Script+-+Michael+W,+Bobby,+Zach

Into: Today there are many problems in our society. None are greater than addiction. “An addiction is a condition in which individuals engage in habitual behaviors or use substances in a way that is dysfunctional and causes them harm or distress” (Wynn) Addiction causes many problems not only for the addicted but the environment around them and close friends and family. It can ruin lives in an instant. However, what makes addiction so dangerous is that there are so many different forms of it. People can get addicted to things even as small as video games. Something has to be done about this problem in our society today.

-Pictures of drugs, steroids, people shooting up, video games -intro video, maybe muted

Memo 2: Problem Addiction in our society has many problems surrounding it. First of all it can ruin lives because people can get so caught up in their addiction that it makes it impossible for them to function normally. It can get to the point that the addicted person needs to do what they’re addicted to because if they don’t it can have bad effects. These people have a constant desire for these needs and they never let up. Drugs are probably the worst thing you can become addicted to because some hard drugs can figuratively have worse effects when an addict is not using them. This means that it feels worse while they aren’t using them even though the drugs have more negative effects on the body while using them. It can literally get to the point where people pick at their skin until they have dug a hole because it feels like there are bugs on them. The worst part about these drugs is that drugs have become popular among juveniles. Hard drugs are now a big problem in high schools. Drugs have become a huge problem in our growing society. Also professional athletes can become addicted to athletic enhancement, not steroids by itself. Athletes have the desire to become more athletically enhanced and this can effect their view on life. When they start taking steroids they notice the increase in muscle mass and want more, especially body builders. Body builders get to the point where it’s unhealthy at how much muscle they have. Looking at addiction from another point of view, gamers (a person who tends to play a lot of video games) can develop a form of addiction. They can become so focused on video games that when they are at work or school they can’t concentrate because they are thinking about video games. Just like other addictive substances, video games can destroy your life. “They probably do not have a good social life, struggle in school, not spend as much time with their family, or lose interest in the old hobbies they used to normally do” (Rauh). All things that are addictive really have negative effects. They may be good while you’re doing them but it can destroy your life.

-video game addict video -more pictures of addiction -video of paint snuffer

Memo 3: History Addiction has really just become a big problem recently. Most of these things people get addicted to have just come to life in the past 100 years. Anabolic steroids didn’t show up until Dr. John Ziegler invented them in the 1950s. Also athletes didn’t have the desire to become more athletically enhanced because the competition wasn’t as physically fit as they are today. Also video games were not invented until the early 70s and didn’t become popular until the early 80s when arcade games started to be a common thing. Drugs have always been around, but hard drugs such as heroin and cocaine didn’t come around until mid 20th century. "By the mid-80s, the introduction of crack cocaine turned youth drug use into a truly terrifying issue" (Robinson). Even though these things have just come to light in recent times, there were things related to them. For competitors in the Olympics around 10000 BC, they would use stimulants such as mushrooms and different plants to help their performance. Also there have been stimulants similar to heroin and cocaine around for centuries. As our society is growing, so are the production of new things that can become addicting.

-pictures of old olympics -pictures of crack cocaine and heroin -throw some mushroom pics in

Memo 4: Solution Addiction needs a lot more attention and to do this the government needs to step in more and crack down harder. For drug and steroid use, harsher punishments need to be set, such as a life’s ban for using steroids in sports. For drugs penalties need to be worse because the penalties are sometimes just going to rehab and that isn’t enough. To scare people into not using drugs penalties need to be a minimum of 5 years imprisonment. Also for both steroids and drugs there need to be constant drug tests, especially in sports. Athletes shouldn’t be allowed to play without a minimum of 4 drug tests per year. If they get caught then the penalties would take effect. To help people not end taking these substances in the first place, the government needs to set up more programs like D.A.R.E. that will teach kids at a young age not to do drugs. Kids need to be shown how bad these things really are and that image needs to be planted in their minds while they are still young. This is not an easy fix for this problem but it needs to be put into effect.

