Brandon Liston

Jamie Mcbeth-Smith
English 1010-37
3/28/2016
Drug addicts are a menace to society; they steal or hurt people and hurt
themselves. That is the common thought in society. We are told that drug users are
criminals and if you ever get to that spot in life where you are addicted and can no
longer make decisions without the drug being involved that you have hit rock
bottom. I believe this for a long time until I had a couple of my friends struggle with
drug addiction. I had a friend od in my apartment and almost pass away shortly
after he had gotten out of jail for drug use. I am interested in this issue because of
my friend I know that he isnt a terrible person and that I would do anything to help
him on the other had he did commit a crime and should of known the consequences
he was getting into.
So why did he struggle so much with drug use still after being rehabilitated
and serving his time. I feel like there is an ongoing discussion on how we should
treat people that struggle with drug addiction. On the one hand these are criminals
that had a choice to do the right thing as society as depicted and not use drugs. On
the other had this addiction is classified as a disease and many studies have shown
this is a very treatable ailment. So my question I want to answer is in what way
society should get involved.
In a Nut Shell, Kurzgesagt. "Addiction." Online video clip.
YouTube. YouTube, 22 Apr. 2006. Web. Oct. 29, 2015

In this clip the collaboration of this video is to make the claim that we know
nothing about addiction. They purpose the situation of medical drug use, that when
we get a major surgery the put us on pain killers which are just stronger opiates but
we do not get addicted to them. So if we know addiction to be the craving for that
drug why do these people not get addicted? They use a few researches to help set
up their point that drug addiction is caused my trauma or lack of social
involvement. They use two rat studies one is when you place a rat in a cage alone
with two water bottles one with opiates and one without. The rat will drink the drug
infused water constantly until it dies. They then tell of a rat experiment set up the
same other than the rats have other rats in the cage with them and they have many
activates to do to occupy their time. In this study the rats hardly ever drank the
drug infused water. So they are using this to state if we are surrounded by friends
and family that love us and have other things that can fill up our time in our lives
the desire to use drugs drops immensely. They then talk about returning veterans
from Vietnam that used heavily while over in Vietnam but when they returned home
90% of them stopped using opiates. So there thesis is that if we stop isolating
people in prison for drug use and stop restricting them from things like jobs or
education we can in turn help to eliminate drug dependence at the root. This is our
desire as humans to connect with others and feel needed or successful in life.
This video although short felt very credible from the beginning they used
research case studies of the rats,that holds scientific value. Then they used an
example from history that is actually quite timely. Many people are still alive that
lived through the Vietnam era. They also had a lot of help from a writer and
researcher Johann Hari, he is a New York times best seller for his book Chasing the
Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs. This carries a lot of credibility

just being a New York Times best seller shows that this book was researched and
written well.
This video help me to see that there is a better way that we could be helping
individuals that are struggling with addiction. It also helped me to see that the way
we are dealing with it now, incarnating people for drug use, not only does this not
solve the problem but it actually makes it worse. That we can use the case of the
returning veterans as a good bench mark of how we should help people. If we as
society are there to help place people in jobs or situations that they can succeed
and find people to socialize with. That we can lower their desire to use drugs and
combat the problem at the source. I also believe that positive reinforcement will
always have better results than punishment.
Leshner, Alan. Why Should We Treat Addicts Anyway? The Solution We Refuse To
Use
National Institute on Drug Abuse., Web. April 4, 2016
Doctor Alan Leshner discusses the positive impact to the community and
family that treating drug abuse correctly can do. He talks about research done at
different universities that backs up the claim that treating drug addiction through
positive reinforcement and replacement drugs is a good thing. Columbia
University, the University of Pennsylvania, and other prestigious institutions have all
shown that drug treatment reduces drug use by 50 to 60 percent and arrests for
violent and non-violent criminal acts by 40 percent or more. (1) He also shows
through these researches that there is an increase in people struggling with
addiction to holding down jobs as well as keeping them from going back to jail.

Doctor Leshner states that it is no longer a discussion on whether treatment works

just that we have to decide if we should.
He gives a lot of sources as far as studies that he pulls from, which are all
from big name universities that helps to credit the statistics he gives us. He is also
the director of the National Institute of Drug Abuse which proves that he would have
knowledge in this area also it is published on a .gov so I can deduct that it is a lot
more informed just off of it being a government sight. Though is main strategy is to
give us an abundance of statistic from studies which is affective. Its hard to argue
numbers and facts.
The most interesting thing in this article is how he states its not whether we
can treat drug addiction effectively, in fact it has rather high success rates, but that
the argument is on whether we should or not. So that now we are trying to sell
society on the idea that treatment for these people is a good thing. I also like the
numbers that he put in the article on how it will improve the community if we supply
these people with treatment. He also concedes that drug abuse is voluntary at first
yes but that further explains that once you are addicted you lose your ability to
choose and that these people need help. This article has shown me the positive
impact that helping drug addicts can have on the members of society not struggling
with this problem. We as society will get involved with an issue if we see a benefit to
ourselves. I also learned that medicine as progress to a state where treating drug
with other medications would be very affective and has already helped numerous
people.
Moir, Jan. Drug addicts do not deserve our indulgence The Telegraph.

