Chapter 2

Drug-danger 'league table' revealed

This article is about the dangers of alcohol, illegal drugs and cigarettes. The UK Science and Technology Select Committee say that alcohol and cigarettes are more harmful than ecstasy, LSD and cannabis. These scientist collect twenty different types of legal and illegal drugs to analyze the social and physical damage they cause based on scientific evidence. They put the various drugs into catagories from highest consequences for having possession and dealing. There are three classes which are class A, B and C. Class A is highest and class C is lowest. Drugs that are classified as class A are alcohol, heroin, cocaine, tobacco, LSD, ecstasy, magic mushrooms and street methadone. Class B drugs include speed and barbiturates. Class C drugs are cannabis and some tranquillisers. Today tobacco and alcohol are considered more harmful than ecstasy and LSD. The UK drug classification system want the government to take their studies into consideration and clear the relationship between drug classification and criminal penalties for possession.
(here is the link for the website)
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/drugs-alcohol/mg19125633.100-drugdanger-league-table-revealed.html

This article is relevant to chapter 2 because addictive drugs are inelastic because they cause the person using the drugs to have craving for it. Usually when the supply for a product go down the price goes up. When the price is high for certain products people usually dont buy it anymore or dont buy as much of it. But for drugs that cause addiction the people using them can't just stop buying the drugs or buy less because the drugs force your body to consume more of it to satisfy your body. As a result of this the person taking the drugs will lose their money continuously buying drugs. Then our economy will slowly decrease if this continues and starts to spread. Many dealers have sneaky ways of tricking people into trying their drugs by giving free samples to get the consumer hooked. Then the dealer will start selling their drugs at a low price until the customer continues to buy and be dependant on the drug. If drugs werent addictive then they would be elastic because people could easily quit.

In the end, i believe that people should not even try a drug to begin with because most of them are highly addictive even though you will probably think you wont get hooked on the first try. But it is very easy to get addicted to class A drugs. Also for the people who rely on drugs as an anti-depressant, i would advise that you find some trustworthy friends and family members to help you straighten out your life because drugs are only hurting yourself and the people around you.

Chapter 1

Growing wheat scarcity may send prices skyrocketing

In this article, it talks about the price of wheat increasing because of droughts in Australia, Ukraine, and the US. The price of wheat increased up to fifty percent this year. The countries most affected by this crisis are China and India. this is bad for China and India because they spend more money on products produced by wheat more than we do. The expenses for Canadian bread has gone up thirty five percent, the highest in a decade. Many people suspect that new records are going to be broken in two to three years because of global shortages. World inventories would decrease in June by forty three percent to 119.3 million tons. The US department of agriculture said earlier this month that this has been the lowest since 1982.
(Here is the link to the article)
http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=&fArticleId=3513088

This article is connected to chapter 1 because the supply for wheat can't meet the consumers high demand. A dramatic drop in the production of wheat puts a very negative effect on products that contain wheat because wheat is a raw material. Farmers will have to buy more land in order to keep the production of wheat balanced. This has a positive effect and a negative effect for society. On the positive side there will be a higher demand for labour. More people will be hired to work on the fields because more land will be bought. On the negative side if too much land is taken up then sooner or later when the weather conditions are ideal for growing wheat, the company will have too much wheat. Therefore the supply will be high and the demand will be constant which will lead to decreases in prices for wheat products. The shortage of wheat and high prices will also effect the capital because as people continuously come to restaurants the company must buy more expensive bread which will lead to a decrease in their revenue and profits. It would be a good idea for companies to come up with direct costs and opportunity costs for alternative products instead of wheat, especially restaurants because it can greatly change their profits.

in conclusion, i think that many small countries and cities are going to be more affected than us because our economy is high and we have a high standard of living. I feel that people are still going to buy wheat products even though are will be an increase in price. Lucky for me i dont eat alot of bread so it wont effect me very much. i believe that global warming is causing the droughts in Australia, Ukraine, and the US. Now we should put in a greater effort in trying to be environmentally friendly.