Opponent #1: -Pictures of teens smoking and pictures of harder drugs. -Another argument against drug education organizations is its inability to teach kids other things besides "Just say no". "Most addiction education - with the notable exception of alcohol - preaches only abstinence: Just say no"(CYC-net). The article is about a group of parents that also state that the drug education programs teach students to break the law more safely. Many education programs use real peoples story in order to teach kids about the dangers of drugs and teach more than to just say no. In fact a lot of schools like DARE type programs because " unlike other drug enforcement programs that only lecture about the harmful effects of drugs and alcohol, the D.A.R.E. program also teaches ways to resist pressure from peer"(Boldt). The programs teach about other gateway drugs, in order to not only stay from those drugs but stay about from harder an prescription drugs. Overall drug education systems bring a way to inform kids about harmful drugs that could destroy their lives.

Opponent #2 -Pictures of people on and using steroids. - Another argument is that drug tests are not efficient. It is proven that about 8 out of 11000 athletes at the Olympics tested positive for drug use. “The number of positive tests is an extremely poor indicator of the prevalence of doping” (Waddington) Many people believe that these numbers really point out that drug tests are ineffective and a waste of money. I don’t believe that at all.

There are also people who believe that drug tests are valid and the only thing that is not reliable are those numbers. “The detection methods are accurate and reliable. They undergo rigorous validation prior to being introduced.” (Wadler) As I mentioned before, even if they are not reliable at the time they hold on to samples until newer tests come out and test them again. Therefore these tests are valid.

Unlike Professor Waddington, I like to look at the glass half full. When he says only 8 out of 11000 tests tested positive I like to say that that means these tests strike fear in athletes and they stop taking them before tests. If that is true my solution of year-round testing would prevent them from taking them year-round because of all the tests. I believe that these numbers are good indicators of what is to come with my solution.

Opponent #3 -video of adults and kids playing video games - Video games in general cannot necessarily be profound as being “bad” for someone, because every game is different. There are family- based games that allow you to move like Wii or Kinect games, and there are your typical multiplayer shooting games like Halo or Call of Duty. The reaction to these games all depends on the person and the game. Since there are both positives and negative expert opinions on this issue. Keith Garret is a writer, a grown man who also plays video games. He plays them with his son and has not seen a change in poor, aggressive behavior in either of them. Many surgeons can agree that video games improve cognitive and perceptual skills, along with helping one's scientific thinking. Douglas Gentile, a co-author of one of the papers that supports video games said, “This means that games are not 'good' or 'bad,' but are powerful educational tools and have many effects we might not have expected they could” (Garrett). PBS also supports learning from video games and has released almost 40 educational games for young children. Its not just kids, “both the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency and the U.S. Army Intelligence Center have used video games for training personnel in critical thinking skills” (Garrett). Garrett says that the worst that thing that happens is for him to be playing games when he knows that he could have been doing something else important.

The previous information is all true, however, they are missing the other parts. Even though educational games can help with learning, it can also damage other parts of the brain. Games can be good for you only if you limit your time with them. All of these people with addictions probably know that what they are doing is bad, but they cannot stop because is just like any other drug or alcohol addiction, when they are off of it, their body does not function properly. Once they become really engaged in they game, they are hooked and lose interest in the important things like school, family, or jobs. These video game addicts mostly play violent M rated games, because they are the most entertaining out of all. Many of them are between the ages of 8 and 18. They all include drug references, explicit and sexual content that young kids should not be involved in. This is a result of bad parenting because the legal age to buy an M rated game is 17, meaning a parent has to be present when a child is buying a game. The parent may not even know that the game is bad, which is why they should look into it before buying it. The game content is obviously not a problem with adults, but it is the amount of time spent on them. They lose their social life and become an outcast. The way we are headed, our economy will not be as strong because of the lack of education from education.

Memo 8: Conclusion

Video games, steroids, and drugs are completely different things but can have the same effect on someone from over usage. There are multiple symptoms of being addicted. For video games, the person will tend to have a negative attitude when they are not playing a game. Drug addicts can have symptoms such as bad teeth, random scabs, paranoia, and paleness. Steroid users will obviously look a lot stronger and be able to compete physically at a higher level. Drugs, video games, and steroids can all make a person feel good at first, so they are doing them to try to get that feeling back, which turns them into an addict. These feelings that are so good are the reason this problem needs to be fixed. If this continues it could get to the point where almost everyone in America could be addicted to something, it’s just the direction we are headed. Less that a century ago, there were very rare occasions of severe addiction, now there are many cases and a lot in kids today. Addiction is the biggest poison to our society and it needs to be stopped or at least slowed down.