Thursday, April 23, 2009
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Economic recession leads students to an unwanted lifestyle
* Some of the real names were not disclosed in this article due to the request of confidentiality.
America has now officially seen one of the longest periods of economic recession since the Great Depression in the 1930s. As it entered into the 17th month of economic loss on April 1, 2009, it is no wonder people are beginning to really start to worry about their well-being.
Considering it would take pages and pages to write about the economy and its effects on the whole country. I chose to pick a community in which I currently reside and go to school in - Towson, Maryland.
I looked at changes in substance abuse and illegal drug sales among students/teens due to the economic recession. Most often than not, people who abuse illegal drugs are using them as a way to escape. The most common factor in causing substance abuse is stress. The drugs offer the abuser a medium of relaxation.
“Out of all my friends, just here at school, I think it’s safe to say that about 95% use some sort of illegal drug. It is actually pretty sad, but you know, like experts say, it is a way of escaping the truth, says Zack Morrison, junior at Towson University. “We all have massive amounts of school work, we have jobs that we can’t find because no one is hiring, and we have bills that we have to pay. It’s hard.”
For students at Towson University, marijuana is the number two “abused” drug, right behind alcohol. According to Bill Toohey, spokesman for the Baltimore County Police Department and adjunct professor at Towson University, amazingly enough there has been no severe change in the percentage of students abusing drugs or students participating in the illegal sale of drugs so far this year.
“That’s funny. I could sit here and name several people who have turned to distributing drugs, me being one of them,” says an anonymous source, a student of Towson University. “I have bills and loans to pay off, books, food, insurance - you name it, I am paying for it. A lot of students are, and the stress of not finding a legitimate job and having a bundle of other things to worry about like school, it’s the quickest way of making money. I don’t like that I do it, and I can’t wait until I graduate. Hopefully then finding a job will be easier and this whole recession thing will start to diminish. But I can’t just sit here in the mean time and watch my bills pile up the ceiling, you know.”
According to the Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore Committee, Maryland is in the top 5 best positioned to emerge out of the recession, claiming Baltimore County as one of the best places to “ride out the storm.”
“That’s a load of crap,” said Kate Wysocki, student of Towson University. “I don’t know about for older people who have been in the work field for awhile, but for me, a student, I spent months trying to find not just a job, but an internship, and an un-paid one at that! No one is hiring. As a college student, I thought it would have been a little bit easier finding a job, considering I will practically work for nothing, but there is nothing. Employers would tell me ‘I’m sorry we just aren’t looking for extra help right now;’ or ‘we can’t afford to have you intern here, our work is moving slow enough as it is for our paid employees.’ It is insane.”
Baltimore County Police Department is currently the second largest in the state of Maryland, falling right under Baltimore City. Although there has been no increase in officers on duty, there has also been no furloughs or layoffs either.
One would think that due to the economic defect we as a nation are facing, crime rates would increase sufficiently. However, surprisingly enough on paper, this is not the case. “Since last year, our overall crime rate in Towson (Precinct 6) has decreased by about 2.1%. Honestly, the only increase we have seen in crimes committed are interestingly enough, not burglaries, which actually decreased 8.1%, but property crimes overall, which went up 4.1%,” Toohey said. “Other than that, we usually just get a ton of phone calls from residents of the community who are not students, complaining about noise, destruction, etc.”
Considering the information I obtained from students almost completely contrasted the information I obtained from the Baltimore Police Department, it made me wonder – is it a) students are becoming smarter at illegally selling drugs and abusing them to deal with the stress of the economic recession? And are they becoming smarter at “beating the system” and not being caught by law enforcement?; or is it b) the police department has just finally gotten into students heads that they will be caught and they will pay the price for participating in these acts of crime? Either way the economic recession is affecting us all here in the Towson Community. Let’s just hope what they say is true and the state of Maryland can rise above this major defect.
America has now officially seen one of the longest periods of economic recession since the Great Depression in the 1930s. As it entered into the 17th month of economic loss on April 1, 2009, it is no wonder people are beginning to really start to worry about their well-being.
Considering it would take pages and pages to write about the economy and its effects on the whole country. I chose to pick a community in which I currently reside and go to school in - Towson, Maryland.
I looked at changes in substance abuse and illegal drug sales among students/teens due to the economic recession. Most often than not, people who abuse illegal drugs are using them as a way to escape. The most common factor in causing substance abuse is stress. The drugs offer the abuser a medium of relaxation.
“Out of all my friends, just here at school, I think it’s safe to say that about 95% use some sort of illegal drug. It is actually pretty sad, but you know, like experts say, it is a way of escaping the truth, says Zack Morrison, junior at Towson University. “We all have massive amounts of school work, we have jobs that we can’t find because no one is hiring, and we have bills that we have to pay. It’s hard.”
For students at Towson University, marijuana is the number two “abused” drug, right behind alcohol. According to Bill Toohey, spokesman for the Baltimore County Police Department and adjunct professor at Towson University, amazingly enough there has been no severe change in the percentage of students abusing drugs or students participating in the illegal sale of drugs so far this year.
“That’s funny. I could sit here and name several people who have turned to distributing drugs, me being one of them,” says an anonymous source, a student of Towson University. “I have bills and loans to pay off, books, food, insurance - you name it, I am paying for it. A lot of students are, and the stress of not finding a legitimate job and having a bundle of other things to worry about like school, it’s the quickest way of making money. I don’t like that I do it, and I can’t wait until I graduate. Hopefully then finding a job will be easier and this whole recession thing will start to diminish. But I can’t just sit here in the mean time and watch my bills pile up the ceiling, you know.”
According to the Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore Committee, Maryland is in the top 5 best positioned to emerge out of the recession, claiming Baltimore County as one of the best places to “ride out the storm.”
“That’s a load of crap,” said Kate Wysocki, student of Towson University. “I don’t know about for older people who have been in the work field for awhile, but for me, a student, I spent months trying to find not just a job, but an internship, and an un-paid one at that! No one is hiring. As a college student, I thought it would have been a little bit easier finding a job, considering I will practically work for nothing, but there is nothing. Employers would tell me ‘I’m sorry we just aren’t looking for extra help right now;’ or ‘we can’t afford to have you intern here, our work is moving slow enough as it is for our paid employees.’ It is insane.”
Baltimore County Police Department is currently the second largest in the state of Maryland, falling right under Baltimore City. Although there has been no increase in officers on duty, there has also been no furloughs or layoffs either.
One would think that due to the economic defect we as a nation are facing, crime rates would increase sufficiently. However, surprisingly enough on paper, this is not the case. “Since last year, our overall crime rate in Towson (Precinct 6) has decreased by about 2.1%. Honestly, the only increase we have seen in crimes committed are interestingly enough, not burglaries, which actually decreased 8.1%, but property crimes overall, which went up 4.1%,” Toohey said. “Other than that, we usually just get a ton of phone calls from residents of the community who are not students, complaining about noise, destruction, etc.”
Considering the information I obtained from students almost completely contrasted the information I obtained from the Baltimore Police Department, it made me wonder – is it a) students are becoming smarter at illegally selling drugs and abusing them to deal with the stress of the economic recession? And are they becoming smarter at “beating the system” and not being caught by law enforcement?; or is it b) the police department has just finally gotten into students heads that they will be caught and they will pay the price for participating in these acts of crime? Either way the economic recession is affecting us all here in the Towson Community. Let’s just hope what they say is true and the state of Maryland can rise above this major defect.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
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