Persuasive Essay On Drug Addictions

Safe injection sites are a controversial issue in Canada, and have been for a long time. As society grows more and more comfortable with the idea of legalizing certain drugs, the attitude towards these safe injection sites changes. This change affects laws, politics, and society in general and is a legal and moral issue. Insite, the first safe injection site in North America, opened in 2003 in Vancouver, British Columbia to a mass of controversy that induced legislative, legal, and moral change worthy of observation and investigation. This paper will first introduce the concept of safe injection sites as well as an explanation of the harm principle in which these sites operate under, then introduce Insite, the first safe injection site opened in North America, along with appropriate statistical evidence that proves its effectiveness, followed by the issues brought up by opponents of these sites will be discussed as well as the landmark Supreme Court case that allowed for their continued existence, and finally an overview of the current legislation that threatens it.

Drug abuse has always been a delicate subject as it deals with the health, safety, and the well-being of not only the users, but also everyone they come into contact with. Cities across Canada are faced with a rising number of drug abusers, and therefore increased cases of infectious diseases and overdoses by these users. Vancouver housed the first injection site in Canada; its purpose to offer sterile syringes as well as other equipment to addicts, medical care in the event of an overdose or other emergency, as well as counseling and referrals to drug rehabilitation programs. This was a great step towards ensuring the safety and security of the public; drug users are given access to safe, one-use syringes and are provided with clean environment,

There are many ways in which people who are addicted to intravenous drugs are perceived by our society. People sometimes believe the addicted person is to blame for their circumstance and substance dependence and some feel serious drug addicts are a “lost cause” due to a lack of values or flawed character. “Persons who struggle with addictions often are depicted as criminals or prostitutes, weak, lazy and morally corrupt” (Bartlett, R., Brown, L., Shattell, M., Wright, T., Lewallen, L. (2013). These stereotypes paint people with addiction negatively; a percentage of people who live with serious addiction are capable of recovery with the right attitude, support and healthcare. Street level healthcare services such as; safe injection sites, provide accessable resources at street level for people to make the choice to live healthier lifestyles. Govement funding and support is needed to make these projects possible to improve the health of Canadians. Safe injection sites are proven to be positive contributions to communities, save lives, reduce harm and open doors towards recovery for people from the grip of addiction.

There are no “safe heroin injection sites.” The only “safe” approach to heroin is to not take it. For addicts, the humane public health response is to help them get and stay sober, or at the very least, opioid replacement therapy in sustained treatment. Any approach without these goals is cruel and dehumanizing- not healing, but perpetuating harm. (Walter 2)

Sixty-seven percent of people who were surveyed believe that treatment should be emphasized for those who use illegal drugs rather than punishment. Only 26 percent believe jail sentencing should be emphasized. And the percentage of people who believe that the governments should do away with minimum mandatory sentences for drug crimes increased from 47 percent in 2001 to 2014. This addresses the wider question of how to deal with drug offenders in a way that will best help them rather than being sentenced to jail. Receiving treatment rather than jail sentencing is one that has come up an amount of times in the last few months, as Queensland struggles with the best way to help drug addicts. The law from the 1970s allows judges to send addict law-breakers

The systematic scheduling of drugs in the United States is arbitrary which leads to a discriminative social injustice. Some psychedelic substances such as Psilocybin are schedule 1 drugs, while alcohol and nicotine are legal. According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) both alcohol and nicotine are proven to be harmful and addictive (2017). Conversely, Psychedelic substances have not been proven to be addictive. This equates to a social injustice that discriminates over someone who may prefer the effects of psilocybin to nicotine, even under the science that has shown nicotine and alcohol have a higher potential for abuse. Unfortunately, many political factors come into play regarding the legal status of drugs and industries such as the pharmaceutical, tobacco and alcohol industries, who harbor the most money and have an influence in the legality of drugs whether they are safe or not. While legalizing psychedelic substances would most likely cut into profits for these large industries they would bring about economic benefits as well.

In 2015 more than 33,000 people were killed due to the current opioid epidemic. This was the first time in history where heroin deaths exceeded deaths caused by gun violence. Some may ask why opioid addiction is so common and that is because most doctors, dentists, and surgeons prescribe opioids as if it's candy, post surgery. Most of these professionals don't take into consideration that such medication can cause addiction after multiple uses. A reason for that can be is prescribing such pills can benefit the doctor financially just as much as the patient psychically. Many pharmaceutical companies hand out a lot of freebies such as free sample medication, free food, free pens and office equipment to doctors in order to bride them over. In addition, many of these physicians over look patient's history's, and some cases like smoking many of these positions may even overload patient history that may show any prior drug abuse issues within their family history or personal use. This may even show if the patient

Brian Johnson expressed his opinion of the issue at hand, “[l]et's see the proposal for “safe injection sites” for what it is — just another way to help dealers sell their drugs in the guise of being “safe.”” (Johnson). This idea speaks more loudly than any other presented in the discussion. “Safe injection sites” are not the right way to go about helping addiction. There are many flaws in this decision that can affect the outcome of a patient. Agreeing to continue to provide the drugs to which they are already addicted is nothing short of naive. This is just allowing the dealers to continue making money on something that is illegal; it should be prohibited, not advertised.

