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Chris Van Ekelenburg
SW 148
Amanda Reiman
Summer 2008
7-14-08

Paper #1 SW 148

We in live in a country where every person has an opinion about drugs or those who use drugs, whether it be contemptuous or neutral. Whatever the case may be, critics who pass judgments on such people should evaluate their situation beforehand to avoid making false pretensions. To be honest, I do not have one singular opinion about those who use, or otherwise abuse, drugs. Life and school has taught me to first examine the root of such problems and how they came about to cause a person to turn to drugs. After determining what the person has gone through, I can develop a more educated viewpoint or reaction to his or her situation.
My feelings towards substance abuse and those who abuse them vary from person-to-person, drug-to-drug. I don’t really make judgments about a person or group of people, but I do have contemptuous feelings toward those who put others in harm’s way due to irresponsibility. The indirect effects of drugs, including alcohol and other impairing drugs that are used in a reckless and negligent fashion can cause unnecessary harm to innocent people, and I feel as if those people should be punished accordingly. However, there are many people who are charged and put behind bars for a crime that I feel should not conjure such a punishment. My friend was thrown into juvenile hall and charged a hefty fine for holding cannabis in his car found by a random police dog search. My question was: “was it that necessary to have a fleet of cop cars and police dogs for one ounce of weed?” He was not harming anyone, so I felt that the enforcement on his crime was a bit exaggerated. It just goes to show that re-evaluating our laws to see what is a real threat to society would probably benefit us as citizens and as a country. Too much money is being spilt into our “war on drugs” campaign and prison systems, and should be...