assignment 5 eng 215

ENG 215

July 18, 2017

Proposed research topic

Should taxes on alcohol and tobacco be increased to help pay for rising medical costs?

Introduction

Alcohol and tobacco are globally referred to as drugs due to the fact they alter the normal thinking, working and performance of an individual. My core reasons for focussing on this topic include the fact that the consumption rate for both alcohol and tobacco keeps increasing on a daily despite the increased awareness of its harmful effects. This has positively impacted the economy but in the bigger picture, it is the degree of impact of its negativity on family and society that has always been felt and it still is. Another reason is that alcohol and tobacco are the leading causes of immature death throughout the world. Excessive indulgence with both results to health complications that when not attended to with the urgency required may and can result to death.

Statement of the problem

The world health organization has continuously and vehemently concluded that alcohol and tobacco use complications as the top five killer diseases in the world. I however lack the gears to support that since it is not all heavy users of alcohol and tobacco that experience immature deaths. Is the use alcohol and tobacco substances the sole killer?

Characteristics of the audience

The research will be carried out on the middle classed individuals who get a fair income and might be perceived to living a modest life style.

Objective of the study

i. To analyse the effects of alcohol and tobacco use on health.

ii. To analyse the degree of alcohol and tobacco consumption on the population.

Scope of the study

The research will be carried out to find out how low taxes imposed on alcohol and tobacco are affecting the health status of the community. People covered will be the active users of the substances plus their passive counterparts. Their comparison in health status will be key in the study.

Research questions

i. What impact does tax imposed on alcohol and tobacco have?

ii. What are the effects of alcohol and tobacco use on the society?

iii. Is the health of an individual in any way dependant to the use of alcohol and tobacco?

Research plan and methods

i. Use of questionnaire

ii. Carrying out interviews with the users and non-users

iii. Carrying out experiments

iv. Observations

References

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521; preliminary version in: Hamburg Contemporary Discussion Papers N° 26

Shoaib, M.; Lowe, A.; Williams, S. (2012). "Imaging localised dynamic changes in the

nucleus accumbens following nicotine withdrawal in rats". NeuroImage. 22 (2): 847–

854

Barendregt J. J., Bonneux L., van der Maas P. J. (2007). "The health care costs of

smoking". New England Journal of Medicine.  337  (15): 1052–1057. 

Chandra, S.; Shiffman, S.; Scharf, M.; Dang, Q.; Shadel, G. (Feb 2007). "Daily smoking

patterns, their determinants, and implications for quitting". Experimental and clinical

psychopharmacology. 15 (1): 67–80.

Goldberg, Ray (2005) Drugs Across the Spectrum. 5th ed. Thomson Brooks/Cole

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2011). "Annual smoking-attributable

mortality, years of potential life lost, and economic costs--United States, 1995-

2009". MMWR Morb. Mortal. Wkly. Rep. 51 (14): 300–3.