Out of the many subjects to choose from I have decided on the following topics. If changes should be made to regulations on mental health and minors, if taxes should be increased on alcohol and tobacco to help pay for rising medical cost, and if regulations regarding the use of cell phones while driving be standardized. These particular topics were of some interest to me because they are current and there are incidents that are happening on each subject and have been presented in the news in some way.
The first topic which is mentioned is if changes should be made to regulations for mental health drugs for minors. I chose this topic because this has become a big issue. The audience that I would like to focus on would be parents of adolescent children, doctors, and teenagers abusing mental health drugs. Minors are being prescribed mental health drugs and may not necessarily need them and those drugs are being abused. If the proper regulations were put in place would this help our youth or would it deprive them of needed medication? The number of children in the United States taking mental health drugs that affect mood and behavior is on the rise. This increasing trend has raised concern that mental health disorders are being over diagnosed and that psychotropic drugs are being overused in children. (Johnston, Accessed 2013) Children change and grow rapidly during their years of development Diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders must be viewed with these changes in mind. While some problems are short-lived and are not in need of treatment, others are persistent and very serious, and parents should seek professional help for their children. (Treatment of Children with Mental Disorders, Accessed 2013)
The second topic of choice focusses on if taxes on tobacco and alcohol be increased to help for rising medical cost. I chose this topic because I thought that it would be interesting to find out what portion of medical cost is associated with alcohol and tobacco use. My audience would be users and non-users of these substances, lawmakers, insurers, and employers. Alcohol abuse cost the U.S. health care system $85.8 billion in 1988. The tab for cigarette smoking totals over $65 billion annually. Costs related to obesity now surpass $27 billion per year. (Claire Andre, Accessed 2013) Senators are currently focusing on ways to pay for expanding health insurance for an estimated 50 million uninsured Americans, which could amount to $1.5 trillion over a ten-year period. (Promises Treatment Center, Accessed 2013) The purpose of increasing the tax on alcohol and tobacco is because these items tend to contribute to the rising medical cost. Alcohol abuse can contribute to liver disease or cancer however does that mean that we
