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  1. Home Stretch

    May 14, 2014 by Gianna

    Spring semester is almost over which means that my freshman year is coming to a close. English has been a ride to say none the less. In english, a big part of the class work was the blog posts that were assigned all throughout the semester.  Many of my blog ideas were incorporated into my final research paper.  The idea of even talking about club drugs was introduced in my first blog and by following the blog prompts, I had finally arrived at my research argument solution topic. I arrived to this topic when researching a counter argument of why club drugs are beneficial to people instead of these harmful rave drugs everyone knows them as. This prompt helped me find an interesting topic without having to change my entire direction to something completely different.A nagging concern that I still have about my paper is the fact that we need to include a counter-arguement. I have been trying to find one but it seems to be a struggle. It becomes a struggle because after researching points that prove your argument its like LOL now I want you to find something that goes against what your saying and argue it in your favor. Its just hard to focus on something without it being either a really good argument or a bad argument theres never an in-between.

    The biggest change that I have seen in my writing that has come from this english class is making sure that I have a strong enough thesis to connect back to with each paragraph.This helps create a more fluid and whole paper. Also my writing of thesis statements has become much better because of all the writing assignment we have had to do. Another change that I have seen in my writing is that I am fishing my paragraphs and concluding them. With that I am also adding transition sentences that adds to the fluidity of my papers. Advice I would give to future students, is to make sure that you always have multiple people proof read so that all your errors are caught.  Having a lot of people read it also insures that your paper makes sense because if multiple people don’t understand the paper then you clearly need to go back and fix it.

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  2. The struggles of a Research paper

    May 2, 2014 by Gianna

    Process of this research paper have been difficult thus far for me.  I love the topic of my research paper and I find it interesting and exciting but the actual research has been a pain for me. With the research process I sometimes had a hard time understanding the scientific writing that I had picked to back up my claims that supported MDMA-assisted therapy. All my sources in general except for one required me to sit down and slowly read so I can fully understand the material to its fullest extent. Since my topic has to do with a lot of terms that people are not familiar with I have to myself fully understand the terms then make those ideas and thoughts easier for the audience to understand. 49291938The way I have resolved this problem is by reading a few sources a night instead of all of them at once because sometimes its hard to soak up all that new information that I have just learned. It has taught me to procrastinate less because since the reading is so dense it takes me a longer time to read and understand and I couldn’t just expect to read like 2 sources with 45 minutes.

    Another difficult thing, was trying to wrap my head around a definite solution to the problem of what to do for MDMA-assisted therapy. I had two ideas in mind for this and I couldn’t figure out which one to go with because one of the solutions is at the easier route of the solution but the other one was way to complicated and was hard to put in words for  the audience to understand

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    The solution that I decided on was the easier route because the audience would understand it better without me going into confusing details that it requires to just prove the point I would try and want to make. In the end there would have been to much background information in addition to the amount I have now which is a lot already.

    The last and most difficult part of the research paper was the actual topic itself. I wanted to originally just talk about club drugs in general but it was a kind of a hard sell because there was no real solution to the problem of club drugs in general. Also when I told people what I wanted to do my research paper on they were like how are you even going to do that.

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    My resolve didn’t come until the second blog post about a contradiction about your argument or the other side of the argument about club drugs. Thats when I found my topic about MDMA- assisted therapy from a Huffington post article. From there I knew that I could use this as my problem, solution paper. What i got out of this problem was that to find a better idea you have too look at both sides of the arugment.

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  3. Bullied into Illegalization

    April 18, 2014 by Gianna

    Today I am going to live blog about the process of the how drugs become illegal. This chapter focuses mainly on why MDMA should have become illegal in the US. Inciardi provides the back-story of why this drug became so popular and why the DEA came in so fast to shut it down before it became a epidemic.

    11:45 PM:  According to Inciardi, “ MDMA encouraged the experience of emotions by reducing the fear response to perceived emotional threats “(pg. 136). This first section of the book talks bout how users feeling when they take the drugs in therapy sessions. It is easier for these patients to relax because MDMA gives you a feeling of empathy. As the paragraph went on the author talked about trauma victims who were treated and how they felt while on the drug.

    12:00 AM: Simultaneously, a more aggressive marketing campaign took place in Texas, “ecstasy” was distributed openly in bars and nightclubs in Dallas”(137). The section of the book starts to go into detail about what is happening at the same time that this drug is gaining popularity in psychotherapy. Its like a side-by-side picture of what is happening and the increase of recreational use and then how the DEA comes in to stop it.

    12:03 AM: “In order for a drug to be placed in Schedule I, the Controlled Substance Act of 1970 stated that it must have a high potential for abuse and have no accepted safety for use under medical supervision.”(138). This is the explanation part of the book, were It tell you how something is scheduled and what each schedule means in reference to use and jail time.

    12:05 AM: “ Defenders of MDMA’s medical use argued that MDMA should be placed into Schedule III, where by physicians could legally prescribe MDMA. All recreational use would be criminalized, but medical treatment and scientific research could still be conducted.”(138). The case against MDMA wasn’t very strong for the DEA, so the author is showing how they bend the rules to get this drug expedited to a schedule one and stop circulation of this drug immediately

    12:11 AM: “The claim that MDMA had accepted safety for use under medical supervision was supported by three studies”(138). As the trail was going on people for both sides try to defend their argument. This was from a scientist trying to argue for MDMA.

