Hypothesis 1: 

Substance abuse has plagued people’s lives for years, and a harsher punishment needs to be set on drug-dealers who make it easily accessible to non-reliant people.  

Hypothesis 2: 

Doctors prescribing unneeded prescriptions to patients are abusing their powers, so they should not only lose their license, but face jail time equivalent to a drug dealer. 

Purposeful Summaries

The negative effects of smoking have been publicized and repeatedly emphasized all over media and the news. The results of the protest against smoking has reduced smoking significantly with as little as 14% of adults smoking and the most of them wanting to quit as well. The benefits of cessation are decrease in risk of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and many other respiratory diseases. Effective interventions to smoking have been significantly improving over the years with the most effect being increasing the price, country-wide campaigns, and having a cessation hotline. Years of warning about the dangers of cigarettes a have paid off because it is not nearly as popular as it used to be. However, there a new problems with substance abuse in the form of e-cigarettes/vapes. 

Smoking cessation – Progress, Barriers, and New Opportunities

JM;, Adams. “Smoking Cessation-Progress, Barriers, and New Opportunities: The Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking Cessation.” JAMA, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2 May 2020, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32432659/.

Adolescent Vaping and Nicotine Use in 2017-2018

While cigarettes and other nicotine products usage have been on a steady decline, vapes and e-cigarettes have been increasing out of control. While cigarettes have multiple media sources and articles advising not to use it, vapes had a much smaller coverage until very recently. It is advertised as a positive alternative to help you quit smoking cigarettes, but never warns about the dangers of vapes. Mostly popular among teens in high-school or middle-school, it has increased by more than five percent in just one-year. Schools across the country have kids going to the bathroom to vape while going undetected by teachers. Anti-vaping needs more support as its popularity is preying on victims who don’t know how harmful it is. 

Others, V. Hall and, et al. “Adolescent Vaping and Nicotine Use in 2017–2018 – U.S. National Estimates: Nejm.” New England Journal of Medicine, 16 Feb. 2022, https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmc1814130.

Prosecuting a Drug Dealer when the Drug User Dies

Substance abuse in general has costed the lives of close to a million people in the last 25 years in just overdoses. Countless more have suffered drug-related diseases that have either killed them or led them to live a handicapped life. The source of the problem are the drug dealers who sell illegal drugs to people which lead to this problems. In the court case, R v Kennedy, a user died from drug use, and the drug dealer received a manslaughter charge. This is an appropriate punishment as the drugs led to the death of the user, and the drug dealer knew that it was a likely possibility when he sold the drugs. The criminal sentence for drug trafficking should be higher in an attempt to lower frug distribution. You can’t increase the sentence of drug possession because people will be less likely to call an ambulance when their companion has suffered an overdose. This fear to call the ambulance is because they don’t want their friend to get into legal trouble. 

Elliott, Catherine, and Claire De Than. “Prosecuting the Drug Dealer When a Drug User Dies: R v Kennedy (No 2).” Modern Law Review, vol. 69, no. 6, 2006, pp. 986–995., https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.2006.00619.x.

Not what the Doctor Ordered: Motivations for non-medical drug use among people who use illegal drugs

Non-medical prescription drug use is used commonly when discussing illegal drug usage. Many substance abusers actually need the drugs for real medical issues that they have. Doses of certain medicines need to be more accessible with a closer watch. Medically ill people should not have to look for outside sources in order to alleviate pain from real medical needs. Doctors need to pay closer attention to patients that received initial medically prescribed drug patients in case they need more, or the drug is harming them more than doing good. In general, drugs should be more readily accessible but in legal and controlled ways. 

R;, May T;Holloway K;Buhociu M;Hills. “Not What the Doctor Ordered: Motivations for Nonmedical Prescription Drug Use among People Who Use Illegal Drugs.” The International Journal on Drug Policy, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2020, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32585584/.

Leading a Horse to Water: Facilitating Registration and Use of a Prescription Drug Monitoring Program

Prescription Drug Monitoring programs (PDMP) have been established in an effort to limit drug abuse and control substance usage. While drug monitoring programs have existed for years, these institutions need improvement as patients complain about insurance coverage, faster entry of pharmacy data, and use of unique patient identifiers. By using these programs, drug usage becomes more available for patients who need it which would limit them searching for outside sources. Increasing illegal drug use can be prosecuted with larger sentences as well because patients won’t have an excuse for their drug use. If they medically need it, they could apply to one of the PDMP for safe and monitored use. 

Deyo RA;Irvine JM;Hallvik SE;Hildebran C;Beran T;Millet LM;Marino M; “Leading a Horse to Water: Facilitating Registration and Use of a Prescription Drug Monitoring Program.” The Clinical Journal of Pain, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2015, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25380223/.

Topics for Smaller Papers

It is important to distinguish what you are referring to when you are talking about substance abuse. There are many different types of substances that people use, and each need different solutions from each other.

An important Causal Relationship essential to my research is the effect of abusing drugs. To understand the severity of drugs and how bad they are for you, you must realize how harmful they are and how many deaths they are causing. With this awareness, you would be more careful to start drugs.

A good counterargument to the argument to increase sentences for drug distribution is that people may fear to call in overdoses when calling the ambulance. This would lead to more deaths because some people can be saved even after an overdose. To save someone’s life, maybe immunity can be granted on both people as long as they attend a program to help them stop.

Current State

I’m feeling a little lost on what topic to exactly pursue with my paper. I realized that my initial topic of smoking has been too widely researched for me to produce anything new so I changed it more to medical misuse of prescribing drugs. I found some interesting articles discussing this so I will continue to research this. I don’t know whether or not I did the smaller paper assignments correctly, but I feel good about the Purposeful Summaries.