Stop Treating Drug Users As Criminals
The U.S.-style law-and-order drug policies that the Conservative cabinet appears poised to embrace are doomed to fail in this country, as they have everywhere. What’s worse, they make impossible the rational and humane treatment of hard-core drug addiction.
It is not feasible to rehabilitate large numbers of substance-dependent people in the context of the so-called war on drugs. “The federal government continues to invest heavily in policies and practices that have been repeatedly shown in the scientific literature to be ineffective or harmful,” says a new study by physicians and researchers at the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS.
As a doctor serving a heavily addicted population in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, I witness that harm every day. My last patient the same morning this new study was reported was Priscilla, a 32-year-old woman who came panting into my office with a high fever and a strangulating cough. Her pneumonia began several days ago when she woke after one of Vancouver’s heavy windstorms to find that the windows of her dilapidated hotel room had been shattered during the night and that the water in her sink was frozen solid.
Priscilla is one of the enemy in the war on drugs. She sells cocaine to support her own habit, a dependence from which no calamity has been able to shake her loose: not the loss of her child, not HIV, not multiple illnesses, not brutal beatings at the hands of male “clients.” She became one of the enemy at 15 when, after many years of sexual abuse by her grandfather and uncle, her mother injected her with heroin and sold her into prostitution.
Children who endure trauma often grow up to have insufficient supplies of certain essential “reward” chemicals in the brain, such as endorphins and dopamine — the very chemicals that drugs of abuse either supplant or enhance. The core assumption of the war on drugs that addicts freely “choose” their habits and could “just say no” is a cruel mockery of the reality of Priscilla’s existence, as is the belief that imposing negative consequences on traumatized people will somehow force them to give up their addiction. If that were the case, Priscilla would have recovered long ago. Chronic drug use further impairs the addict’s capacity for rational decision-making.
The scientific literature makes clear that emotional stress is the most consistent trigger for addictive behaviours. How does that affect people such as Priscilla? A study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association concluded that “a history of childhood abuse per se is related to increased [nervous and hormonal] stress reactivity, which is further enhanced when additional trauma is experienced in adulthood.” The point is that the addict is retraumatized over and over again by ostracism, harassment, dire poverty, disease, the frantic hunt for a source of the substance of dependence, the violence of the underground drug world and harsh chastisement at the hands of the law — all consequences of the war on drugs.
This war has failed to curtail drug use, trafficking or the spread of addiction. It only enriches international drug cartels and funds the futile activities of legions of law- enforcement agencies. Its targets are most commonly impoverished Third World peasants or small-scale traffickers and users such as Priscilla. The war is doomed to fail because neither the methods of war nor the war metaphor itself are appropriate to a complex social problem that calls for compassion, self-searching insight, and factually researched scientific understanding.
If we want to support people’s potential for healthy transformation, we must cease to impose debilitating stress on their already burdened existence. Proper nutrition, shelter, the controlled provision of their substances of dependence, counselling, and compassionate caring are what most addicts need if we are to help wean them from their debilitating habits.
“Drug addiction has to be devilified,” child psychiatrist and brain researcher Bruce Perry has said. “If we create environments that are safe and predictable and relationally enriched, then all of the other factors involved in substance abuse and dependence will be so much easier to dissolve away. Our challenge is to figure out how to create these environments.”
The possibilities would be truly inspiring if we were to channel the energies and multiple billions now squandered on the war on drugs into building an evidence-based and humane rehabilitation and treatment system.
One thought on “STOP TREATING DRUG USERS AS CRIMINALS”
Gabor Maté
How do we heal trauma suffered by native communities?
Gabor Maté is a retired B.C. physician who specializes in addiction.
It is not enough that the Attawapiskat First Nation has declared a state of emergency over the epidemic of suicides and suicide attempts among its youth. Our entire country should declare a state of emergency about the appalling health status, physical and mental, of First Nations and Inuit communities. Would we not have already if, instead of Nunavut or Attawapiskat, it was, say, the teens of Westmount, Forest Hill or Kitsilano who were killing themselves at 10 times the national rate?
I am often asked to visit First Nations communities across Canada to speak about addiction, stress-related illness and child development. The ordinary Canadian citizen simply has no idea, cannot even begin to imagine, what misfortunes, tragedies and other kinds of adversity many native young people experience by the time they reach adolescence – how many deaths of loved ones they witness, what abuse they endure, what despair they feel, what self-loathing plagues them, what barriers to a life of freedom and meaning they face.
At the core of the suicide pandemic is unresolved trauma, passed almost inexorably from one generation to the next, along with social conditions that induce further hopelessness.
The source of that multigenerational trauma is this country’s colonial past and its residue in the present. The march of the history and progress Canada celebrates, from which we derive much pride and national identity, meant catastrophe for natives: the loss of lands and livelihood and of freedom of movement, the mockery and invalidation of their spiritual ways, the near-extirpation of their culture, the corruption of their intrafamilial and intracommunal relationships, and finally, for nearly a hundred years, the state-sanctioned abduction, rape, physical abuse and mental torture of their children.
