This essay explores the societal response to addiction and argues for a shift in perspective. The author, a former addict, shares personal experiences and advocates for treating addiction as a mental health issue rather than criminalizing it.
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Running Head: RESPONSE TO ADDICTION RESPONSE TO ADDICTION Name of the Student Name of the University Author Note
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2RESPONSE TO ADDICTION Introduction: The response to addiction have been designed in a way that criminalises the act of addiction rather than treating it as psychological syndrome or a disease. The issue of addiction needs to be catered in a way that is holistic in a manner but also focuses on the rehabilitation rather than retribution. The essay will examine the article authored by Sam who was a former addict and writes about his experience about response to drug addiction. The article was published by the Sky Wood Recovery a rehabilitation centre which aims at treatingaddictiondifferently.Thearticletitled“how-to-shiftsociety’sperspectiveon addiction” by Sam talks about how the perception of the society can be changed with respect to addiction (Recovery, 2019). Summary The author being a former addict shares his experience about the effect of substance abuse and the societal response to it. Using his experience from life the author writes about the necessity to change the perspective of the society in treating addiction as a mental health issue similar to any other diseases rather than criminalising them. The author establishes his argument and opinion on the drug abuse and the societal response to drug victims by identifying and factors that promote them and through representing the facts to provide a clear view of the scenario about addiction in the society. Sam (2019) the author puts forward his claims and states that ‘Addiction’ is a disease and addiction should not be punished.He finally finds some hope in the changing laws and policies that he believes will change the stigma and taboo about addiction in the society. The author points out logically about why the perspective needs to be changed and refers to the statistics which claims the deaths due to drug overdose increased by 20 percent as compared to 2015 (Recovery,2019). The author also logically argues that the
3RESPONSE TO ADDICTION treatment of addiction cannot be done according to other ways of treating a crime and states that the first mistake in treating addiction is done by trying to address the issue in criminalising manner making it equal at par with other serious crimes.He also states the even after having strict laws and criminal punishments attributed to drug victim, the rate of substance abuse or drug abuse have not reduced, rather the death rates due to drug abuse have increased as compared to the past years (Recovery, 2019). Through the course of the article the author also added credibility by adding ethical arguments about the treatment and response to addiction. He very rightly has questioned the ethicality oftreating addiction as a criminal offence and argues that such response to addressing addiction cannot be ethically justified and a treatment of a crime should be imposed upon an individual who have been dependent upon substances due to its abuse which can have occurred due to various reasons that do not have a criminal aspect attached to it. The author also claims that the that the first mistake in treating addiction is done by trying to address the issue in criminalising manner making it equal at par with other serious crimes. In supplement of the logic and the ethical justifications provided by the author, he also supports his article through the emotional connection with the victim of the drug addictionandtheauthorhimselfbeingonecouldverywellrepresenttheemotional attachment of the victim and hence provides an emotional support in his argument by stating that as cancer patients receive the emotional support and care of the families and the peers, it also important for the victims of drug addicts to receive compassion and emotional support from the families in order to regain their state of normalcy. The author states that instead of locking away the victims they should be treated as issues that require medical attention and wellbeing therapies (Recovery, 2019).
4RESPONSE TO ADDICTION Conclusion: Thus it is to be understood that the issue of drug addiction and substance abuse is not a criminal act and therefore a newer look into the addressing of the issue should be initiated within the society to reduce the stigma and the societal taboo associated with it. The essay also identifies that the issue of drug addiction is more of a medical problem than a societal problem. The author also states that in order to address the issue of drug addiction, a different approach is to be adopted by changing the perspective of how drug abuse is perceived and simultaneously a change in policies and laws to provide a complete addressable system.
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5RESPONSE TO ADDICTION References: Recovery, S. (2019).How to ShiftSociety's Perspective on Addiction| SkywoodRecovery.Retrievedfrom https://skywoodrecovery.com/how-to-shift-societys-perspective-on- addiction/