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new blog is here this should resolve commenting issues or whatnot

Learning 2

Well once again i am talking about what i am learning about my topic. One thing i can say is that i have been getting more into looking for scholarly sources rather than unverified articles on misc websites around the internet. EBSCOhost is a pretty cool tool that Red Rocks has allowed all of its students access to... So far i have found a few PDFs about my topic and need to go through them and check out what information i can use within.

One thing that i really dont like doing is printing and reading a 20 page article and annotating it as i read.. I am really into the whole digital age- i think i am doing pretty well on blogs, although i can't say i'm a big fan... Even though i would never call myself one, or for that matter let someone else call me a tree hugger- for one thing i don't like wasting paper. I don't think it helps the process, writing is slower than my typing will ever be, and it seems to a certain degree that i am more inclined to read something on a computer screen as opposed to reading something on paper. Anyway I am going to see what i can do about it - i really would rather just use MS Word to make notes on a PDF or something and save it so i can modify and reference it later on.

Anyway now that i am done with my stint against printing.. I really feel that legalizing all drugs is probably the wrong way to go with my topic.

I think this is what i intend to prove with my paper- or at least make an argument at.

If i were to drink 10 liters of alcohol, it would probably kill me.
If i were to snort a kilo of cocaine, it would probably kill me.
If i were to take 6 hits of X, it would probably kill me.
If i were to shoot up a pound of heroin, it would kill me.

All of these things have one thing in common. They are man made drugs.

If i were to eat a pound of mushrooms, i would probably be throwing up for 4 hours and be high as a kite.
If i were to smoke a pound of marijuana, i would probably eat my weight in Cheeto's within the hour.
If i were to eat 15 grams of peyote, i would probably be spiritually enlightened for the next 24 hours.

So unless you haven't gotten the point - I believe and intend to prove that naturally occuring psychoactive drugs should be legalized due to their harmless effects on the human mind and body (and therefore the social, economic and political structure of the nation).

Research question: Why are naturally occurring psychoactive drugs dubbed illicit and illegal in the United States?

Primary Research

One thing that i havent done a lot in the past is primary research. I think this makes for a better paper because it allows the writer to really get into their topic, and become involved in the process more. The thing that i always used to do was get a lot of information off of the internet, paraphrase and summarize it to make it part of my paper (and of course citations). I think that the problem with this is that the information other people give you isnt necessarily credible, and can lead to questioning of your paper instead of the sources you gave.

Well anyway, I think the best thing to do- and i guess i have to do it- is an interview with someone. Who that might be, i am unsure of as of late.. but i do have some suggestions from my classmates. One thing i thought of was to interview one senator who is for the legalization of drugs, and one who is not. Depending on how i choose to write my paper i think there may be some better alternatives. One suggestion was to interview a social worker who works with drug addicts.

Over the next few days i am going to have to narrow down my topic and start to do some work on my primary research- setting up the interview(s) and making sure i have my questions researched and ready.