Should Marijuana be Legalized for AIDS Use? :: social issues

Should Marijuana be Legalized for AIDS Use? Fifteen years ago the word AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) was barely used in the United States. Today, it's on the cover of every newspaper, and parents and kids discuss it regularly in the household. It is no longer considered someone else's problem; it is now everyone's problem. Not a day goes by that a person doesn't worry about AIDS. The fear of AIDS is heightened only by the fact that there is no cure. People with AIDS must live with the fact that they are eventually going to die. Their death comes slowly and painfully. Each day they take pills and shots that provide temporary relief, but in the long run, they only make matters worse. Some pill's side effects are worse than some of the disease's symptoms. What if there was a drug that could ease some of this pain? Scientists and researchers seem to believe that they have found this miracle drug. Believe it or not, this miracle drug has been used for decades. Just recently, medical doctors suggested that marijuana be used to treat some symptoms of AIDS. This proposal brings forth both medical and ethical questions. Why exactly should marijuana be legalized for AIDS use? Many doctors believe that cannabis is particularly useful in the treatment of AIDS Wasting Syndrome. They believe that it causes the patient to develop an appetite, therefore causing them to gain weight. It is also believed that marijuana helps relieve nausea caused by AIDS and other AIDS treatments. Patients have gone on record stating that marijuana has helped tremendously in the relief of AIDS related illnesses. If marijuana has been used for so many years why are we just now recognizing its medical potential? Marijuana has been suggested for medical use for many years, and yet it has always been put on the back burner. This brings up the ethical side of the argument. In the past decades marijuana has been highly abused. The main concern of legalizing this drug is that the government is making it easier for anyone to buy it on the street. The government also wants to get the point across that smoking cannabis isn't going to make the disease go away; it may only help stop some of the pain. This argument doesn't seem to have a correct answer. On one hand we can lock down and keep marijuana away from our children, and on the other we can let sick people suffer.

Blood Clotting Essay

Blood clotting is an adaptive/defensive mechanism of the human body. Its primary purpose is to prevent the loss of blood from the cardiovascular system from damaged blood vessels in order to avoid shock and possible death. This accomplished by a process called coagulation wherein blood solidify at the site of injury through a complex process involving platelet aggregation and fibrin formation coupled with thrombin and a dozen other clotting factors. Though the mechanism is designed to prevent deleterious harm, clotting can also be harmful especially when inappropriately triggered such as in the case of strokes and infarctions. In the article by Cathleen Genova, she discusses the findings of a report made in the April 17th 2009 issue of Cell, a journal from Cell Press Publication, where researchers found a possible way of preventing life-threatening clots. The discovery might offer a new way to fight clot formation before it can even begin, according to the researchers. According to the findings, thrombin isn’t the only player in the clotting process, in fact â€Å"enzymes known as matrix metalloproteases have recently emerged as important players in platelet function and the biology of blood vessels. Two of those enzymes, MMP-1 and MMP-2 can actually encourage platelet activation† early in the clotting process. If treatments were aimed at blocking the MMP1-PAR1 pathway, a new way of treating patients with acute coronary syndromes may be developed. The advantages of such treatments, the researchers predict, would be that â€Å"an MMP-1 inhibitor might be better tolerated† especially since careful balance between the risk of dangerous blood clots and the risk of bleeding must be kept in mind. Works Cited Genova, Cathleen. â€Å"How Life-Threatening Blood Clots Take Hold. † Medical News Today. MediLexicon, Intrnational Ltd. Accessed 23 April 2009 ARTICLE http://www. medicalnewstoday. com/articles/146508. php How Life-Threatening Blood Clots Take Hold Article Date: 18 Apr 2009 – 0:00 PDT When plaques coating blood vessel walls rupture and expose collagen, platelets spring into action to form a blood clot at the damaged site. Now, a new report in the April 17th issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication, reveals how those life-threatening clots – a leading cause of death in the United States, Europe and other industrialized countries – get an early grip. The discovery might offer a new way to fight clot formation before it can even begin, according to the researchers. â€Å"Compared to other diseases, blood clotting has been very well understood,† said Athan Kuliopulos of Tufts Medical Center and Tufts University School of Medicine. Nevertheless, he continued, many people still suffer from heart attacks, ischemic stroke and death as a result of clot formation. â€Å"Drugs designed to inhibit clots through known pathways are widely used by millions. They work well, but not perfectly. There is still an unmet need. † Those drugs include aspirin and the so-called thienopyridines, including Clopidogrel (trade name Plavix). Scientists have known that a protein called thrombin plays an important role in clot formation as a potent activator of platelets. It also cuts fibrinogen into fibrin, a fibrous protein that works together with platelets to form a clot. But thrombin isn’t the whole story. Enzymes known as matrix metalloproteases have recently emerged as important players in platelet function and the biology of blood vessels. Two of those enzymes, MMP-1 and MMP-2 can actually encourage platelet activation, according to earlier studies, although the means were unknown. In cancer cells too, MMP-1 activates a receptor known as PAR1 – the same receptor that is also responsible for receiving the thrombin signal on human platelets. â€Å"There is abundant proMMP-1 coating platelets,† Kuliopulos said. â€Å"We thought maybe it was on the outside waiting to be activated by something. Maybe it could be involved in an early event in blood clotting, before thrombin is around. † Indeed, Kuliopulos’ team has now connected those dots. They show that exposure of platelets to collagen activates MMP-1, which in turn directly cut PAR1 on the surface of platelets. Collagen is the first thing a platelet â€Å"sees† when a blood vessel ruptures or is cut. The MMP-1-PAR1 pathway activates another set of molecular players known to be involved in early clot formation, he said. Those activated platelets change their shape, sending out spikes and membrane sheets. â€Å"Within seconds, they become more sticky,† adhering to the vessel surface and then other platelets. Moreover, they show that treatments that block the MMP1-PAR1 pathway prevent blood clots from forming in the presence of collagen, suggesting that drugs targeting this metalloprotease-receptor system could offer a new way to treat patients with acute coronary syndromes. According to the new results, PAR1 inhibitors already being tested in clinical trials might have an added benefit, Kuliopulos said. It’s also possible they might work a little too well, since there is a careful balance between the risk of dangerous blood clots and the risk of bleeding. â€Å"An MMP-1 inhibitor might be better tolerated,† he said. The researchers include Vishal Trivedi, Adrienne Boire, Boris Tchernychev, Nicole C. Kaneider, Andrew J. Leger, Katie O’Callaghan, Lidija Covic, and Athan Kuliopulos, of Tufts University School of Medicine, Molecular Oncology Research Institute, Tufts Medical Center, Boston, MA. Source: Cathleen Genova Cell Press

