SDG 03: Good Health and Well-Being

The Drug War: The Success That Wasn't

The Drug War: The Success That Wasn't

The War on Drugs is an international program dedicated to the prohibition and eradication of drugs and (thus) drug usage. It was started by the Richard Nixon in 1971, and became a global activity.

The United States alone spends 50 billion USD (750 Trillion Rupiah) annualy in their commitment to the war on drugs, or six times of the Indonesian military spending. The war on drugs followed a simple premise: eradicate drugs, and drug usage will go down. Yet this premise failed to consider many arguments, such as the law of basic economics. Since drugs are inelastic, addicted people will buy it no matter the cost. Therefor, when we restrict the supply, the demand and price increase to a fantastic level - fantastic for cash-strapped thugs looking for a quick buck. Thus a new industry explodes: while big factories closes, house-made decentralized drugs production flourished, and after billions of taxpayer money, the supply of drugs increased. The government then try to restrict the distribution of materials needed to produce drugs. While house drugs industries did fell, in their place rose internationally organized cartels colluding with local goverments with better equipment, drug concentration, and production lines. Thus, after billions of money, the supply of drugs increased again while the drugs itself become way more dangerous. In fact, according to a study, the war on drugs has a efficiency rate in reducing supply of 1%. We cannot win this war on the supply side, nor is it a desirable thing to aim for. This program did claim a great moral highground, but any program that costs trillions of dollars while having an efficiency rate of 1% is a bad program.

This does not account the damages the war on drugs has done to the world. In Mexico, more people died to drug-related violence than civilians who died in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. United States housed the largest prison population in the world, in the number and proportion, the majority of which came from drug-related crimes. Indonesia risks international isolation by executing foreign civilians caught in a drug crime. All in the name of a failing policy hunting a target that isn't real. This phenomenon was not new, however; in 1920s, the United States enacted a prohibition of alcohols championed by moralists. The result was a rise of gang violence and beer-producing mafias - ever heard the names of Al Capone and friends? "Licquor" also become the norm - an unregulated alcohol product with an insane ratio of alcohol in it. Beers were legalized again in 1930's during the Great Depression - arguably the worst time to have an alcohol prohibition - but the effect lasts decades.

So is there any alternatives? In the late 20th century, Switzerland faced a looming heroin disaster. They even had "needle parks" - where hundreds of junkies lay in public parks, injecting heroin to their skin. Switzerland could have prohibited drugs, but instead they pursue another solution: harm reduction. By focusing on harm reduction, addicts were brought to care centers. They were given free heroin and clean syringes, psychological assistance, and given social support to continue their lives once they stopped using drugs. Today, drugs aren't prohibited (athough still discouraged), in fact you can easily buy cannabis products in the country. But the result if the policy was astounding: drug usage fell significantly, especially compared to the country that enacted drug prohibition, with hundreds of times efficiency and way, way less cost. The policy was subsequently tried in Portugal with a resounding success.

No one argue that drug is good or has any non-medical benefit. But there are a reason why most countries legalize alcohol and tobacco. If properly regulated, drugs aren't really that dangerous - western countries isn't facing societal collapse or economic misery due to regulated alcohol and tobacco. The fact is, if we really want to reduce drug usage, reconsider other alternatives - harm reduction and prevention - than wasting more money to catch an imaginary unicorn. If not, more people will die from drugs. Imagine that.

Sources: Wikipedia, Kursgesagt.

My Group' Wedding Card

September 19th, 2018

Hello comrades! Today, I would like to show an invitation card that we (Zhillan A.R, Irgi A.P, and Vivaldi A.S) had created last week from paper, fancy ribbons, and colored markers.