Telegraph Mag., 18 July 2007 Web. 04 April 2016

Jan Moir discusses the hardships that the people that are associated with drug
addicts have to endure. She specifically uses the story of Gordon Ramsey and his
difficulties helping his drug addicted brother. She uses the story of a celebrity to
give us an example that most people can relate to because he is a well-known
celebrity. Her stance is that drug addicts deserve more tough love that we are
supplying them with too much of an emotional crutch which causes them to never
learn the error of their ways. She also discusses the negative impact that drug
abuse has on people that are following the rules. All though the drug laws are
different in the United Kingdom they are still very similar when discussing opiates
and other more severe drugs.
I feel like she is quite credible all though this article felt quite opinionated it
did contain some research into Gordon Ramseys life and the struggles his brother
has gone through which the bases of this article was. Also google searching Jan Moir
produced the fact that she is an established columnist and as worked for many
British magazines.
Reading through this article was quite interesting not only because the stance
as further from my initial position but because there arent many people on the
public forum openly disagreeing with the need to treat drug addicts. I also felt she
brought up a interesting point in the number of times Gordon help his brother. How
many times do we need to give aid before we write that person off? If we do solicit
aid, and it doesnt work to we keep trying?
Rofles, Ellen. Why We Should Treat, Not Blame Addicts Struggling To Get Clean

PBS Newshour., April 5, 2013 Web, April 4, 2016

In this article Rofles is giving a brief overview of a book written by David
Sheff, Clean: Overcoming Addiction and Ending Americas Greatest Tragedy. Sheff
talks about the hardships his son went through while dealing with his addiction to
meth. Sheff realized that after 10 years of trying to give his son the tough love
treatment that this addiction was more like a disease and that it needed to be dealt
with as one. Sheff lists off many different myths about drug addiction that are false
and that we should stop believing as a society.
Not only was this on a news website. But the author and the book that this
article was written on are a credible resource. David Sheffs book is a New York best
seller and he has done 10 years of research on this very subject, making him an
authority on the topic. Sheff provides a lot of examples for each claim and shows
that he has put a lot of thought and study into each of his responses.
The first thing that jumps out to me is the price tag he put on what it would
cost us to cure addiction, 600 billion dollars. All though this number sounds high,
the cost of incarceration is upwards of 80 billion yearly if we could help to reduce
this number eventually we would see monetary benefits of helping addicts stay out
of prison. Sheff also brings up the point that not all kids that do drugs are bad kids.
He also states that we should stop criminalizing drug use so as not to send
teenagers underground with their addictions were they arent able to seek help. The
other interesting topic is the widely accepted claim that the American drug problem
cannot be fixed. He claims through many different points that this isnt the case that
through advances in treatment and cultural impact on the issue that we could
create a future where there is no drug addicts.

Szalavitz, Maia. Treating Addiction: A Top Doc Explains Why Kind Love Beats Tough
Love Time.
Time Mag., Aug 17 2012 Web. April 4, 2016.
Maia Szalavitz writes about a Canadian doctor, Dr. Gabor Mate and how he is
running his clinic based off of harm reduction, by offering clean needles and a low
risk place to inject. She interviews Gabor Mate about his opinions on addiction and
why he believes what he is doing is helping. Dr. Gabor Mate believes that all
addiction as some sort of trauma connected to it and that why his clinic is so
successful is that they provide the feeling that the drug addicts live still matters and
that they are truly there to help them.
Maia Szalavitz is a neuroscientist that writes for Time magazine. She is also a
co-author of a book centered on empathy for each other. The article was well
written and un-biased she did a fantastic job and talking about all the fact of the
clinic and letting any opinions come straight from Dr. Gabor Mate. She lets him
supply us with the emotional connection to his patients through him describing
some of the cases he has dealt with.
Dr. Gabor Mate discusses how all drug addiction cases are linked to trauma
and he also has a great definition of trauma. He talk about how trauma isnt just
bad things happening to people. He argues that trauma can also be a lack of
receiving something. In drug addiction cases it is usually a lack of emotional needs
to a child. That when we get old we are still dealing with self-soothing so a large
group of people dealing with this will reach for drugs to fill the void that they have
inside of them. This has made me start to contemplate that drug addicts dont have

as much choice in this decision as people make them out to have. That drug
addiction isnt a victimless crime like society believes. These people are trying to
cope with something they cant handle. If we think this way finding reasons to help
them becomes easier.
In conclusion through studying out the question, In what way society should
get involved? I believe that we should no longer place people in jail for just drug
use crimes. We should give addicts medical treatment and stop putting in practice
policies that restrict an addict from getting a job or from renting an apartment. We
should set up places that an addict can go to get help with their addiction without
feel ashamed or disgraced. No one is perfect and if you are suffering from a disease
you should go get medical help without others judging you for it. That if we put
these practices in place we will see benefits as far as less crime due to drug related
crimes dropping. We can help these people that are struggling to return to being a
positively contributing member of society. Better them as well as ourselves all at the
same time.