persuasive speech about illegal drugs

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Why we should de-criminalize all drugs

It’s impossible to remove the stigma of addiction while drug use remains illegal – the two concepts are completely at odds with one another

A cross the political spectrum, politicians, law enforcement officials and even many activists are surprisingly united in the belief that addiction is a disease. We need to reduce associated stigma, they intone; “ we can’t arrest our way out ” of the drug problem. Massachusetts is even running a media campaign called “ State without Stigma ” to try to get people to see addiction as illness, not evil.

However, in a country in which the most common reason for being arrested is drug offenses (overwhelmingly, marijuana possession) and which spends tens of billions of dollars on policing and incarcerating drug offenders, these well-intended efforts don’t stand a chance.

We can either criminalize drug possession or fight stigma: we can’t do both at once any more than one runner can sprint in opposite directions at the same time. The whole point of criminalizing drug use is to stigmatize drug users.

Consider why particular acts are seen as crimes in the first place. Behaviors are made illegal because they are seen as harmful or antisocial; the main idea is to deter people from engaging in them by using the law to draw a line. The law says: these actions are socially unacceptable, and anyone who violates them deserves shame, punishment, rejection and moral condemnation.

To argue that “addiction is a disease” while criminalizing possession of the drug involved in the addiction is, then, to make an impossible case. You are saying “I think your addiction is shameful and users of the drugs you take should be caged,” while also claiming “You have an illness that should be treated like any other disease.” Neither cancer patients, nor people with diabetes nor those with depression are put into this double bind: no actual disease is seen this way.

Add to this the fact that the treatment given to people with addiction – unlike treatment for any other disorder, mental or physical – is also heavily moralistic , typically involving prayer, confession and restitution and frequently including deliberate humiliation of a type that is, again, not seen anywhere else in medicine. For example, was there ever a mainstream cardiac rehabilitation program that involved dressing patients who broke rules in drag or diapers? Until at least the late 1990s, such treatment was common in addiction programs and deliberately derisive counseling remains so. This, obviously, perpetuates stigma.

Consider, too, the issue of “drug courts” in which the defendant’s medical treatment for addiction is determined by prosecutors and a judge, not by doctors. Punishment for relapse is seen as an acceptable part of the process, something that doesn’t happen in diabetes care or high blood pressure treatment. Worse, more than half of these courts restrict or entirely reject use of maintenance treatment with methadone or buprenorphine for opioid addictions even though maintenance is both the standard of care and the only treatment that is known to save lives by reducing mortality 50% – or more – compared to other programs. (Although the Obama administration is trying to change this by refusing to fund courts that don’t offer maintenance, many courts rely on state rather than federal funding.)

Importantly, in courts that deal with mentally ill defendants, there is no similar meddling. Because it is not a crime to be mentally ill, judges recognize that the expertise needed to cope with the issue is medical, not moral, and they defer to psychiatrists about what treatment and medications are best. With addiction, since drug possession is a crime, judges feel as though their expertise is what’s needed to stop it.

Of course, it’s not wrong to want to try to end stigma: all of the politicians and advocates are right that stigma and associated shame are a huge part of why people don’t seek addiction help and of why the help on offer is not particularly effective or even available. If we want better drug policy, fighting addiction stigma is a crucial goal.

The methods advocates have suggested, however, are far too weak. Yes, as Massachusetts’ State without Stigma suggests, we can make some progress by doing things like eliminating demeaning language. People with addiction shouldn’t be called “addicts” in the same way that people with schizophrenia shouldn’t be called “schizophrenics”; person-first language recognizes our common humanity.

Further, being drug free shouldn’t be called “clean,” with the implication that active addiction is “dirty”. And terms like “substance abuser” have been shown to make even medical professionals more likely to see punitive approaches as acceptable: better language is “substance use disorder” or “addiction”. Language matters.

But actions matter more. If we really want to treat addiction like the medical problem it so clearly is, we can’t use the criminal justice system to arrest people for showing symptoms of it. If you want to fight stigma, you’ve got to first fight criminalization and reform the coercive and demeaning addiction treatment system that has been warped by it.

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Speech on Drug Abuse in English in Simple and easy Words

Table of Contents

Speech on Drug Abuse: Drug abuse has become the most common thing these days and many youth are destroying their lives by getting addicted to drugs. It’s very important to sensitize our youth on the subject of drug abuse. They are ruining the lives of our youth and putting their future in a great darkness. The use of drugs is making their lives vulnerable and prone to destruction. Therefore, it becomes very important to raise awareness about it amongst our youth and prevent them from succumbing to it. The International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking is celebrated annually on June 26th it serves as a significant platform for raising awareness and addressing the critical issue of substance abuse. You can even prepare a speech on drug abuse and deliver it on various occasions and platforms.

