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Drug Policy and Drug Good (Essay Sample)

Instructions:

Drug Policy and the Public Good concludes, among other things, that the drug policy debate is dominated by four false dichotomies:
1. That criminal enforcement and public health approaches are inherently inconsistent.
2. That control strategies cannot target both illegal use and the provision of assistance to users.
3. That the distinction between legal and illegal drugs flows from sound science, and
4. That public health measures in response to heavy drug users will have no benefits for those of us who are not heavy drug users.
Discuss the relevance and accuracy of these four claims about drug policy with respect to cannabis and its control, using all relevant course readings
Number of sources-5

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Content:

Drug Policy and Drug Good
Name
Institution
Drug Policy and Drug Good
Debates that concern policy initiatives can either inhibit or decrease the harm caused by illicit drugs to the good of the public are hardly ever informed by scientific evidence. By chance, interventions accompanied by evidence are progressively being acknowledged that are capable of ensuring that drugs are not readily available, that they reduce violence in the drug markets, that they decrease legal pharmaceuticals abuse, they prevent substance among the young people, as well as the reduce the effects of substance abuse and the consequences it has on drug users (Strang, et al., 2012). With relation to debates policy initiatives, the Drug Policy and the Public Good concludes, among other things, the drug policy debate is dominated by four false dichotomies which are that foremost, criminal enforcement and public health approaches are inherently inconsistent. Secondly, control strategies cannot target both illegal use and the provision of assistance to users. Thirdly, the distinction between legal and illegal drugs flows from sound science, and lastly, the public health measures in response to heavy drug users will have no benefits for those of us who are not heavy drug users (Thomas, 2010). Considering the claims made by the Drug Policy and the Public Good, this paper will deliberate on the relevance and accuracy of these claims on drug policy with respect to cannabis and its control. To clearly understand the claims made in the "Drug Policy and the Public Good" it will be important to establish the rationale behind "Cannabis policy: Moving beyond stalemate" report.
An estimation made by the UN established that 4 percent of the of the global population use cannabis. Despite the call for a drug free world in the year 2005, the numbers of drug users have increased by percent (Haden & Emerson, 2014). This is in comparison of the 1 percent of other illegal drugs combined. On the other hand, the international attention’s focus has placed its concentration on the 1 percent which is believed to be the most detrimental, almost ignoring the debates that have been put in place with regards to drug policy. With regards to this stalemate, the Beckley Foundation called together a team world’s most renowned drug policy experts to bring together the most recent scientific evidence that surround cannabis as well as the policies that control its use.
As far as setting the policy agenda is concerned, the effect of the implementation of drug policies has help in minimizing the effects that are caused by psychoactive on the safety as well as the health of the population. The purpose of the Drug Policy and the Public Good is provide the description of the most recent research advances with a particular focus on its relevance to the drug policy at not only the international level but also the local and national. The book on Drug Policy and the Public Good have summarized and reviewed from over 9000 literature reviews, research articles, government reports as well as scholarly articles (Strang, et al., 2012). The various types of Evidence collected by the Drug Policy and Drug Good include the quasi-experimental/correlational studies, natural experiments, historical research, descriptive epidemiology, qualitative research, randomized clinical trials as well as the health services research.
Room et al. (2010) report was brought forward to provide policy makers with the awareness of the societal aspect of the misuse and use of cannabis. The other aim of this report was to provide empirical evidence that will equip their resolutions within the context of the United Nations Strategic Drug Policy Review of 2009. "Cannabis policy: Moving beyond stalemate" Report provides convincing guideline to the current scientific evidence on the health concerns of the use of cannabis use. This is done through the thorough; an assessment of not only the costs involved, but also the prohibition of cannabis at the societal level and consequences of the use of cannabis; a comprehensive analysis on the shortcomings as well as the success of the wide rage and varied approaches with relation to the control of cannabis use. Room et al (2010) also discusses the approaches that the international regulations in determining how the national drug policies might be reformed so as to provide an opportunity for countries with the greater degree of flexibility to adopt policies that will reflect drug abuse issues they face.
