Queen's University, Belfast. "Chemists devise new approach for rapidly identifying 'legal highs'." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 3 March 2016. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/03/160303084622.htm>.
Chemists Devise New Approach for Rapidly Identifying Legal Highs
Chemists from Queen’s University have come up with a way to quickly screen for legal synthetic drugs. This will allow agencies to screen these drugs and find out what their active ingredients are. As a result the public can be better informed, and the police can use them to better correlate patterns in crime-rates related to these drugs. These legal drugs consist of a medical cocktail of various substances that cause varying psychological effects. Some of these substances, although technically legal, have been known to cause serious side effects due to the odd materials that are added to them in order to circumvent the law. The UK is in the process of implementing a ban in order stop such dangerous substances, however, those laws don’t apply over here.
The process of screening for the drugs works by focusing a laser on the sample and measuring how the energy of light scatters from it. These vibrations are chemical signatures of the compound and can be matched against other signatures in order to form more conclusive results, as there exists a database just for this. I thought that the article was of a reasonable length while still going over the key points of the finding. I thought that it was very informative without being too technical. I also thought that the article could have possibly talked about why some of these substances are so bad, and maybe even touch upon the kinds of substances being mixed into these. I think that synthetic drugs are now becoming a big problem due to them being more accessible to the youth, and the harm that they cause is generally much worse than that of a lot of drugs on the street right now. I think that this finding should help to identify harmful substances in these drugs and perhaps allow us to take action against them.
6 comments:
Chemists Devise New Approach for Rapidly Identifying Legal Highs
I thought Aran did an amazing job picking an interesting article and writing a great review. The first aspect of the review that I thought was presented well was how Aran was able to convey the message of the article. This allowed me to better understand what was being said which allowed me to take away more information. The second aspect of the review that I thought was presented well was how Aran organized his review. The way Aran organized his review allowed me to follow the article much better and get more descriptive details about the screening of legal synthetic drugs. The last aspect of the review that I thought Aran presented well was how he was able to connect the article to our own lives. This article relates to our own lives because as the upcoming generation, we are the targets of these legal synthetic drugs; so it is important to understand what they are and why we should never take them or be around people who are.
Although Arann wrote a great review, there were some suggestions I had for him that could make the review even better. My first suggestion to Aran would be to put some information into the review that connected it to some of the studies we are or have done in this class. It would've been cool to see how the two were related and would have resulted in me connecting the two and overall taking in more information. My last suggestion to Aran is to maybe put in a little more detail into why we need to know about these legal synthetic drugs. It would’ve made more interested in the review and article because I would’ve known that I could be affected by it, ultimately resulting in a better learning experience.
In all, Aran did a fantastic job choosing a relevant article and giving us a wonderful review to go along with it. One thing that I was able to take away from the article and review is that we need to be educated in these legal synthetic drugs because they are EXTREMELY dangerous and will eventually be around us in the near future so it is important to keep finding ways to detect them and stop the distribution of them.
Queen's University, Belfast. "Chemists devise new approach for rapidly identifying 'legal highs'." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 3 March 2016. .
The article called, “Chemists devise new approach for rapidly identifying 'Legal
Highs” was nicely written. I liked how in the summary, Aran talked about legal drugs, and how although they are legal, the side effects can still be devastating. It was important to note that although it seems obvious that drugs are dangerous, many disregard that fact because the government labels some as legal. I liked how although many articles do not include subtopics, this one did. By doing that, it helped organize the structure of the article in a way that was more navigable by the readers. The article was separated based on the history / background, new way of identifying legal highs, and then the impact of this new finding. Finally, I thought Aran made very good points when explaining how this related to humanity. I agree with how because these substances are “legal”, they become much more accessible which increases the risk/danger level for young kids.
Something that I think the article could have worked on was describing the new technology and going more in depth about the research / how the discovery was made. Also, the article often made statements and then moved on quickly without explaining it. An example was when the article explained that the new substances found would go into further testing. That got me interested as to how the scientists would analyze the new substances / what new tests were to be done for identification. Another example was when it said 75% of all 200 known substances could be identified immediately. That made me question how long it took for the technology to determine a substance that was part of the 25% and how much faster that time was than the previous technology.
One thing I learned from reading this article was about how dangerous legal substances are to anyone. I also learned about how new technologies are being developed to quickly identify the drugs and who was using it. I liked how the article explained a little about what the UK are doing (trying to ban all legal substances / trying to limit their use) showing how this is a humanistic problem that applies not only to the USA (something that people realize but do not think much of).
Aran did a great job in analyzing the article titled, “Chemists Devise New Approach for Rapidly Identifying Legal Highs.” It was interesting how Aran explained that even though legal drugs are legal, they can still be horrible for you. This article had subtopics, which made it more clear to understand. This helped organize the topics that were going to be further emphasized. I like how towards the end, Aran shared his opinion and related the whole article to society today as a whole.
I think Aran should have elaborated a little bit more on the specific drugs that were mentioned. Also, I would have liked to read more about where were are left with this for the future.
It is interesting how even though drugs are legal, they still have horrible side effects. It is also amazing that technology no in days can identify a specific drug and the person using it.
Aran did a great job reviewing the article” “Chemists Devise New Approach for Rapidly Identifying Legal Highs.”. Aran explained very well how even legal are still horrible for you. Aran divided his review into pieces making it an easy read. Aran used proper grammar. One thing I wish Aran included was explaining the technology / research of this. Aran should also voice his opinion more. Overall, Aran did an awesome job explaining his article and I learned a lot from it.
Aran reviewed the article titled, “Chemists Devise New Approach for Rapidly Identifying Legal Highs,” very well. He explained how chemists from Queen’s University came up with an efficient way to screen legal synthetic drugs; despite the drugs being legal, the side effects are profound and certain crimes are caused by the users. Aran successfully integrated the problems that circulate the drugs; by highlighting them, he was able to emphasize on the importance of the new discovery. Lastly, I liked how he gave his personal opinion on how these legal drugs are causing harm to the society, especially to the youths.
While his review was well composed, I think Aran should have given specific examples to give a more concrete idea of what exactly could be considered as a legal high. I also thought he could have made this piece better by explaining the technology in-depth and writing more seamlessly since certain parts seemed to have ended abruptly.
I learned how certain legal substances are dangerous when dosed. It was also great to learn how new technologies are being developed to quickly identify the drugs since I wasn’t really informed of’ legal highs’.
Citation:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/03/160303084622.htm
Queen's University, Belfast. "Chemists devise new approach for rapidly identifying 'legal highs'." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 3 March 2016. .
Aran did a really good job reviewing his article, “Chemists Devise New Approach for Rapidly Identifying Legal Highs.” He thoroughly explained how chemists from Queen’s University came up with an efficient way of screening legal synthetic drugs. Aran did a good job discussing the drugs and the problems that they have, which helped make the point of why this screening discovery is so important. I also liked how he expressed his own opinion on the topic, saying how these drugs leave lasting harm on people.
I think Aran could have provided more examples and details of the drugs and their outcomes. I was confused by what exactly would be considered to be a legal high. I also would have liked if Aran had explained the screening process more in depth.
I knew that many drugs had their dangers, but I learned more about how certain doses of certain drugs can really be harmful. It was good to read about this topic and to learn that as technology advances we are able to create systems that will be more efficient in identifying and fixing legal drugs.
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