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Long and Short Speeches on Drug Abuse in English

For your help, we have posted below some short speech on drug abuse as well as long speech on drug abuse, which will give you a comprehensive understanding of the subject matter and help you create an impressive brief to impress upon your audience and bring a change in society.

Speech on Drug Abuse – Speech 1

Dear Students – Warm Greetings to all of you! I welcome everyone to the school seminar hall.

Today, we are here to discuss about the fatal consumption of drugs and how it is destroying the lives of our youth. But before the discussion begins, I would like to deliver a short speech on drug abuse and would like to enlighten our students on this sensitive subject matter.

Drugs, as we all know, are an illegal matter which some people drink, smoke, inject or eat for the mental as well as physical effects that it leaves. There are several students who consume drugs out of fun or for various other reasons. People who deal in the selling of drugs create a network and mainly target students in order to make them addicted to drugs. Initially, the drugs are sold to the students for free and gradually when they get addicted to it, they start buying and consuming it. In fact, the students also eventually become a part of their network and start dealing in it.

It is observed that students start consuming drugs out of stress or unfair expectations of their teachers as well as parents. Lack of emotional support and disorder in their families make them vulnerable and increase their dependency on drugs. They use it in order to calm down their state of mental agitation. Other than this, it is poverty that compels some students to become a part of the selling and dealing network of drugs and derive their pocket money. Therefore, it becomes like a vicious circle of the drug addicted students from which they seem to find no escape unless the society comes for their rescue.

Sadly, the students fail to realize that the consumption of drugs has a severe impact on their physical and mental health, such as they start experiencing mental disorder, their intelligence level decreases, experience deadly diseases and untimely death. When one completely succumbs to the temptation of drugs, it gets very difficult for him/her to recover from its impact except in the centers for drug rehabilitation where they gain a new life, but which involves a high cost. In fact, there are many cases too where even rehabilitation centers fail because of the worst condition of the patients.

I, therefore, request all the students to refrain themselves completely from the consumption of drugs before it destroys their health, future and takes away their lives. Don’t even try to touch or come close to them. Drugs can even destroy a complete generation. So think wise and act smart. Shape your future which seems bright and full of achievements. The drugs that doctor prescribes to his/her patients must only be taken in order to combat a specific disease otherwise the government must take strict measures to ban its illegal trade in the market and save our youth from destruction.

I want to conclude by saying that drug abuse should be an absolute ‘No’ for all and I sincerely hope that our students will never ever try to consume drugs and will completely stay away from its use. Remember that our country needs you as you are its future and harbinger of progress.

Also Read: Essay on Drug Abuse

Speech on Drug Abuse – Speech 2

Good Morning Friends – Welcome to the 77 th campaign for drug addiction ban.

It feels extremely great to see how the members of our organization are working hard in order to make every day count and reach out to the masses for spreading awareness about the drug addiction or drug abuse. Since day one and today it’s the 77 th campaign of our organization – we haven’t really ever thought that we will grow this big, i.e. currently we have more than 200 people working for us and have gained a mass appeal. The response so far has been really good and we have been able to transform the life of the people for good, who earlier have been living under the influence of drugs.

So today I would further like to appeal to the masses to refrain themselves from using drugs and live a healthy life. Drug addiction or drug abuse is described as an excessive dependency on a substance, which inevitably becomes the compulsive need of the person using it. This need becomes so compulsive that without that substance the person cannot live his life like a normal person does. And, when such a substance is stopped being available in the market then that person is believed to be suffering from substance withdrawal.

The addiction of drugs has become one of the serious social problems in many developing as well as developed countries and it undeniably proves to be the principal obstruction in the all-round development of the people, society, country and the world at a large. Our country is a progressing country and it is already afflicted with so many other grave problems, such as unemployment, poverty and illiteracy that the problem of Adolescence and Drug abuse makes the situation even worse here as it further makes our economy regressive by destroying the lives of its youth.

Even sadder is the fact that several drug addicts cannot afford to make a purchase of expensive drugs so much so that in the end they have to resort to such activities as theft in their homes. These people are not born thieves, but their addiction to drugs makes them heinous and propels them to commit crimes in order to feed their body with drugs.

People can become addicted to drugs because of various reasons, some of which are mentioned below:

1. In order to de-stress themselves

When a person is under the influence of drugs, he/she forgets everything and enters into a trance-like state. However, it is only later that people realize that the use of drugs is only aggravating the problem and not really helping them in getting rid of the stress.

2. Out of peer pressure

Many times, people start taking drugs because their friends are addicted to them. However, once they start taking it, it becomes really difficult for them to get rid of this habit.

