still know smoking is bad, and I feel glad of it.

I am feeling very inspired with this project, but I would like to make more people in the world read about it, not only the four schools in this project. For the next step I will take on smoking, I would like to talk about the different ways that people consume tobacco.

What is People Doing to Prevent Smoking?

Now I’m expanding my knowledge about smoking, and as I told you, I will talk about what people is doing to stop or prevent others from smoking. My resource to answer my questions was at Wikipedia.

In some countries, some treaties are being sign. An example can be the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control; it did a great work to prevent smoking. The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control prevents people from smoking at indoor public places, some outdoor public places, public transport, and other public places; this will prevent to reduce the amounts of secondhand smokers. Some countries made illegal the sale of tobacco to underage boys, the minimum age is 16; other countries prevent the sale to under 18 and in 4 states in the United States, you must be 19 or older.

Cigarettes now have a high taxation to prevent people buying them. The taxes collected by boxes are used in prevention programs. The high taxation has made the people to decrease or sometimes leave smoking, due to the cost of a single package. In the United States, taxation can vary from place to place, some taxes are very low, but others might be high. For example, in South Carolina the taxes for a cigarette are 7 cents, while in New York the box can cost 7 dollars.

Some countries have different methods to prevent people from smoke; some boxes say the risks of smoking. In Canada, boxes include a card that tells how to quit smoking, there are 16 different cards. Also, in Canada and other countries, one-third of the box is covered by graphs, television ads, and pictures of people at the hospital. All these advertises have decreased the amount of smokers in a reasonably way, but there are still a lot of people to help.

Many things have been done to prevent smoking; these have made a lot of people who smoke to leave it. I think that the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control did a great job on eliminating smoke at public places; a lot of people were affected by secondhand smoking and now they can be relaxed in not putting their health in danger. From the high taxes, I think it has some advantages but disadvantages too. High taxes reduce the amount of people who smoke because of the high price, but I think that since nicotine is a very addictive chemical, it can make a lot of people to waste a great amount of their money in a box of cigars. I like the idea of the pictures and cards in the cigarette’s boxes, it isn’t very nice to see, but it makes a lot of people not to smoke.

I learned a lot about what people is doing to prevent or stop people from smoking, but there is always something left to learn. To expand my knowledge I would like to research about smoking and society, what does religions think about smoking? Do they think that it is good or bad?

Smoking

For the Teen Life Project I decided to focus on smokig, I look for information at Wikipedia. Smoking tobacco is inhaling smoke coming from the burned tobacco leaves. Some people smoke as an addiction, a ritualistic-purpose, to calm nerves or stress, or for pleasure. History tells that smoking came from the Native Americans and then expanded worldwide. Tobacco contains nicotine, a substance that people get addict with and for a short period it can increase alertness, memory, and mood. Nicotine can also increase anxiety and restlessness. Smoking is a huge way of increasing health problems, it can give cancer in different parts of the body like the tongue, the heart, blood, specially the lungs, and it can also give heart attacks and diseases.

Tobacco can affect people in body functions, physically and mentally, and in genetics. Tobacco can prevent oxygen going into the fetus and creating premature death, blood flow in the placenta is also reduced. When pregnant moms inhale smoke, babies can be born with a higher possibility of mental retardation. Smoking also increases the possibility of a heart attack, pulmonary diseases, and cancer. Studies have said that the amount and the time you smoke can vary the possibilities of getting a disease, the less tobacco you consume, the less the probability of problems. People who smoke prefer enjoying a cigar than caring for their health. Some people think that smoking calm their nerves and reduce stress, other people, specially teenagers, start smoking because their “friends” tell them it is cool.

Smoking cigars are not the only ways people can inhale tobacco, second-hand smoking also affects people beside a person who has a cigar. Second-hand smoking can cause asthma and the already mentioned cancers, ear infections, and sudden infant death. The addictive substance of nicotine is very difficult to leave because once you take it; it replaces some chemicals in the brain that if you try to leave tobacco your body parts feel strange so leaving smoke is difficult. Experts have also proved that smoking causes depression after the effects of cigars have passed.

I think that smoking has affected many people in the world. Nicotine is a very damaging substance even though it isn’t as dangerous as cocaine, crack, and other harmful drugs. I think that smoking has so many bad diseases that I can’t get an idea on why people has to smoke if they are risking their life and other people’s life in such a harmful way, don’t they feel ashamed of themselves? One of the things I mostly dislike from smoking are the people who smoke in public places and damage the air and the people nearby with such a useless and dangerous material. Another thing I don’t understand is why does people sell cigars if they know how much danger they cause?

I have learned a lot of the bad things about smoking, but still I want to learn more and more. Another thing I would like to really investigate is what are people doing to prevent or make people stop smoking?

Our School

“Do you have a big school or do you have a small school?” was a question asked by Amber at Ms. Baber’s class. Our school in Cartagena is small, but it provides good areas for studying. Our school has a soccer field, a basketball court, and a volleyball court for sports areas, from those areas our class in general prefers the soccer field. Colegio Jorge Washington also has a library, an art room, a drama room, and it also has classes for grades up to twelve, the classes in our school are classes A and B, where about 20 people take part of.

Even though our school isn’t that big parents have decided to move it to a bigger place in Cartagena at the Northern zone, this school will be bigger and will provide more areas for students. The school that is being built will be finished at 2009 when we are going to be at 9th grade.

What Do You Like About Living Where You Are?

I was reading some questions at the Teen Life Wiki and I would like to answer “What's your favourite part about living where you are?” from Kate in Mr.Fishers class and DanielB at Mr.Raisdana's class. Living in Cartagena has some advantages but disadvantages too. Some things I like is that the climate is good for doing outside events, it is a tropical climate without much rain, even though sometimes the temperature is really hot. What I like of living in Cartagena is playing soccer and hanging out with my friends.

The disadvantages of living in Cartagena is that finding some things you need are difficult to find or very expensive, sometimes you need somebody to go to another place to buy it for a better price.