Persuasive Essay On Drug Court

The victims have a master inside of them who controls every inch of their mind, body, and soul. It only takes a few slip ups to fall deep into the hole of despair. He deceives them but also brings them happiness. The victims have a mental battle with themselves but he is ruthless and shows no mercy. As they continue to disregard the few careless encounters, their condition deteriorates and leads to an addicted relationship with him. Society nowadays has become corrupted with addiction. Drug abuse has become prevalent and is impossible to avoid. There is so much influence around substance abuse that people are usually sucked into it before they learn the dangers of it. Nowadays, people are proposing solutions for this spreading epidemic and suggesting ways to treat people who are already affected. Addiction should be treated as a learning disorder that exacerbates as people mature rather than as there is something wrong with their character. The best feasible solution for treating this epidemic is early intervention. By doing this, potential victims can be educated about the dangers of it and be on the path to a healthy lifestyle.

In life many people struggle with problems, and instead of them addressing the problem their way to get their mind off of it is by abusing drugs that gets them to stop thinking about it. These people often struggle with this on an everyday basis and it is killing our society little by little. Many people are dying everyday due to opioids and everyone as a community should help put a stop to it!

Drug courts are specialised programs aimed at criminal offenders who suffer from drug and alcohol addiction (US Department of Justice, 2015, p.1). Drug courts improve offenders’ quality of life by decreasing substance dependency and improve mental wellbeing. Jane Lee, for the Age, explains people facing jail for drug and alcohol charges may be placed on a two-year treatment order, instead of serving jail time. The purpose of a drug court is to secure and maintain drug users in treatment, reduce non-violent incarceration rates and recidivism among prior offenders (Belenko, 1998, p.6).

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.

We should decriminalize drugs in the U.S. instead of legalizing them. Decriminalization refers to the lessening of criminal penalties of certain acts. According to De Marneffe, “… the legalization of drugs … [is] the removal of criminal penalties for the manufacture, sale, and possession of large quantities of recretational drugs, such as marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine” (346).

Just Say No.” This phrase was uttered in 1982 by Nancy Reagan, the first lady of the United States, in response to a schoolgirl’s question of what she should do if offered drugs (Weinraub A5). These words became the slogan for a nationwide substance abuse prevention program that followed the then recently enacted drug policies intended to discourage the manufacture, sale, and use of illicit drugs in the United States. These zero tolerance policies carried harsh penalties and strict enforcement for all drug related offenses. Almost four decades later, these policies are still in effect, as is their focus on criminalization as a means to reduce the availability and usage of drugs. Their ineffectiveness is evidenced by the facts that drug use rates have remained steady over the past four decades and incarceration rates have exponentially rose during that same period. I believe that a new course of action should be taken, and a bold new drug policy should be enacted. Decriminalization would result in a substantial decrease of the prison population, relieve the unnecessary burden that has been placed on our criminal justice system, shift the paradigm from drug enforcement to drug treatment, reduce the health risk of HIV, AIDS, and heroin related deaths; and provide unprecedented benefits from the regulation of the manufacturing and sales of substances that are currently illegal.

A controversial subject many Americans are constantly at battle over is legalizing drugs. Some experts have the opinion that drugs should be legalized for medical treatment, and for help with severe illness. Other experts argue that this will have a bad effect due to overdosing and addiction, and also the adverse affect on teens. I do not think that drugs should be legalized but they should allow people with serious medical conditions to use these illegal drugs. Legalizing drugs would only create and even bigger drug abuse situation, and especially for juveniles. Legalizing drugs would also create the question of what to do with criminals who are already incarcerated for this offense. There are surveys, which give statistics on crime, and how crime rates are affected by the use of drugs. For example, there is one survey called the “National

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.

My topic is on juvenile drug abuse and my argument is that, juveniles who are caught doing drugs, or abusing them should not be given such harsh punishment, fines, and other things like that. Instead these juveniles should be given help and ways away from the drugs they have abused. This could be done by seeing what kind of home environment they are living in and what kind of parental supervision they are under. Most times when a juvenile is abusing drugs or being given drugs is when they are under no parental supervision or not good enough parental supervision. Juvenile drug abuse and its consequences serve a hard lesson on kids who face an actual problem which is easily fixable. If juveniles were helped instead of punished for drug abuse, the rates of juvenile drug addiction would drop dramatically.

Appearing in the 1970s, a campaign was introduced to forward the prohibition of drugs and reduce the large illegal drug trade. Dubbed the "War on Drugs", this movement has been unsuccessful. In a study produced by The International Centre for Science and Drug Policy states that "prices of heroin, cocaine and cannabis decreased by 81%, 80% and 86%, respectively, between 1990 and 2007, whereas average purity increased by 60%, 11% and 161%, respectively." Despite active government involvement, there will always be a demand of drugs in America. Legalization of these substances will end issues brought up by the War on Drugs, bring new economic opportunities, and reduce the prison population.

Drugs are a major influential force in our country today. The problem has gotten so out of hand that many people are even considering legalization of one of the most used drugs, marijuana. The legalization of marijuana is a controversial issue that has been fought for and against for several decades. Marijuana is defined as a preparation made from the dried flower clusters and leaves of the cannabis plant, which is usually smoked or eaten to induce euphoria and to heal and soothe. (dictionalr.com)

Substance abuse is a taboo in society. Its often a topic which is not talked about. Not many people admit their battle with substance abuse. The few, that do share their story, often do it to bring awareness. However, the amount of people who suffer from this disease is skyrocketing.

Drug addiction is a complex problem in society today. Addiction is a condition that extremely affects the person’s mind and body. Addiction also has wide sweeping effects on that person’s social connection and functioning. Unfortunately, many addicts don’t realize the social influence of their addiction until much of their functioning has greatly deteriorated.

Today in our modern society, many people believe that teen’s develop a mindset of having a clean system and to stay drug free. However, people are not able to foresee that the drug use in America has rising up tremendously. Studies have shown that drugs can not only have impact on your life, but also have impact on those who surround you and also can led to the absence of adolescence. It leads to bad habits and only brings evil deeds. The possession of drugs and the conspiracy sell is illegal in the Unites States. If arrest and put on trial due to drugs can mean serious jail time. According to the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, people are considered to have a substance use disorder. (Live Science) The Live Science states “... people have strong urges to use a substance or can't control their use of it, or if their use impairs them in social situations or leads to risky behavior.” Members of society have needs when a drug is being in place into there normal day routine. The report also states that an estimated 27.1 million people in the U.S. used an illegal drug in the past month. (Live Science) The mass-production, sale and possession of illegal drugs should be banned in the United States.

Laws that prohibit the possession and use of street drugs are important as their aim is to protect the user, those around them, and society in general from undue harm. There has been a great push during the last 10 years to legalize marijuana and decriminalize other drugs such as cocaine and heroin on the basis that the recreational user, and even the hard-core addict, may not be causing significant harm to anyone, beyond their own personal health. In this sense, drug use is viewed as a personal choice and drug laws trample on personal freedoms without sufficient reason. Additionally, minorities are found to be arrested and convicted of drug crimes at disproportionate rates when compared to the demographics of those who use illegal drugs, which some see these type of laws as a tool of legal oppression, instead of a valid punitive function. Still, there remains sufficient reasons to maintain laws against the possession and use of controlled substances, such as marijuana, cocaine, and heroin; though there is a compelling argument for the lessening of the amount punishment of the majority of users that are caught with small amounts of street drugs. This paper seeks to put forward valid reasons for the continued prohibition of drugs, while also making a case for the softening of incarceration policies.