Characters Representing Major Ideas and Themes

A Raisin In the Sun by Lorraine Handovers, the Younger family Is faced with many big issues and themes that affect African Americans in the 1 ass's. These overlying themes appear in the form of individuals In the play, even for those characters that play only minor roles. George Morison, Wily Harris, and Mr.. Liners each represent different obstacles that the Youngster's must overcome in order to follow their dreams and trust what is in their hearts.This is Handlebars way of telling her readers to not be afraid to follow their dreams, even If there are obstacles In your path, because If they don't then they will be worse off than ever before. George Morison is the living example of assimilation culture and it's destructive tendencies toward your native culture and heritage. He dresses like whites, acts like whites, and puts more value on money than on thoughts and culture. Beneath witnesses this transformation occurring in her brother, and it angers her.She feels pressured by society to assimilate. George has merged with the American White Majority Ideals and has no difficulty in doing so, which deeply rubles Beneath, who believes that if you lose your heritage, you in turn lose yourself. George gets incredibly aggravated whenever Beneath mentions how she feels on the topic of Assimilation, and finally George can't listen any longer to her and snaps, â€Å"Let's face it, baby, your heritage is nothing but a bunch of raggedy- eased spirituals and some grass huts! (Handovers, 81) Beneath is trying to find herself by rediscovering her culture, while George Is separating himself from his as much as possible. This huge difference between the two Is the mall reason behind Beneath slice of him and love of Sagas, who fully embraces his culture. He helps her overcome modern society's expectations and dance to her own drumbeat, therefore giving her a way to find herself. The pressure to assimilate into society and become â€Å"acceptable† to others is shown in Be neath, but has already won over George.Even though Wily Harris never even steps onto the stage, his dark presence hangs over the family, as he took the $6,500 that was left of Big Walter's money. He did the taking, and left the Younger â€Å"token†, representing people who exploit others who are desperate and helpless. Wily and others like him take advantage of people like the Younger who have no experience or way of getting help if they fall into a bad situation, but will trust someone to help them out because they are desperate enough to try to achieve their dreams anyway. In stealing the money, Wily Harris destroys Walter's last hope for a good future.Walter explains after he hears the bad news of the stolen money how he thinks the world works and what he has concluded from the experience: â€Å"Life is just like it is. Who gets and who don't get†¦ Mama, you know it's all divided up†¦ Between the takers and the â€Å"token†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ Mom of us always getting token†¦. I'll say one thing for old Wily Harris. He's taught me something. He's taught me to keep my eye on what counts in this world. Yeah- Thanks, Wily! † (Handovers, 141) By this point, Walter has realized that his dream Is not going to happen, and Wily has left him devastated.But amidst all these distraught what really counts, not money, not social status, but love, his family, his wife, and his son. The kind of love that made big Walter work to death for his family. This realization pulls him together, and finally becomes a man and gives Mama and Ruth their dream of owning a house. It seems that people like Wily Harris gravitate to people in poor circumstances with big dreams and little experience. Walter overcomes this disastrous event, but the memory that he could have done better in business and made something of himself will probably haunt him forever.Mr.. Liners is Just one man, but he represents thousands of people, the white majority, and their intense prejud ice against blacks and other minorities. Prejudice and racism was still everywhere in the sass's, even though slavery was gone. The views that people like Mr.. Liners harbor are keeping the Younger and other minority groups oppressed and unable to rise up to their full potential. Liners expresses his frustration with the Younger after Walter refuses his offer for the first time, â€Å"What do you are going to gain by moving into a neighborhood where you Just aren't wanted†¦ People can get awful worked up when they feel that their whole way of life and everything they've ever worked for is threatened. â€Å"(Handovers, 199) Liners says the one thing that the white majority has been thinking. He tells the Younger very simply that they are not wanted. This kind of hostility has nothing to do with any f these peoples personalities, Jobs, or morals, it is solely because they are not white and therefore are deemed not good enough to be with whites.The family overcomes this prejudic e by asking Mr.. Liners back. Walter tells him that they will move into the house, and they will be good neighbors, therefore giving the Whites the first punch if they want to take it, as he will do nothing to them, because he states that the family has a right to live there Just as much as anyone else. Prejudice affected the Younger through the voice of one man, but through the minds of many. But they anally overcome their fear of it and move into the house at Closure Park.Throughout this play, Handovers is constantly using symbolism, and not only does she do it through objects, but through people as well. She shows us how all of these complicated issues are gathered together in one tiny apartment and how this can destroy dreams Just by stepping into the room that is the sass's. By using characters like George, Wily, and Mr.. Liners, we get a real sense of what people are willing to do to achieve their goals, be accepted, and keep things how they have always been. The Younger overc ome each of these with their love and their dreams.