3. Style Statement

Many teenagers these days think that the habit of drinking, smoking and even drug addiction is what helps them look cool and create a style statement in the front of others. However, it’s only when these people get trapped in its vicious circle that they realize the irreparable they have caused to their lives.

Teenagers and every person for that matter must understand that the habit of drug abuse not only greatly affects their body and mind, but also finishes their bright future. So we should strictly say ‘No’ to drugs and save our lives as well the lives of our loved ones by spreading awareness in our surroundings.

Also Read: Speech on Adult Education

Speech on Drug Abuse – Speech 3

Respected Principal, Vice Principal, Teachers and My Dear Fellow Students – Warm Welcome to all of you! Today, standing in the prayer hall I would like to take this opportunity to deliver a brief speech on Drug Abuse.

I request our principal and teachers to kindly allow me to speak on this subject as it is a high time to enlighten our youth about the dangerous habit of drug abuse. In the present times, there are many factors that push a man to resort to drug addiction and make his/her life miserable. The most glaring factors are rapid industrialization and urbanization, which have given birth to a new kind of behavior among the youth of today, i.e. individualism and permissiveness. People these days prefer nuclear families and in many cases both parents are working, as a consequence of which they become less forbearing in comparison to their previous generations. People are living their lives in isolation and avoid getting social because the stress in the modern times has become way too much to make them withdrawn figures in their personal lives.

In the end, such people become involved in the habit of drinking, smoking, drug addiction, etc. Besides, when a child doesn’t feel satisfied at home or when he/she is deprived of love, affection and care of his/her parents, a feeling of discontentment comes in and such children become prone to drug addiction and ruin their lives completely. What is more painful to see that if the drug addicted people are not allowed the use of drugs, then he/she suffers from bouts of depression, painful and uncontrollable convulsions as well as vomiting!

It is an obvious fact that the addiction of drugs is ruining the path of progress of many individuals and our nation as a whole so much so that proactive measures need to be taken in order to keep a check on this destructive habit of our youth. The most significant step in this direction would be about spreading awareness amongst the people on a national scale.

Our Indian government has in fact formulated various campaigns and even has been able to gain success in this direction. The individuals whose family and friends suffer from the addiction of drugs are requested to approach the rehabilitation institutions and camps in order to provide treatment to the addicts.

Drug abuse should not be tolerated and be completely banned as a taboo. However, it is not advised to torture the addict or treat him/her inhumanely for this habit because if you try and convince the person about its treatment then he/she may willingly choose to opt for it and get rid of this addiction by admitting himself/herself at the rehabilitation centers.

A person who has become the victim of drug abuse is forced by his/her bodily conditions to carry on with the addiction, but sooner they realize the bad impact of this habit. All that these people need is a helping hand and therefore we should provide encouragement as well as support to these people in making these addicts come back to their normal lives and lead a healthy life.

Speech on Drug Abuse – Speech 4

Hon’ble Principal, Vice Principal, Fellow Colleagues and My Dear Students – Warm Greetings to one and all!

Firstly, I would like to extend a note of thank you to our respected Principal and Vice Principal for gracing this speech ceremony with their presence and giving their approval too. And, to all the fellow teachers – as without your support this event wouldn’t have been possible. I would also like to congratulate our dear students for making the desired arrangement on a short notice.

The topic for today’s speech is Drug Abuse! I have chosen to speak on this topic because these days I observe many campaigns being run on Drug Abuse in order to teach the people about its ill effects. As a teacher, it also becomes my responsibility to help them spread the message wherever we can and most importantly beginning from our very own school.

Drug abuse is considered one of the banes of our so called civilized society. It has affected all the sections and regions of our society. People with the illicit use of drug are found everywhere, i.e. in urban and rural regions, among men and women, among rich and poor. But it is exceedingly practiced by our young girls and boys living in hostels in nearly all technical and educational institutions.

The grave situation of drug abuse is prevalent across the world and unfortunately our very country India is more strongly affected by it. Our country is a transit country because it is placed between the Golden Triangle consisting of Burma, Thailand and Cambodia, including Golden Crescent consisting of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran – the places where most of the drugs, chiefly heroin and opium are produced. Pakistan is undeniably the nucleus of the world when it comes to any unlawful activity and as far as the drug production is concerned – it is the hub. In fact, a big proportion of drugs go by India in order that it can be exported to other countries.

This happens through the network of drug mafia who further has connections with formidable smugglers as well as terrorists. In the process, unfortunately several young men as well as women become victims to this diabolic activity. Pakistan with the help of ISI is involving itself in a proxy war in the region of Kashmir against India through money earned with the help of drug mafia. Thus, terrorism and drugs share very strong connections.