The questions we must ask ourselves nationally are very simple. How do we as a country move to heal the trauma that drives the misery of many native communities? What can be done to undo the dynamics our past has dictated? Some may balk at such inquiry, fearing the discomfort that comes with guilt. However, this is not a matter of communal guilt, but of communal responsibility. It is not about the past. It is about the present. And it is about all of us: When some among us suffer, ultimately we all do.
To begin, native history must be taught fully and in unsparing detail in our schools. All Canadians should know, for example, that 50 years ago it was not unheard of for a four-year-old girl to have a pin stuck in her tongue for the crime of speaking her mother language and later endure serial rape by teachers, religious mentors. Such were the antecedents of today’s drug use and suicidal anguish.
The resonant values, brilliant art, stories and wisdom culture of First Nations people should be introduced in Canadian schools. Canadians must be helped to see their First Nations peers in their fullness, which includes their humanity, grandeur, unspeakable suffering and strength.
We must renounce any political, economic or social policy that reinforces the colonial trauma of disempowerment, loss and dispossession. Not another square centimetre of native land must be disturbed, not a blade of grass cut, not one more drop of water diverted, not a millimetre of pipeline laid without First Nations agreement.
Institutions and individuals interacting with native people must become deeply trauma-informed. Judges, teachers, law-enforcement personnel, nurses, doctors, psychiatrists, social workers, public employees, policy-makers all must understand what trauma is, its multiple impacts on human mentality and behaviour, and how to address it. Without such information, as I have witnessed repeatedly, the best-meaning people can unwittingly retraumatize those who can least bear further pain and loss. Practices that devastate families must be stopped, such as the frequent apprehension of children without restorative and compassionate family-building support.
Alternative forms of justice must be developed, aligned with native traditions and in consultation with First Nations. The implicit racism in our law-enforcement institutions must be openly acknowledged and cleansed. Powerfully beneficial traditional healing practices must be researched, taught, encouraged. We need to celebrate the First Nations cultural renaissance, a tribute to human resilience, now taking place.
Economic and social conditions that engender despair must be addressed, with the utmost urgency. If we could spend more than $15-billion on our self-declared mission to help the people of Afghanistan, surely we can find the resources in our rich land to help redeem people whom our history continues to victimize.
English 1201 – Reading Response Paper
Write a reading response paper (two-three pages) based on the following topic:
Gabor Maté in his essay titled “Stop Treating Drug Users as Criminals” (2013) argued that “emotional stress is the most consistent trigger for addictive behaviours” (para. 6). What is the connection between emotional stress and addictive behaviours? What are the limitations of his views? How do you explain the drug use among First Nations communities and/or the Attawapiskat suicide crisis in 2016?
Note:
- You must quote Maté at least twice and paraphrase a sentence or a section of his essay at least once in your response.
- Submit your assignment through the Dropbox in D2L.
- Your assignment must be formatted in correct APA style throughout.
- The assignment is worth 15% of your final grade. Information about the assignment due date is available in your course syllabus.
- Ensure your paper has a clear thesis statement in the introduction.
- Maté’s “Stop Treating Drug Users as Criminals” (2013) and “How do we heal trauma suffered by native communities?” (2016) should be the only two sources for this assignment. That is, extra research is not required. Do not use any other sources such as Wikipedia or online news websites.
- Your essay should be at least two pages long, plus a cover page and a references page. If your essay is less than two pages, you will fail the assignment.
- Your task in this paper is to respond to Maté’s argument with in-depth analysis or discussion on his two essays. Do NOT summarize the text at length or include a long quotation without any analysis.
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/15 | ||
| Errors are minor and do not obscure meaning or significantly distract from the content. | |||
| Organization | /30 | ||
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/10 | ||
| Thesis Statement:
Clear, focused, and offers an important and well-reasoned argument. |
/5 | ||
| Body:
Each paragraph contains a clear controlling idea that supports the thesis. Arguments are easily understood and develop logically with appropriate transitions, both between and within paragraphs. |
/10 | ||
| Concluding Paragraph:
Summarizes/emphasizes the thesis without restating it, pulls together the important elements of the paper. Introduces no new ideas. |
/5 | ||
| Content | /40 | ||
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/15 | ||
| Quotations: The quotation is properly introduced and grammatically integrated into a sentence. An in-text citation is inserted after a quotation. At least two quotations are included in the response. | /15 | ||
| Paraphrasing: The paraphrase of the original is clear, grammatical, and accurate. A correct in-text citation is inserted after a paraphrase. At least one paraphrase of the course texts is included in the response. | /10 | ||
| APA Formatting | /15 | ||
| Title page (capitalization, punctuation, margins, content, running head, page #) | /5 | ||
| References page (capitalization, punctuation font, indentation, order) | /5 | ||
| Overall formatting (margins, font, spacing, running head, page #s) | /5 | ||
| Total | /100 |
Reading Response Paper Evaluation Rubric
Note: Your paper must be at least two pages long. You will fail the assignment if it is shorter than two pages.
