Designer Drugs or Death Sentence?

Synthetic drugs

In recent years designers drugs have become the new fade for teens nation wide. Drugs like 2C-I-NBOMe, and 2C-C-NBOMe which mimic the effects of psychedelic mushrooms and LSD are being coming very popular. As they are not actually the illegal substances the chemicals in them are not banned or illegal in the United States so people have been importing them from overseas and selling them to kids. The buyers of these drugs are under the assumption that these drugs are okay to ingest when in reality they are very deadly. Many people are drying of violent overdoses from these synthetic drugs. The amounts needed to get high are very small but people are unaware of this so they take "normal" amounts thinking they're correct.

The first two boys, who got the countries attention, to suffer this fate were Christian Bjerk, 18, and Elijah Stai, age unknown. Found dead in the same town two days apart from each other both boys took designer drugs from the same online company. Since the compounds in the drugs were legal according to US regulation he couldn't technically be charged with selling controlled substances. He was however charged with "possession with intent to distribute controlled substance analog resulting in death, money laundering conspiracy and misbranding and forfeiture of $385,000". He pled guilty to all three and is now doing 20 years in prison for the deaths of these boys.

Sandel

Justice: What's the Right Thing to do?

While reading for my Social Ethics class I came across a great question simply put it was; What do we owe one another? The question itself was followed by the concept of reparations, specifically reparations for black slaves. Sandel makes a point to question whether we have the duty to apologize for the crimes of our ancestors? Do we owe money to past slaves if we were never slave owners? If all the slaves are dead do we owe money to their children or grandchildren? Do we owe ex slaves anything?

Some believe that yes indeed we do owe blacks and specifically ex slaves for crimes committed against their race. Yes those crimes were horrific but since I'm using past tense you have to understand that they happened in the past. I, Paige Marie Gallagher never owned a slave. I never forced anyone into slavery, or forced anyone to work for me in general. I had no part in the actions of the generations of Americans before me. My ancestors were the original slaves and yet I am not calling for reparations from the Greek, Roman, Prussian  or Turkish governments though all at some point have committed crimes against my people. I don't see why I, the first in my bloodline to live in the United States, have to pay for something I or my ancestors did not do. If we gave reparations to everyone who has had injustice committed towards them most of the world be broke.

Sandel, M. J. (2010). Justice: What's the right thing to do?. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Brown V. Board of Education

While I was aware of the courts decision for Brown vs. Board of Education I thought the arguments of the board of education were far stronger than Browns. I'd like to note that while I am not racist or pro-segragation the matter at hand was not a federal one and in such it had no right to be reviewed by the US Supreme Court. Congress made no such law in which segregation of schools was required so the Supreme Court had no legal standings. The laws were passed on a state level so not government involvement was had. This being said the fourteenth amendment only applies if the government is involved and since it wasn't there was no real case and Brown had no legal standings to sue.

The ethical implications of this however make me side with Brown though. The quality of public education for black children was far worse than what white children got. It was claimed that the facilities of both races were the same but there is clear evidence that the value of each education differed tremendously. Black education was lacking in every way in the south, they didn't have the resources they need to education black children equality and frankly the states did care enough to provide them.

The inequality itself is an injustice to the race but unfortunately the arguments and basis on which they sued lacked. Since Brown won and segregated schools were legally disbanded there is no point in arguing which side had a better case but given the evidence, as much as it saddens my heart to say, the The Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas should have won.

White Like Me

While I found the documentary interesting I don't believe that there is an overwhelming about of racism in America anymore. I grew up in a small town with very few black people but of the ones who attended my school were some of the most popular kids. All played sports and were good at them. They all did well in school, and all had the respect of the entire student body. There were no hard feels toward them, and they were encouraged to partake in all aspects of the community. This may not be the case all over the country but I know my town isn't racist, and I can assume since there are many many many towns like mine there is less racism than people think.

Tim Wise talked about how he grew up surrounded by black students but then while boarding a plane had negative thoughts about two black pilots. How can anything he has said be justified if he himself is racist? He preaches equality but I question if he actually believes it's a feature America needs to have. He could just be going around and speaking about equality to make money, not truly caring if things ever change. He even admitted that he hadn't done anything but protest to stop discrimination in New Orleans and on Tulane University's campus. Words only go so far, actions are what truly determine a person's character and he, besides speaking, hasn't taken any real action.

There is racism in America, and people are trying to change that but until everyone who lived and grew up thinking Blacks were lesser human beings are dead racism will persist.

These were two of my good friends in high school, both were State Qualifying Track and Field runners. Two of the sweetest girls I know, on the right is Kaia, on the left is Leah.