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Persuasive Essay On Substance Abuse

647 Words3 Pages

Addiction to drugs is a difficult thing for an individual to deal with. A drug addiction leads to a decline in a person’s well-being, financial security, and social life. Drug addicts have a hard time keeping a job, a family, and most of the time they are in trouble with the law and homeless on the street. Today most Americans still view drug addiction as a serious crisis just as they did a decade ago. What’s changed, however, is the way that most Americans believe we should handle the crisis. A recent survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, which made telephone interviews with 1, 821 adults and is the first large survey of American opinions on drug policies in 13 years. The survey showed that Americans are starting to change the way they …show more content…

The Drug Treatment Alternative to Prison (DTAP) program in Brooklyn New York allows alcohol or drug addicted defendants to plead guilty to nonviolent charges that may have occurred from drug related activity or drug use. The defendant is then put into a residential, therapeutic community treatment system that can last up to 2 years as an alternative to a prison sentence. A recent evaluation of DTAP by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse found that the program has achieved significant results in reducing recidivism and drug abuse. The evaluation also revealed an increase in the likelihood of finding employment for Addicts after completion of the program. Along with these results, the evaluation found that the average cost of placing a participant in DTAP, including all costs was $32,974—half the average cost of $64,338 if the participant had been sentenced to serve the average term of imprisonment. If rehab was even one penny lower, it would make sense for tax payers’ dollars to be spent on providing help to those in need of rehab. By sending an addict to rehab, it gives them the best shot at another chance in life. No unmotivated prisoner will ever receive that from

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Quinones states, “As the opiate epidemic mangled the middle class, these kids doped up and dropped out. Earlier generations of opiate addicts became self-employed construction workers or painters, because that was all they could manage with heroin, and often jail, in their lives” (274), which is a major problem America faces when trying to solve the opiate epidemic. If we educate the states about the addiction rates and potential danger of opiates, public opinion could shift, creating alternate solutions to solving the heroin epidemic in America. In order to lower the amount of opiate addicts the stigma that used to be associated with opiate use needs to return. The fear that used to surround opiate use was one of the only reasons opiates were not used as medication.

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In the article, “Don’t blame addicts for America’s opioid crisis. Here are the real culprits” by Chris McGreal, America’s widespread opioid problem is discussed. Primarily, McGreal points the finger at multiple sources, such as the FDA, pharmaceutical companies, and the government, for aggravating the

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In his article, “Toward a Policy on Drugs,” Elliot Currie discusses “the magnitude and severity of our drug crisis” (para. 21), and how “no other country has anything resembling the American drug problem” (para. 21). The best way to describe America’s drug problem is that it is a hole continuously digs itself deeper. America’s drug issues were likely comparable to other country’s at one point in time, but today it can be blamed on the “street cultures” (para. 21) that continue to use and spread the use of illegal drugs. These street cultures transcend the common stereotype of drug users, such as low income communities in cities or welfare recipients, and can be found in every economic class and location. They are groups of people who have

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Society most of time tends to be keen on helping each other. One way we help each other is by allowing inmates, no matter the crime, to join rehab. Steve Earle the author of ‘A Death in Texas’ was in drug rehab at one-point, finished rehab, and got clean of drugs. Earle then wrote about Jonathan Wayne Nobles a man on death row for killing two people. While Nobles was on death row he took drug rehab and got clean of his drug addiction.

