Nate.S
Mrs. Szumigala
English argumentative essay 1/19/14
Implementing a good way to stop the flow of drugs through our and our neighboring countries is essential for the upcoming generations. The war on illegal drugs grows everyday, not only because of the everyday advancement of the common drug, but the increase of drug dealers and drug users. The already introduced ways to stop or restrain the advancement of drug use has either made it worse or cost the country, state or domain unnecessary amounts of funding. Some of the failed ways to stop the war on drugs are the focus of the essay below.
one failure by today's government is the introduction of new painkillers and prescription drugs in an effort to save money and/or make money has lead to the expansion of drug abuse and illegal drug use. Dealers and users get prescribed these drugs and they sell them illegally and overdose. Also once the drug develops street credit and receives a street name which makes it a wanted drug. "The same process occurred with the new drug fentanyl a new painkiller that is expected to be 100 times more powerful than morphine, and cost the same to make the drug as it does morphine but they can use a lot less of it because it is so powerful"("Heroin Laced With Powerful Painkiller Kills 17 In Pennsylvania."). The drug hit the streets eleven days after it hit the doctors office. At first it caused overdoses but no deaths, but there is always another advancement to every drug, dealers began to mix it with heroin. This new drug was first
introduced in Pittsburg Pennsylvania, "A night in and the drug had claimed 17
victims"("Heroin Laced With Powerful Painkiller Kills 17 In Pennsylvania."). The drug has been predicted to raise the annual overdose count in the United States, being that the drug is so easy to come by and that heroin is the most street used drug the
"Fentoin" mixture will repeatedly grow. It is expected to raise the annual overdose resulting in fatalities. " drug will make 250 fatal overdoses a year rise to 800 fatal overdoses a year"("Heroin Laced With Powerful Painkiller Kills 17 In Pennsylvania."). The government failed to initiate a good plan to stop the drug war instead introduced a new drug to help the drug world grow. Not always is saving money a good plan because it can be the only beneficial aspect of the idea and blind us of the real effects it does to society, and how it makes problems worse.
Another idea comes from a foreign government in a neighboring country, which could directly impact America in the near future. A crack pipe is a small plastic or metal pipe used to heat and smoke crack. A traditional crack pipe is usually poor made and costly. This creates two problems not only is the crack already expensive but everyday users find themselves to broke to buy a new pipe every use especially if they are every day users. These old crack pipes are poorly made and over used so they brake or crack and cut the users lips causing infections such as pop lips. This is when the lips crack and chips away giving the user a "crack sore"(Canada Installs First-Ever Crack Pipe Vending Machines."). The lips bleed randomly and swell twice the size. Also the spread of "HIV and Hep C " through the sharing of crack pipes and oral contact. To stop the above Vancouver Canada implemented the first ever crack pipe vending machine, only charging 25 cents for a crack pipe. Canada believes that it will give the city money but
with stop the spread of disease and lose the drug dealers that sell crack pipes money. Although this does bring money to the city and stops or limits the spread of disease, it fails to stop drugs. The vending machine enlightens children of what a crack pipe is and gives them access to it. This machine also expands the transportation of crack, as now users can use all their money to buy crack instead of saving some to buy pipes This draws a need to transport more drugs Into Vancouver and them being so close to the United States border the inevitable leak of more crack into the country will occur. Also what about the disposal of all the used crack pipes, "these pipes can not be recycled or reused the cost of properly disposing of them way out ways the benefits of having this machine"(Canada Installs First-Ever Crack Pipe Vending Machines."). Overall the input of this machine makes the situation worse and if disease spread its the crack users fault for using the drug.
Another faulty plan input by the government was rehab, although most rehab facilities work this new unorthodox style eventually lead to harder drugs being
introduced. What was given the name reality rehab on the Western Coast of the U.S become the breeding ground for new drugs. Reason being is that there was a lack of monitoring in these facilities allowing for drug importing and improvement. " Drugs were actually improved in the reality rehabs, a non over viewed system, not very smart to put one hundred drug users and sellers inside a confined place together"("4 Holistic Ways to Fight Drug Addiction | World of Psychology."). Also some of the mental exercises that the facilities used like equine therapy, to relieve the craving and mental addiction for drugs. This therapy though often lead to violence and many of the members were injured and some even killed. " I was attacked and beaten, by one of what we used to
call crazies, the therapy just made me use other ways to relieve the stress like punching my wall in my holding room"("4 Holistic Ways to Fight Drug Addiction | World of
Psychology."). Not only does therapy use tax money to fund but the whole system of reality rehab was flawed. Mainly because of the fact that there was no organization or monitoring system. Reviews show that rehab works but it has to be ran under the right system.
The next introduced plan was the substitution of marijuana instead of the drugs that users were consuming. Marijuana having been proven to be way safer and have way less side effects than most if not all other street drugs, they plan is to implement this drug in a prescribed way to drug users. Giving them cheaper and free marijuana to stop the users from consuming Cocaine, Heroin and other harder drugs. The idea is the drug users will stop using hard drugs and use the cheap or free marijuana instead, leading them to become less dependent on their hard drug addictions. The problem came when the users could not overcome their prior drug addictions and not only still used cocaine or heroin they resold the marijuana or smoked it to. So in the end leading to the drug dealers making more money in the end allowing them to import more drugs to sell and use. "Marijuana code in the beginning was a good idea on paper, following we admit to the mistakes of not have some system to stop the use of the other
drugs"(Patients & Families.").
Another downfall to the plan was that marijuana is considered a gateway drug, which is a drug that is thought to lead to the use of other harder drugs because
someone's dealers introduces them to new drugs. The plan actually lead to more hard drug users because of the gateway affect. So in an effort to maintain the number of drug
users the system actually created more drug users. Also the plan of giving away drugs does not sound ethical, it just puts more drugs into the streets and allows for more distribution of these drugs and new improvements on the government grown marijuana. Also in most States the use of marijuana is illegal so it causes legal problems when the government gives out the marijuana. " who is qualified to have this marijuana and what happens when the government marijuana is sold from a legal state to a non legal state, or when kids are introduced to marijuana"(HOT ON FUSION.)
In the end most of the government plans do not work most of them are just ways for the governments to make money. We just seem conserned as a Nation but really just need money. A plan needs to be implemented to control not just this countries drug abusers but to shut the borders from drug trafficking.
Cited sources
Canada Installs First-Ever Crack Pipe Vending Machines." OpposingViews.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2014.
"Heroin Laced With Powerful Painkiller Kills 17 In Pennsylvania." OpposingViews.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2014.
"4 Holistic Ways to Fight Drug Addiction | World of Psychology." Psych Central.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 2014.
HOT ON FUSION." Fusion. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2014.
