CPAA Revision
My cultural problem is how drug addiction is dealt with. What brought me to this topic was watching a loved one overdose and take their last breath without even giving the thought of overdosing a second guess.
The first article that I chose to use is written by Mark Walters who uses an appeal to emotion by showing us a chart with animated people to represent each person that was revived with naloxone after overdosing. The purpose of this article is to address the issue of naloxone being an enabler. Walters uses emotional appeal by stating that a man overdosed with his four year old son in the car and was revived, after overdosing in the past; he may go out and commit a crime to get the drug and use again, which may result in an overdose and this is the problem with naloxone. These appeals illustrate that instead of recovering after being revived they go out and use the drug again because they expect to always be saved and believe there is no permanent consequence other than a criminal record. Walters uses emotional appeal to prove how many overdoses are actually happening and to open the eyes of those who don’t think drug addiction is a big issue because he is worried that we are enabling those who are addicted instead of getting them the correct help.
The next article that I found was on how addiction affects the family in a negative way. In this article emotional appeal is used because it doesn't just affect the addict. The article tells the reader about how it can affect the family and then goes into detail describing all the different issues that it causes. The author really proves this point when he tells us that “the unpredictability of a family member who compulsively takes drugs or drinks alcohol can cause anxiety, emotional pain, stress, and a loss of trust, because that individual often can’t be counted on to follow through with what they say.” These appeals illustrate the fact that drug addiction causes the family to resent the drug addict, so the family deals with this by pushing them away. The author’s view on the matter is that drug addiction is damaging to not only the addict but to families too, and she uses emotional appeal by explaining the life-lasting effects that drug addiction has on families of the addict.
The last article that I chose to use uses logos by using facts and statistics from the American Medical Association to help the reader to understand that addiction is a disease. This article tells us that addiction changes the way that our body and brain function which causes major changes on the addict’s physical and mental health. The author describes the effect of drugs on the brain by stating facts, she tells us that the brain releases chemicals when the drugs are used that satisfy the body and through time the body won't be able to function normally without the addicts drug of choice. She then states the definition of a chronic disease which is "a long-lasting condition that can be controlled but not cured." This explains drug addiction almost to a tee. She then tells us the opposite point of view that drug addiction is not a disease which states that the first use is a choice of the user and they just end up losing control of their behavior. The opposite point of view also states that some addicts reach sobriety without treatment. These appeals prove that drug addiction has not been classified as a choice or disease yet because the debate is only getting bigger. The author proves his point of view by giving us this statistic “About 25-50% of people with a substance use problem appear to have a severe, chronic disorder. For them, addiction is a progressive, relapsing disease that requires intensive treatments and continuing aftercare, monitoring and family or peer support to manage their recovery.” The author truly thinks that addiction is a disease and for an addict to recover they need treatment.
Through analyzing these three articles I have shown my readers that addiction is extremely destructive not only to the addict but also to the family of the addict, naloxone may be an enabler, and addiction is not yet classified as a disease or a choice but each argument has some pretty good reasons to back them up. I learned a lot about the effects of addiction on the brain and what it really does to the addict’s family. I think that I should still explore the criminal aspect of addiction and what happens to the addicts when they get "caught" by authorities.
Works Cited
The Effect Of Addiction On The Family. (n.d.). Retrieved from Drug Rehab: http://www.drugrehab.org/effect-of-addiction-family/
The National Center On Addiction and Substance Abuse. (2017, April 14). Addiction As A Disease. Retrieved from Center on Addiction: https://www.centeronaddiction.org/what-addiction/addiction-disease
Walters, M. (2016, August 29). Police save lives using naloxone, but worry about enabling. Retrieved from Transforming Health: http://www.transforminghealth.org/stories/2016/08/police-save-lives-using-naloxone-but-worry-about-enabling.php