Considering the aggregated evidence that has been brought forward, Room et al., (2001), authors of the report, have brought forward a number of striking conclusions. Most of these conclusions directly challenge the international status quo that is related to the cannabis policy. As a result, they have brought forward a set of recommendations with regards to the established findings that purpose to come up with not only rational, but also effective approach of controlling the use and misuse of cannabis; approaches that will reduce the detrimental effects that are associated with the use of cannabis, from both the societal and individual level. According to the conclusion made by Drug Policy and the Public Good is that the drug policy debate is dominated by four false dichotomies. Among these doctrines include:
1 The criminal enforcement and public health approaches are inherently inconsistent.
2 The control strategies cannot target both illegal use and the provision of assistance to users.
3 The distinction between legal and illegal drugs flows from sound science.
4 The public health measures in response to heavy drug users will have no benefits for those of us who are not heavy drug users.
Drug use presents an important burden to public health through social problems, disease and disability thus policy makers are increasingly becoming interested with coming up with policies that are evidence based. For this reason, it has become a challenge to strengthen the links that exists between drug policy as well as the addiction science. The Drug policy and the Public is collectively written by well-known universal career science professional so as to give an analytical basis that can help in building worldwide drug policies as well as providing information to policy makers with direct responsibility for not only the social welfare, but also public health. Drug Policy and the Public Good provides the collected scientific information on prohibited drugs with direct significance to drug policy development not only from the local levels, but also the international and national levels. Room et al. (2010) explains the theoretical source for a more balanced drug policy. The empirical evidence also provides a new epidemiological statistics on a wild wide dimension of the misuse of drugs.
First Claim
Among the main conclusions established by the Drug Policy and the Public Good is that the criminal enforcement and public health approaches are inherently inconsistent. Room et al. (2010) begins by acknowledging the fact that the effects of regular cannabis use on both the mental and physical health cannot be clearly established. On the other hand, research works on the effects of tobacco and alcohol have clearly provided evidence that they have adverse health effects on the users. To be more particular, they are those who initiate the use of these substances while they are still adolescence and continue the use while still young (Room, et al., 2010). To clearly establish the claim that the criminal enforcement and public health approaches are inherently inconsistent is true, it is important to review a number of health complications alongside the criminal enforcements so as to establish the validity of this claim. The adverse health risks associated with cannabis are summarized as follows.
Acute Risks; Scientific studies have demonstrated that the risk of cannabis overdose is close to insignificant. The drug is considered to be among the least toxic substances recreationally used. Therefore, the greatest concern to public health is the increasing risk of a traffic accident at the same time as driving under cannabis influence. Even though this risk associated to the consumption of cannabis aggregates to an extreme of a fifth of what that is cause by alcohol consumption, the involved risks seem to be additive when alcohol and cannabis a are combined. The inconsistency of criminal enforcement and public health approaches is that the policy challenge that is present in this case is that it is not easy determine the level of Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in the blood signifies impairment. With this finding from Room et al. (2010), it is accurate to say that both the public health approaches as well as criminal enforcement are inherently inconsistent.
Chronic Risks; the risks that are associated with the use of cannabis, from a health perspective are considered to be modest in legal drugs such as tobacco and alcohol, as well as the illegal drugs such as cocaine, heroin and amphetamines. On the other hand, the chronic use of cannabis is closely related to the increased risk of impaired respiratory functions and bronchitis (Haden & Emerson, 2014). As Room et al. reports, studies has yet to conclude whether the use of cannabis brings along an increased risk of respiratory and oral cancer despite the fact that the existing evidence proposes this risk is more likely to be low when compared to the one that exists in the use of tobacco. Therefore, there is a possibility of inconsistency between public health approaches and criminal enforcement to exist.
Second Claim
Another conclusion made by the Drug Policy and the Public Good is that the control strategies cannot target both illegal use and the provision of assistance to users. In find the claim made by the Drug Policy and the Public Good to be accurate. Many argume...
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