#question 1.2

Are teenagers enlightened about the real effect of drugs or do they just think they are? To find out if students really are enlightened I first asked them, if they feel enlightened (question 1.2) and then what negative side effects of consuming drugs they see, to prove if they really know what the consumption causes (question 1.3). 

As already discussed when talking about media influence teenagers feel enlightened well (question 1.2).

How does the media influence teenagers’ views on drugs? What do they think about drugs and the media presentation of their effects? Is there a connection between teenager’s attitude towards drug consumption and their taste of certain movies (project x)  or celebrities (Snoop Dogg)? 

To adequately answer this question I will first have a look at question 1 (How is your general opinion about drugs?) to evaluate teenager’s first impression of drugs. My survey showed that mostly girls at the age of 17 are against drugs or would never take drugs in general, while boys in the same age build up the biggest group of regular consumers. A striking detail as well, is that especially teenagers at the age of 17 and girls at the age of 16 state that they would not consume drugs, but as well would not judge people, who do. Out of this result one could conclude that probably friends of the interviewees consume drugs or the questioned people at least know people, who do.

To evaluate how the teenagers feel enlightened about the effect of drugs, especially about the media presentation I will analyze, if teenagers think media seem to play down the effect of drugs (question 1.2, choice 2). My results show that only few interviewees think media plays down the role of effects of drugs and from this minimal group, the biggest percentage consists of 17 year old boys and 16 year old girls. Rather few think, they are not enlightened at all or in a bad way, because their parents forbid drugs without explanation. The highest rate of all questioned teenagers feels enlightened well.

Now to a really interesting result: the direct coherence between interviewees that smoke weed regularly and that would visit the party in project x or would even make one like this. Important as well is that the biggest percentage of every gender or age (except 17 year old girls) would like to visit a party like in project x, what means that they like the excessive atmosphere, but would not take any drugs.

when smoked, the effect starts after approximately 15 minutes

after 2-3 hours it fades

while eating cannabis, e.g. in cookies, it takes up to 2 hours until you can recognize the effect (depending on how much you ate), but you can feel a more intense effect up to 8 hours or even the next day

how: in the cerebellum, the basal ganglia, the cerebral cortex and the hippocampus, there are anandamid receptors, on which the THC can dock. This is why the hormone anandamid is inhibited.  

as the hormone anandamid was just found in 1992, it is not clear which function it has. Experts suppose it takes part in the processing of pain and sensory impressions.

side effects:

dock on the cerebellum & basal ganglia --> influence on the movement and coordination

dock on cerebral cortex --> concentration & sense of time

dock on hippocampus --> memory

"6. It is very difficult to carry my in-ear headphones around, since it gets tangled up. I think there should be an easier way to carry it around, instead of rolling it up."  This is the gap I chose for my project. I think it is something most people have experienced that would be relatively simple to solve. 

I was unsure abou picking a gap that wasn't really material, like a process, since I don't think it fits the objective of the course.

Here is a list of gaps that I have experienced these past days:

1. I bring a side bag to work, and iI usually take things like a pencil case, notebooks, folders and books. Sometimes I like to bring my headphones to work, or I need to bring a coat, since the weather is crazy where I live. It is almost impossible to accomodate all these different sized things in it, not because the bag is not big enough, but because the subdivisions inside make it impossible. I usually have to carry one or two books off of it, I hate it. I would like to see a bag that had customizable subdivisions, or better designed subdivisions, so that I could fit everything I needed to carry in it. 2. I currently go to law school and I work as an intern in a law firm specialized in arbitration. Arbitration is a kind of alternate dispute resolution proceeding, and it is fundamentaly based on the party's freedom of choice. In other words, it is customizable to the needs of each dispute. Each party selects an arbitrator, and these arbitrators select another person that will act as the chairman of the arbitral tribunal. The tribunal usually obey the rules of an arbitration organization chosen by the parties. Most of the times, the selected arbitrators are very experienced, so there's not a lot of room for new arbitrators to bloom. I would like to see a kind of summary procedure for simpler disputes, that would give the oportunity to young arbitrators to get experience. 

3. I hate umbrellas. They are difficult to carry, and they never protect your whole body - I'm relatively tall, so my legs usually get soaked. I would like to see a new kind of rain protection device that would cover your whole body, and would be easy to carry around, when you don't want to take any bags.

4. I realize designing some kind of new rain protection device is kind of far-fetched. So I would settle for something that would make umbrellas easier to carry around.

5. I have a relatively extensive CD collection and it is hard to keep it organized. I don't like the shelves sold at stores, because they're usually ugly, and I think they take too much space. I would like to see somekind of shelf, or container for CDs that looks good and takes little space.

6. It is very difficult to carry my in-ear headphones around, since it gets tangled up. I think there should be an easier way to carry it around, instead of rolling it up. *

(ugh, coming up with these is kind of hard)

7. I have a lot of books and magazines. I put most of them on the shelf, but I have a difficult time storing the books and magazines I don't like that much but don't want to throw way. I'd like to see some kind of portable archive for books and magazines. 

8. I have a dog, and he absolutely hates his coat for cold days. He nibbles on every loose bit of it. I think there should be some kind of dog apparel that would be easy to put it on, but also fitted for the dog's body, so it wouldn't be able to nibble on it.

Sorry, the task was to list 10 gaps, but I could only think of 8.