Gallery:

Here are the content of this invitation:

1. Name of the host
 According to this card, the event is jointly hosted by Mr. Phillip Rees-Hercules and Ms. Sumintem, and very likely their family too.
2. Phrase on the invitation
 We can find that the host invites the reader from the text "Mr. H. Rees-Hercules and Ms. Sumintem request your most honourable presence to attend our...".
3. The kind of event
According to this card, this event is a wedding ceremony.
4. Date
According to this card, the event will be held at Tuesday September 30th, 2069.
5. Time
According to this card, the event will be held at 04.00 pm.
6. Venue
According to this card, the event will be held in the Lubang Buaya Great Hall, near the Kasih Ibu Cemetary and the Bumi Indah Mental Hospital.
7. Special instruction
All attendees are required to bring a bucket of lily. Considering that lily simbolizes death, the reason why this flower is a requirement is beyond me.
8. Request to respond
If the reader will or will not attend, they are supposed to tell a person called Gian bin Harris Munthe.

So that is our wedding card. What do you think?

Debate: Zoning Policy

Hello, my comrades! Today, I will tell you about a debate that happened a few weeks ago in my English class. These are the topics, the motions, and my thoughts about it.

Topic: The Government should remove the zoning policy for school enlistment.

Pros: The students who lived far from the schools with better ratings now has more chance at their life. It is inherently unfair to put anyone's future at stake based on luck and residents only.

Cons: Smarter students will be concentrated only at a few schools, which is bad for the overall students in the city. By removing zoning, the government also promotes traffic.

My thoughts: I would go with the contra. Before zoning, smarter students will be concentrated in a few schools, attracting most of the funding for their own betterment, and I think the best way to make less achieving students is by mixing them with smarter students. People say that depriving smarter students of their chance to get into the best schools will harm their future. But smarter students already have an astronomically better future compared too less smart, poorer, less capable child-labor living in a crowded hut. So love zoning and love the betterment of national student's gradient.

#VLOG - SMAN 3 EDUCATION FAIR (ENGLISH TASK)

1. See the link below.
2. Copy the link.
3. Paste in to the address bar.
4. Press enter.
5. A page will open showing the video. Enjoy!

Link   >>>   https://youtu.be/zS_nDy9zbL8

Announcement Text Activities

TEXT 1

Elements of the Announcement	Found/Not Found	Details
Opening	Found	“Hello Georgetown”
Contents	Found	Information of the event including advantages, time, place, and opening schedule.
Closing	Found	Contact address.

 

TEXT 2

Elements of the Announcement	Found/Not Found	Details
Opening	Found	“Call for proposals funded by the European Comission”
Contents	Found	Information about what, where, when, who about the event, possibilities, request, and announcement about proposal contest and awards.
Closing	Found	Source to further information.

 

TEXT 3

Elements of the Announcement	Found/Not Found	Details
Opening	Not Found
Contents	Found	Information regarding what happened, place, and what happened with the old place.
Closing	Found	Contact address

                             
                                                                TEXT 4

Elements of the Announcement	Found/Not Found	Details
Opening	Not found
Contents	Found	Information regarding time, place, reasoning and advantages, and expectations.
Closing	Not Found

 

ACTIVITY 2

NO	TEXT	TRUE/FALSE
1	TEXT A	TRUE
2	TEXT B	FALSE
3	TEXT C	FALSE
4	TEXT D	TRUE
5	TEXT E	TRUE

	ACTIVITY 3

                                                                       

Text	Main Idea	Details
Text 1	Informing the people of Georgetown about the opening of a Suit Shop in a new venue.	-          The announcement came from J.Crew Store -          The opening will be in April, 2013 -          The shop will offer more of men’s and women’s, weddings and parties collection.
Text 2	Calling for proposals about bird flu virus outbreak for research purposes.	-The announcement came from WHO -The impacts and damages of bird flu -The need for proposals to bolster research -The requirements for the proposals -The announcement is for competent researchers.
Text 3	Neosys store moves to a new place.	-The announcement came from Neosys. -The address of the new store -The changes on the old place -The informations regarding contacts, etc.
Text 4	New branches are open.	-The cities where the new branches were opened. -The reasoning of the new opening -The expectations for the new opening. -The branches will be opened starting in January 1st 2018.