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After conducting some research I have reached the conclusion that drug offenders are the population in which could be more successfully controlled and rehabilitated in less secure correctional alternatives. There are a couple different beneficial aspects to transferring drug offenders out of prisons and into programs. The first is that is saves money while also being more effective. When you place an inmate into a program that is designed to help them with their specific problem your results improve. The Center for Substance Abuse Treatment’s final report on NTIES noted that “In summary, we observed a pattern of substantially reduced alcohol and drug use in every type of treatment modality, with reductions typically between one-third and two-thirds

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Drug Addiction Imagine a life where someone is controlled by something that doesn't have a pulse, controlled by a substance that they can see ruining their life but for some reason they can't control the outcome. Substance abuse costs the health care system about $11 billion, with overall costs reaching $193 billion. That $11 Billion dollars could go to treating the addiction rather than treating the outcome, and instead of locking up low level drug offenders, we as a society should help them through their difficult time. And according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), approximately 27 million Americans, or 10.2% of the American population over the age of 12 reported using illicit drugs in 2014. 10% of our society is

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They will likewise assist a drug user with becoming clean, and have them work on their family life. Amid the process there are many types of projects for various types of cases, a man is assessed and needs to meet all requirements for these programs through the drug courts. A drug court is not generally the alternative they have different programs out there that are less in cost. Starting with costs, there is evidence that the average cost of drug courts per client is higher than alternatives such as probation. Cost estimates of drug courts range from between $4,300 per client to $11,227 per client, depending on the specific court, whereas the average cost of probation is about $1,000 per client”

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Fielding et al. (2002) reported that the higher the client’s risk level (based on previous crimes), the more likely that he or she would recidivate, time to new arrest was shorter, and time to new drug arrest was shorter. Again, this study is limited in size and generalizability. Just as important, the authors found that it was cheaper for a client to go through the program than be incarcerated in prison or placed in residential treatment. This analysis is only valid when comparing the cost of incarcerating a client in prison and the costs for a client to participate in the program.

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People are using drugs either because they are depressed, in pain, or have a struggle they don’t want to face. Because these drugs are so addictive, people need money and resources to break the habit. This epidemic is a major social problem. Trump talks about how he wants to bring back Nancy Reagan’s idea about the “Just say no”program.

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Drug courts, initially propelled in Florida in 1989, are an arrangement of escalated treatment and supervision. The thought is to treat the instances of peaceful substance-mishandling guilty parties uniquely in contrast to other criminal cases in light of the fact that the dependence is at the base of the criminal action. Accentuation is on recovery instead of discipline. Drug Courts are the best equity intercession for treating drug-dependent individuals the purpose of drug courts is to diminish drug use, lessen wrongdoing, spare cash, and it reestablish lives with sparing more hardship on the kids and reconnecting families together. Drug Courts serve a small amount of the assessed 1.2 million drug dependent individuals presently included in the equity framework.

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The Drug Treatment Alternative-to-Prison Program is another attempt to provide better treatment for people who are convicted. The study showed that drug offenders who underwent a treatment program outside of prison had a 26 percent less rate of re-arrest after two years than a control group that was sent to prison (Justice Policy Institute, 2010). Rehabilitative programs like the Second Chance Act and the Drug Treatment Alternative-to-Prison Program has shown to growth and positive

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The government and administrators of prisons and treatment centers are trying to lower the cost of incarceration and treatment centers. Treatment centers are the more expensive option but it last longer and has more permanent effects in low level drug criminals. The family and individual want the easiest option that helps them or their children to treat their addiction. They want to use treatment centers to treat the addiction to prevent them crime again. The effectiveness of prisons and treatment centers vary.

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Coming from a different country to the United States has made me look at some divergences from a critical point of view, specifically the use of drugs, both as medication and substance. The policies of using drugs in the United States are way too diverse considering various states' laws. From my own perspective, drugs have become an imperative element of the American culture. The love affair

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(Wormer, Persson, 2010). This program would save the communities a lot of money and help out the families of the person who is in trouble. Not all people who commit drug related crimes would qualify but people who would be facing long prison time. This would be for first time offenders who have not committed violent crimes. They would get treatments such as cognitive behavior therapy, drug treatments and be under the very intense supervision of the drug court.

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This leads to the question of whether the justice system is doing an adequate job of dealing with drug addiction. Instead of incarcerating people for drug abuse, an alternative is treating victims by rehab and treatment. This paper will exam why treatment is the superior option for

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