The Abuse of Illegal Drugs Ought to Be Treated as a Matter of Public Health, Not of Criminal Justice
"…the solution lies in prevention, which in turn is largely a matter of education and enforcement, which aims at keeping drug pushers away from children and teenagers."
It's because I agree with the DEA that I affirm the resolution, "RESOLVED: The abuse of illegal drugs ought to be treated as a matter of public health, not of criminal justice." I offer the following definitions:
Illegal drug: A class of conciousness-altering drugs that operate at a high efficiency. (Princeton)
Treated: To deal with a matter (Merriam Webster)
Ought: Indicating desirability (Merriam Webster)
Public health: The science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society.
Criminal justice: A generic term for the procedure by which criminal conduct is investigated, arrests made, evidence gathered, charges brought, defenses raised, trials conducted, sentences rendered, and punichment carried out. (Legal Dict.)
Value: I offer the value of safety, defined as freedom from danger or harm. Safety must be paramount because with no safety there is no life. A public health approach to drug abuse will uphold safety by solving for the harms caused by drug abuse in a criminalized world.
Criterion: My criterion is minimizing drug abuse, since the impact of abuse is obviously undesirable. Minimizing drug abuse will uphold safety by keeping people safe from the harms drug abuse causes. Contention 3: Criminal justice punishes people for something out of their control.
Abuse is involuntary. Abuse is defined as to use wrongly or improperly. When people use drugs they dont intend on misusing them. They want drugs to get high. If they end up abusing drugs it is almost always unintentional. Criminalizing punishes people for accidents and mistakes, but it doesnt do anything to actually solve for abuse. Bennet Fletcher explains, "Punishment alone is a futile and ineffective response to drug abuse,
It's because I agree with the DEA that I affirm the resolution, "RESOLVED: The abuse of illegal drugs ought to be treated as a matter of public health, not of criminal justice." I offer the following definitions:
Illegal drug: A class of conciousness-altering drugs that operate at a high efficiency. (Princeton)
Treated: To deal with a matter (Merriam Webster)
Ought: Indicating desirability (Merriam Webster)
Public health: The science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society.
Criminal justice: A generic term for the procedure by which criminal conduct is investigated, arrests made, evidence gathered, charges brought, defenses raised, trials conducted, sentences rendered, and punichment carried out. (Legal Dict.)
Value: I offer the value of safety, defined as freedom from danger or harm. Safety must be paramount because with no safety there is no life. A public health approach to drug abuse will uphold safety by solving for the harms caused by drug abuse in a criminalized world.
Criterion: My criterion is minimizing drug abuse, since the impact of abuse is obviously undesirable. Minimizing drug abuse will uphold safety by keeping people safe from the harms drug abuse causes. Contention 3: Criminal justice punishes people for something out of their control.
Abuse is involuntary. Abuse is defined as to use wrongly or improperly. When people use drugs they dont intend on misusing them. They want drugs to get high. If they end up abusing drugs it is almost always unintentional. Criminalizing punishes people for accidents and mistakes, but it doesnt do anything to actually solve for abuse. Bennet Fletcher explains, "Punishment alone is a futile and ineffective response to drug abuse,