Should Tobacco Sales Be Banned in the United States?

The numbers like this 0 tell you which source in the bibliography the part comes from.

Smoking tobacco is the leading cause of preventable disease, disability, and death in the United States(US)3; for example, smoking is linked to approximately 80 percent of deaths caused by lung cancer.4 Despite both statistics pointing towards the dangers of smoking, tobacco has remained popular across the US since the beginning of the nation. Due to the popularity and demand for tobacco, the US government has continued to allow the use of the plant to remain legal.9 However, considering the Constitution and amendments, which are the basis for all laws in the US, does the government have the right to keep tobacco legal? Although tobacco, which contains the highly addictive drug nicotine, is popular in America today, tobacco not only costs the healthcare system more money than its taxes bring in but also directly defies citizens’ constitutional right to life and liberty.

Understanding how tobacco sales defy the Constitution requires understanding five points. First, one must understand what tobacco is and what smoking it does. Second, one must understand the history of tobacco, for the past affects the modern use. Third, one must address the main arguments for the legality of tobacco: how the tax money from tobacco helps the healthcare system and how the people must have the liberty to choose whether or not to smoke. Fourth, one must counter the arguments by explaining how tobacco defies the people’s rights. Finally, one must show how the knowledge that tobacco sales are unconstitutional can be put to good use.

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Our Laws Affect Our Culture

In a talk he gave at Wyoming Catholic College (WCC), Joshua Craddock posed the idea that law affects culture. His talk inspired me to write this short paper.

According to Rick Warren, “Law is downstream of culture. By the time you make a law about something, you’re reacting, not acting.” Rick Warren is saying that our culture directly affects our laws, and to believe otherwise would be foolish. However, what Warren misses in saying culture affects law, is that law also affects culture. While it is true that culture affects law, it is also true that law affects culture, changing how people view certain activities to the point that one could say culture is, as Warren says, ‘downstream’ of law.

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Magna Carta Libertatum vs. The Declaration of Indepedence

Today I am exploring the similarities and differences between The Great Charter and the American Declaration of Indepedence. Enjoy!

A quick note before we begin: my little brother has started doing this thing whereby when he sees two bugs, creatures, people, whatever, he announces grandly “X versus Y” for example “Woollybear caterpillar versus red ant!” or even “Sister (insert names here) versus cousin” and then proceeds to tell you which one would win (sister, she would flip cousin onto floor). Because of this, all the small people in my family hear the word ‘versus’ or ‘vs’ and assume we mean fighting against, so I thought I would clarify: in this context versus is best translated as “as compared to or in contrast with” and not “against.” Alright, with that out of the way, onto the essay!

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Back to School

With school beginning in five days, it is time to insure you are fully ready to embrace the school year. The motto for notebooks, calculators, desks, and anything else school related is ‘when in doubt, decorate.’
Here are a handful of the notebooks I will be using during the coming semester:

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