Recommended structure:
- Introduction
Your goal in this paragraph is to introduce your argument about the topic. There is no set way of going about this, but a good introduction should contain at least five sentences that set up the focus of the paper clearly:
- Begin the paragraph with a topic sentence that introduces the theme or main argument of the primary text. Don’t start the introduction with a universal statement about the topic, human suffering, or our society. This is a waste of space in an essay.
- Following the topic sentence, use three or more sentences to elaborate on the theme or argument of the text. Consider the following questions when you write this part of the introduction:
- What is the author’s position in the primary text? (What is the main problem discussed by the author? What message is the author trying to convince you through the text? What lesson can be learned from the text?)
- Why is the topic important? (Why should we care about the topic? Why is the topic/problem worth our attention?)
- How do you respond to the author’s argument? (Do you agree or disagree with the author’s argument? What part of the text is valid, meaningful, or problematic to you? Why?)
- Provide a thesis statement which clearly indicates your view on the topic. This is perhaps the most important sentence because it sets up the scope of your paper. Consider your thesis statement as an argument you want to prove; therefore, it cannot be a fact. For instance, “drug addiction is a problem in our society” is a weak thesis statement as it is a fact that you do not need to prove. The thesis statement will be better if you write, “The possible causes of drug addiction can include psychological trauma during childhood and depression developed in adulthood.” This is a working thesis statement because it contains an argument that needs to be proved: the causes of drug addiction are related to trauma and depression. There are many ways to write a thesis statement, but generally it includes:
Your view on the topic/subject + link + two to four main points
The possible causes of drug addiction can include psychological trauma during childhood and depression developed in adulthood.
OR
It is discovered that people are likely to turn to drugs because of their psychological trauma during childhood and depression developed in adulthood.
- Body
The goal in the body paragraphs is to prove or support your thesis statement. The number of body paragraphs should be equal to the number of your main points in the thesis statement. In the example above, two body paragraphs must be included in the essay. The information below, of course, is only a rough guideline as you may have fewer or more body paragraphs depending on the length of your assignment.
- Body Paragraph 1
Begin the paragraph with a topic sentence that contains information about your thesis point 1. A body paragraph should ideally be eight to ten sentences long that include:
- Discussion on the primary text
Remind your reader why you agree or disagree with the author and/or what part of the text is valid, interesting, or problematic to you. The intention is not to repeat the same information but to reinforce your argument. Adjust the wording of your sentences accordingly (i.e. use different words) and provide more details this time as you have more space in a body paragraph.
- Textual evidence
Quote and/or paraphrase a meaningful passage from the primary text. The goal of including a quotation or a paraphrase is to (a) provide textual evidence to support your argument, (b) demonstrate your critical understanding of the text, and (c) unpack the underlying messages of the passage. After each quotation or paraphrase, a discussion on the quotation or paraphrase must be included.
- Secondary source
Skip this guideline if secondary sources (i.e. peer-reviewed articles or Internet websites) are NOT allowed in the assignment.
Points to consider:
- What is the argument or main point of the source? What is the research about?
- How does the research illuminate or contradict the argument in the primary source? Why?
- How would the author of the primary text respond to the argument of your research?
- What is the connection of the source to the topic or your argument?
- Concluding sentence
At the end of the body paragraph, use a sentence or two to summarize the points. The intention is to reinforce your argument in the current paragraph and/or make a smooth transition to the next body paragraph.
- Body Paragraph 2
The structure of body paragraph 2 should be similar to body paragraph 1. The paragraph must contain a topic sentence, a few sentences that discuss and analyze the text, and a concluding sentence. In this paragraph, indicate the connection of your thesis point 1 and thesis point 2. You can show the connection of the two thesis points in the topic sentence or anywhere in the body paragraph. The purpose is to build a clear connection between the two body paragraphs.
- Conclusion
The goal in the concluding paragraph is to reinforce your argument. Below are some strategies you can use to write an effective conclusion:
- Answer questions that have not been answered in your essay.
- End the essay with a speculation or an opinion when a clear decision/solution is not possible.
- Revisit the primary text again and restate your opinion or thesis regarding the problem.
Please note that this is a recommended structure for the reading response paper and the research paper in English 1201. You must follow the assignment guidelines carefully. Consult with your instructor if you have any questions about the assignment or the recommended structure.
Below are some writing resources for you:
A sample five-paragraph essay: http://www.bareb7e.nelson.com/student/supp_readings.html
How to integrate a quotation into a sentence: https://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/QPA_quoting.html
How to paraphrase (a YouTube presentation): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRaZXopR1d4
APA formatting and citation guide: http://bowvalleycollege.libguides.com/apa-style
E-tutor online writing support: http://etutoralberta.ca/
Bow Valley College’s writing tutor, Nadia Khan: https://nadia.youcanbook.me/
Nadia’s contact info: 403-355-4627 or nkhan@bowvalleycollege.ca
Bow Valley College’s Reboot learning coaches: http://www.bowvalleycollege.ca/campus-services/learner-success-services/tools-for-learning/reboot.html
………………Answer preview……………………….
Drug use is a problem the society faces in the modern day world and, so far, conventional methods to deal with the same appear futile. Governments across the world enact policies that seek out drug users and try, at times forcing them, to get into rehabilitation programs…………………….
APA
628 words