Name that Drug!!

Ok it has been a little while since we’ve played this game so let’s give it a go again.   It’s time to play name that drug.  For those new to this game, I’ll give you a few clues to the identity of a drug and you see if you can guess it before the end.  Ok, so put on your thinking caps and let’s begin.

Facts:  This drug isn’t normally thought of as a drug, but it is, and it’s very addictive as well.  The addictiveness is actually the plants way of protecting itself from being eaten by insects.  This drug has proven to be as, or more deadly than both strychnine and arsenic.  Even with those stats, its chemical signature fits a host of locks in the human brain, including dopamine.

Signs and symptoms:  A serious attempt to stop using this drug is usually unsuccessful. You will experience withdrawal symptoms as you attempt to stop using it. The use of this drug is connected to several health issues, and can restrict activities and life.

Other names:  This particular drug doesn’t have any slang names that are commonly used.

Ok so have you figured it out yet?  Or did I totally confuse you by the lack of some facts?  This drug is nicotine.  Nicotine?  Really?  Yes the one drug most people don’t think of as a drug yet is as addicting as any other illegal drug out there.  It is the one drug that once you arrest your addiction to it, if you use it even once you will want to go back for more.  The reason is that our brain’s priorities have been wired to the feelings that nicotine created over the years of use.  Doctors don’t really understand why some people seem to become addicted and others can casually use tobacco and not have the addiction to it that others do.   Nicotine has routinely been used as an insecticide even in modern times but the pure form of nicotine has been replaced with a chemically similar but less dangerous substance.  It is one crazy drug in the fact that we use it to kill off pests in the pure form but as a plant, like tobacco, we are totally addicted to it.

CDL history

Truck drivers make their living being the backbone of our society.  Without truckers, it would take longer to get materials to stores.  Yes, a lot of materials come by trains, but more materials we use actually come by trucks.  Let’s look at the history behind the how and why we have CDL’s for truck drivers.

Truck driving has been around for quite some time but it wasn’t until the early 1980’s that the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) determined that there was a need for guidance in the training of truck drivers.  Up until this time, there were no standardized national requirements for any driver.  In essence, anyone could drive a truck heavier than 26,000 pounds or drive a vehicle that carried over 16 passengers without showing they had the skills necessary for those jobs. 

The Federal government and individual states also had no CDL requirements (like those of today).  There also wasn’t any system to track existing licenses and no method that prevented drivers from obtaining multiple licenses across various states.  This allowed people to spread any convictions of traffic violations over various drivers’ licenses they held.  That loophole allowed many drivers to avoid having their license suspended or revoked for those violations and thus they weren’t reported to the National Driver Registry.

In 1986, 32 states issued some form of a classified driver’s license, i.e. class A, B, or C.  Of those, 12 required state-conducted testing and the other 20 waived testing if the applicants met certain conditions, like certification of training (only 2 states recognized training schools).  The other 18 states and D.C. thought that any driver license was qualified to drive trucks or a bus no matter what license you held.  Later that year, Congress passed the Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Act (CMVSA) to address those issues and implemented the CDL program and it supporting information system, CDLIS. The goal was to make sure all drivers possessed the knowledge and skills necessary to operate any vehicle they were driving on the highways and to make sure that all drivers were uniformly sanctioned for any convictions.  It directed the Secretary to establish minimum Federal standards states must meet before giving any driver a CDL and sanctions for those convictions. 

In 1995, FHWA conducted a study that concluded that effective entry-level drivers needed better training to include behind-the-wheel instruction.  Nine years later in 2004, FMCSA issued a final rule for CDL ELDT (section 49 CFR 380.503) that required an average 10 hours of such behind-the-wheel training, but that rule was challenged by the courts saying that the FMCSA needed to give more attention to its research on establishing meaningful minimum CDL training.  The rule was left in effect but remanded for further action. 

Here it is, 10 years later, and the FMCSA is still working on finalizing these rules.  There have been several updates and additions to these rules over those 10 years but the FMCSA has made progress.  The FMCSA had tasked the Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee (MCSAC) to develop new training recommendations and the MCSAC delivered those in June of 2013.  This year alone it was announced a negotiated rulemaking was being considered and an initiation of the process with a contracted convener. 

While we still don’t have final rules yet for our CDL drivers but we have come a long way in the last 40 years.  We have made it safer for everyone on the roads by getting training to our CDL drivers and ensuring that they are trained for the vehicles for which their CDL’s are listed.  As with anything in life, there will always be changes and upgrades to these rules but it’s a step in the right direction.

Respiratory system

Oxygen, the giver of life on our planet.  Without it we would be a planet void of any of the wonderful and beautiful things we have now.  Almost every living thing on the planet has to have oxygen in some way to survive.  Even our water contains oxygen that fish use to survive.  So let’s take a look at the human respiratory system and how it helps us.

Most people only think of our lungs being the source of our breathing but our respiratory system is actually much more than that.  Our sinuses are the start of the process of breathing as they help control the temperature and humidity of the air entering our lungs.  After the sinuses have done their job, the air passes through our trachea (windpipe) which helps to filter the air a little and divides it up into the 2 different lungs via bronchial tubes which collect the mucus from the air (mucus that was made by the filtering process).  And from there the filtered and oxygenated air is moved into our blood stream with the process reversed for the release of the carbon dioxide.

Our respiratory system is also dual controlled meaning, we do it both consciously and unconsciously.  Only a few other critters out there can do the same, i.e. whales and dolphins.  It seems odd that we can control one of the functions needed to maintain life but not others, like our heart rate, but because it is a dual control system, our brain can take over if we try to hold our breath too long.

Having a dual control of our breathing is actually very beneficial to us, because it allows us to do things that, if we had no control of the breathing, we wouldn’t or couldn’t do, i.e. swimming under water.  By being able to control our breaths, we can make ourselves slow down and relax when we are in a tense situation, and control how angry or upset we might become.  Slowing down our breathing allows us to lower our blood pressure (something to think about when you go to the doctor, and he has to take a reading).

Well now you’ve learned a bit about how our respiratory system works and why it’s important to maintain it and keep it functioning properly.  Without our lungs we wouldn’t be able to survive to enjoy this wonderful planet we live on.