    12:13 AM: “ [DEA general attorney] He further argued that only FDA could accept a drug for medical use, and without FDA approval, no drug could have accepted safety under medical supervision”(138). So the outcome of the trial was that the Chief Justice Young ruled with favor of MDMA but the DEA ignored his ruling by going through the expedited scheduling which doesn’t have to follow the Chief ruling.

    12:22 AM: “As a result of the publicity and the scheduling, recreational interest and use of MDMA among non-therapeutically orientated professionals, students, and yuppies appears to have greatly increased.”(141). This quote helps me realize that other people do think that the media helped influence this popularity of this drug unlike most drugs spread by word of mouth.

    The chapter in the book, Drug Legalization, was very informative and allowed me to understand the back-story and why MDMA became illegal. This chapter made me wants to relate this and it’s scheduling to what they are now doing with Marijuana. Weed is still a schedule one drug but in some states it’s legalized for medicinal use and in Washington State and Colorado it’s legalized for recreational use. Although I just want MDMA to become legal for medical use only it helps me strengthen my argument and allow me to use examples of what is going on. What I want to look at next is to see research that will help in exploring the solution to my problem so it is a real life solution with examples from the real world and not just hypothesized ones.

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  4. And you thought Molly was a bad thing……..

    March 26, 2014 by Gianna

    In the article ,Straight Trippin, writer and blogger for the Huffington post, Gabriel Mizahi chose to go the other way with this club drug and others to try and shed some positive light on these psychoactive drugs of today. In the article, he points out key benefits of drugs such as MDMA (ecstasy without the bad stuff) and others like LSD or psilocybin (found in psychedelic mushrooms).

    A key benefit talked about and hit hardest in this article, is the use of these club drugs in creating new therapy options. The ingredients in these drugs helps patients relax and feel more at easy, which means it’s easier for them to open up about their problems without them feeling stressed and uneasy.  This could help patients suffering from PTSD (Post-traumatic stress disorder).

    Another important point was the new markets it could open. New markets would have to be created to oversee and regulate these drugs for prescription use, which could make a lot of people or the government a lot of money. For example the money that is being generated from the tax on marijuana in legalized states like Colorado pulled in $2 million dollars in tax revenue alone from January 2014 says in this article in forbes.  Also in the articles his last point is most key in the article is that a lot more testing needs to be done before anything is finalized but funding research could help the process be sped up in seeing if these drugs can be used safely and efficiently.

    I agree with the author in that these drugs can help people with PTSD and trying to get past these emotions.  As seen in the video the women is able to get past the barrier of the death of her sister an it made her feel at ease and make peace with the death. If this was legalized it could help many more people who are in need of treatment that don’t want to go outside the law to get better.

    A point that I disagree with in the article is the control and predictability if a certain drug in mushrooms called psilocybin. This certain compound is the psychedelic and when dealing with a psychedelic compound it’s harder to predict the side effects because it’s made in nature and things in nature are constantly changing and evolving. So with a drug like mushrooms, they should synthesis the compound and make it synthetically enough to control it, and make sure a lot of variables are taken care of. Without making sure these variables are taken care of the user could possibly have a very bad “trip” or experience on the drug.

    I have gained new insight on the drug and how its properties use to get high on the drug can be used positively for people who are having trouble with mental blocks or problems that even with therapy are harder to get through like PTSD. A question that I would like to answer in my research paper on MDMA would be how does the role in media affect the publicity of MDMA in the use of medical treatment. I would use this source as to support my almost working thesis of how does the media portray molly and how its affects people’s perception on it. As a final send off quote about the psychedelic drugs…..  “MDMA is penicillin for the soul; you don’t give up on penicillin when you see what it can do.” – Ann Shulgin

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  5. Can you please help me, I’m trying to find Molly

    March 11, 2014 by Gianna

    Club drugs have been an interesting topic for me ever since I started watching Drugs, Inc. on the National Geographic channel. It has always amazed me how drugs effect a person’s body, both for the short and long term. It’s also an interesting thing to see media portray the use of drugs and how it can glorify the use or if it really deters the use of drugs The personal background information I have on the topic stems from TV shows like Drugs, Inc. and some personal reading I have done on the topic due to my interest.

    A concern that I have addressed in my research the type of club drug I will be focusing on which is MDMA or more commonly known as ecstasy.  Another concern was the type of media that I will use to back up my future thesis which is digital media. The types of digital media I will be using is music, TV, and advertising the use of ecstasy in society especially in the case of young adults like college students.  I can use music as great way to back up the use of club drugs in the popular media. Two examples of music and the use of club drugs are Clarity by Zedd and Molly by Tyga . The song Molly also illustrates  the use indirect advertising by talk about the use of molly, which is the street name for ecstasy.

    Another concern I have addressed is the time frame in which I will be focusing my blog on. The time period I have picked is the last 10 years. The reason why I picked this time frame is because EDM music has gained a lot of momentum since 2005 in the United States. Also I feel like it would be easier to find more current articles in the media about the use of MDMA.  The challenged that I faced before picking a more narrow time frame was that I stated that club drugs have been on the rise, but I didn’t choose a specific time so it didn’t allow me to construct an argument. With this time frame it has narrowed me down to the rising of EDM music in the us which started about in the early 2000s’.  From the popular song Clarity by Zedd about the topic of ecstasy, “If our love is tragedy, why are you my remedy? If our love’s insanity, why are you my clarity?”

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