In 2015, Victoria, BC saw an increase in drug overdoses throughout the city including one death occurring in Esquimalt (Times Colonist, 2015). Drug-related overdose fatalities are preventable if the population has access to services that would minimize the risk of an overdose. Through the assessment of the community of Esquimalt, I am proposing that there is a need to establish a safe injection site to prevent accidental overdoses, as well as provide social services for detoxification and rehabilitation programs. It is necessary to note that Victoria and Esquimalt are not differentiated when studies are done. Therefore, the extrapolation of accurate drug use statistics for Esquimalt is not available. For the purpose of this paper, Victoria

In the 1990’s there was an epidemic of HIV outbreaks in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. Injection drug users were found to be the leading cause of this, and a public health emergency was declared (Fafard, 2012). The “mortality and morbidity” resulting from this increasing injection drug use became a major political issue. This resulted in the adoption of harm reduction by the government as one of their four pillars of their drug strategy (Fafard, 2012). Harm reduction “is a set of practical strategies and ideas aimed at reducing negative consequences associated with drug use” (Boyd, 2013). In September 2003 Insite, North Americas first harm reduction supervised injection site,

Prescription drug abuse and overdose-related deaths have reached an epidemic level in the United States and are an urgent public health concern. To combat this opioid crisis, in 2016 Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) was signed into law. CARA authorizes grants to increase access to treatment services and opioid reversal drugs such as Naloxone, strengthen the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP), expand prevention and educational efforts. In spite of the extensive range of activities authorized by CARA to control this epidemic, the US has experienced an increase in the number of the opioid overdose-related emergency visit from 2016 to September 2017. Therefore, after considering the policy options to reform this act, the most apropos solution would be the universal mandate of PDMP use. Mandating PDMPs can reduce prescription overdose and misuse of opioids. In order to ensure the impact of this program, PDMPs will have to be implemented on a Federal level. This will essentially make sure that all states taking part in the program are responsible for keeping track of registered physicians and dispensers under the Prescription

“In 2002, 404,000 people used heroin in the United States. By 2016, there were 948,000 people. This is a 135% increases in the past 14 years” (Kounang). I decided to research about heroin, because I want to know what heroin is and which celebrities have done it and survived or died. I knew it was an addictive drug that many people overdose on. There was a lot of misconceptions that I had about heroin. Originally I thought heroin users become addicted instantly. I still have some questions about heroin. Why is heroin so popular? Who has done it? Even though some people think heroin is not bad, people should not take heroin because it's a highly effective drug and tons of people are dying from overdosing.

In 1999, fatal heroin over doses accounted for 1,960 deaths in the United States. In 2014, the toll went up to 10,574 fatal over doses. 2,414 of them were women and 8,160 of them were men ("Overdose Death Rates", 2015). 10,574 women and men. They were someone's mother and father, wife and husband, daughter and son, sister and brother. Addiction is ugly. Addiction is fatal. Addiction is real. Sometimes, no matter how much a person loves their family, they love their drug more and sobriety is not an option. While all other efforts to control the war on drugs are clearly failing, the United States needs to take another route of harm reduction with supervised injection facilities. Supervised injection facilities should be implemented throughout the United States because they reduce fatal overdoses, offer treatment and counselling, and have decreased the amount of public injections.

In recent years, the United States has seen an enormous spike in drug abuse causing many to start calling it an epidemic, making many question to the way in which the government handles this issue. As many Americans already know the current policy in which the government deals with this situation is known as the war on drugs, which calls for the eradication or prohibition of illegal drug use. This policy enforces stricter punishments, including mandatory sentencing that has maxed out the prison population, and has caused an influx of money to go to drug related agencies to combat the issue. Thus, in theory creating a nation free of all drugs deemed harmful and keeping them away from society along with teaching those who break these laws a lesson in order to deter more drug crime. However, according to many this policy has dramatically failed, this so called “war” has cost tax payers billions, is unfairly implemented, and has put thousands of nonviolent people in prison for years. This issue is in desperate need of reform, instead we need to look at it as a public health issue. In order to deal with all these underlining issues and better support those dealing with addiction the United States government must reform this policy and consider a public health approach instead that could potentially save thousands. We should be helping those suffering from drug addiction not punishing then further by locking them up and throwing away the key.

According to a federal official, the ongoing scourge of prescription-drug addiction is beginning to reach epidemic proportions, ballooning about 75 percent in the United States within the past five years (“Prescription-drug Abuse Escalates”). Prescription drugs have become extremely overused due to the pain killing aspects, along with a sort of “high” when they are being abused. This high has been something people chase and will do anything to get. A report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration indicated that there were more American adults using prescription painkillers than cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, or cigars combined (Ingraham). The over proliferation of prescription drugs has become a major problem with adults.