Utopian Paper

My Utopian World: People Helping People

More than 214 soldiers have lost their lives in the last six months, while serving the United States of America. In a perfect world this is something that would never occur. The idea of war is something that would be non-existent. The world would be a happy carefree adventure where there were no worries about starving children in Africa, schools shootings in the US, or global warming, to name a few. These are just some examples of the large scale problems that plague the future of human civilization; it is problems like these that, if ignored, could lead to the demise of our world. I do feel that there are issues in our society that need to be addressed because, by doing so, our world could be a better place to live. Additionally, if we are able to accomplish these small steps, it could help to indirectly change the large problems which are currently everywhere.

In my Utopian world, I would make changes to three vastly different issues in our society. These problems however all have some sort of connection to the other, similar to the concept made famous by the 1993 movie Six Degrees of Separation. These three issues are: banning the use of cellular phones while driving, a federally sponsored needle exchange and a federally mandated organ donor program, whenever possible. By addressing these issues, we could move closer to a Utopian society.

The first change I would make for my Utopian society would be to ban the use of cellular phones while driving. In today’s society, there are more than 254 million Americans that have a cellular phone and, since we live in a very fast-paced society, it is not surprising that many people are using their phone while driving (Cell Phone and Driving, n). If a driver is looking at the recent text message they received, responding to a text message, scrolling through their contacts, surfing the Web or even talking to a friend, they are not focused on the road or the cars in front of them. In fact, there has been scientific research showing that a person talking on their phone is as much of a hazard on the road as someone who is driving drunk. Frank Davis, an associate professor at the University of Utah, had this to say, “We found that people are as impaired when they drive and talk on their cell phone as they are when they drive intoxicated at the legal blood-alcohol limit” (Drivers on Phones Are as Bad as Drunks, n). According to the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society more than 2,600 deaths and 330,000 injuries can be related to cell phone distraction, due to the fact that the driver is not concentrating on the most important task at hand (Britt, n).

The younger generation would argue that older people are more of a risk on the roads that they are, even while talking on their cell phone. This, in fact, was found to be completely false. David Strayer, a psychology professor from the University of Utah said, “Older drivers were slightly less likely to get into accidents than younger drivers. They tend to have a greater following distance. Their reactions are impaired, but they are driving so cautiously they were less likely to smash into someone” (Brit, n). As the population “addicted” to cell phones ages, there will be more drivers than ever using their phones while they drive. Although banning cell phone usage while driving seems drastic, the number of injuries and deaths related to this issue calls for a drastic measure. If you or someone you love ends up dead or permanently injured as a result of an accident, the phone call that seemed so important at the time becomes a moot point.

The second change in my Utopian society would be to set up a needle exchange program for those individuals who are drug users. In 2001 it was found that an estimated 15.9 million Americans aged 12 or older were current illicit drug users, meaning that they had used an illicit drug during the month prior to the survey. This represents more than 7% of the entire population, aged 12 years or older, so it is safe to say that Americans have their “blinders” on when they look at the current pandemic that exists related to illicit drug use (Drug Use in America 2001, n). In a perfect world, drug abuse would be a non-issue but that is not the world in which we live. Rather than focusing all the government spending on catching and prosecuting the users, I believe it is time to help these individuals.

One way to help the individuals who are addicted would be to set up a federally sponsored needle exchange. Many people will be against this type of program because they will view it as an acceptance of drug use; this, however, is far from the truth. Due to the fact that drug use has ruined millions of lives, a needle exchange would help decrease the amount of HIV/Hepatitis C. These are the two most common diseases that are “shared” when using dirty needles. A needle exchange allows a user to trade used needles for new needles, one for one. For example, if John Doe comes off the street with twelve dirty needles they could exchange those for twelve new, clean needles. In a recent study completed at Beth Israel Medical Center’s Chemical Dependency Institute, it showed that participants reported HIV infection rates of 2% compared to the 7% reported by people who did not participate in a needle exchange (Lee, n). This study helps illustrate the small amount of involvement that is required to help control a disease that accounts for the majority of deaths for Americans aged 25 to 44. It is currently estimated by the National Institute of Health that between 15-20% of injection drug users have HIV and at least 70% have Hepatitis C (The Fact about Needle Exchange, n).

Another compliant that people are going to have about offering clean needles to drug users is that it facilitates drug use, which is not the case. A study was conducted by the original facility, which was located in San Francisco, so that they could fully understand their “consumer”. Of the people that were using the needle exchange service it was found that only 3% of the users had been abusing drugs for less than a year; this number had dropped to 1.1% within three years (The Fact about Needle Exchange, n). In fact, the average person that uses the needle exchange, through the institute, is someone who is between the ages of 19 and 60’s, is a long term users that has injected drugs for over 17 years approximately three times a day (Lee, n). This helps prove that the people that are using this service are not kids that have wandered in from school to grab some clean needles before they go shoot heroin for this first time, instead this “customer”