This addiction to drug is so deadly that people fall prey to its use and become almost a slave. If a person doesn’t get its regular dose, then that person starts feeling a lack of it and becomes depressed with severe pain which even leads to a lack of sensation in arms and legs. Drugs are of various kinds, such as heroin, opium, charas, ganja, etc.

There are some injections too which lead to a state of severe drowsiness. In case, a drug-addict is not able to receive the required dose of drug when needed, then he/she would be ready to do anything for it even by resorting to unfair means, such as theft or may be hurting someone physically, etc.

I therefore request everyone to strictly say ‘No’ to drugs and get such people admitted to rehabilitation centers where their conditions can be improved before it gets horrible and proves fatal for that person.

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Speech on Drug Abuse Faq’s

What is the topic of drug abuse day.

Drug Abuse Day focuses on raising awareness about the harmful effects of drug misuse and addiction.

What is drug abuse in the English language?

Drug abuse in English refers to the harmful and improper use of drugs, often leading to health and social problems.

How can we say no to drugs?

We can say no to drugs by staying informed, making healthy choices, and seeking support from friends and family when faced with drug temptations.

How to write an essay about drugs?

To write an essay about drugs, start with an introduction, discuss the impacts, causes, and solutions, and conclude with your viewpoint on the topic.

What is drugs summary?

A drugs summary is a brief overview of key information about drugs, including their effects, risks, and uses.

What is drug abuse in a short introduction?

Drug abuse is when people misuse drugs, causing harm to themselves and society. It's a serious problem that needs attention.

What are a few lines on addiction?

Addiction is a strong, harmful craving for something, like drugs, that can be very difficult to control. It can lead to serious problems.

We can say no to drugs by being strong, confident, and making choices that keep us safe and healthy.

Addiction is a powerful need for something that can be harmful, like drugs or alcohol. It can affect a person's life in many negative ways.

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Sample Persuasive Speech: Marijuana should/should not be legalized

The war on drugs has been lost. Marijuana users are aware of all health hazards their addiction to marijuana may led them to; but no authority of law is capable of preventing them from smoking marijuana as one of their favorites. Legalization of marijuana would lead to a better control of its consumption. Besides, marijuana, legal as tobacco, would turn people from illegal drugs, which are more expensive and much more dangerous. Marijuana is considered a gateway drug that causes problems at home and at work, reduces concentration, learning, and memory powers, releases dopamine that gives a feeling of euphoria, and contains cancer-causing agents. Illegal status of marijuana solves no problems of drug abuse. In 2006, American marijuana farmers grew 22.3 million pounds of marijuana. The top outdoor producers are California, Tennessee, Kentucky, Hawaii, and North Carolina. Great material sources are spent on eradicating marijuana crops, but, like with a wave of a magic hand, they grow in more and more unpredictable locations. Why not to legalize marijuana? The war against marijuana was unleashed 76 years ago when Congress passed the Marijuana Tax Act on the basis of a poorly tested testimony that it could cause insanity, criminality, and death. The 1951 Boggs Act and the 1956 Daniel Act increased penalties, promoting the gateway theory (Gettman, 2006). The war is still on, although it has been proved that marijuana is not more dangerous than tobacco or alcohol. Marijuana has been used for centuries for medicinal purposes. It has healing properties. Unlike tobacco and alcohol, marijuana may serve people in a couple of ways. First, marijuana improves appetite. Second, it prevents AIDS patients from weight loss. Third, it helps glaucoma patients lessen eye pressure. Fourth, it reduces nausea caused by radiation and chemotherapeutic treatments. Fifth, it is an effective painkiller. Thus, marijuana helps these patients improve their condition. Nine states, among them Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington, have passed legislation that permits marijuana use for medical purposes. Current research has proved that marijuana is not physically addicting. What is more, it has been proved that no physical withdrawal symptoms occur when marijuana use is stopped. Marijuana’s status must be reconsidered legislatively. Marijuana must be excluded from the war on drugs content because it is less abusive than alcohol. Legalization implies better control. When better controlled, marijuana would serve people who need its healing properties. People should be free to decide whether they like marijuana as a recreational drug or not. When tempted, we often desire something that is hard to reach. The younger people, the more tempted they are to break rules. Welcoming marijuana, we would think of drug addiction in a new paradigm than before.

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Short Speech on Drug Addiction in English for Students and Children

Good morning all of you! Respected Principal, teachers and my dear friends. Thank you for being present here on this special occasion.

Today I am going to speak on the topic- ‘Drugs Addiction’. Today’s youth addiction to drugs has drawn my attention to this topic.

Drugs are chemical substances which have an effect on our body. There are two types of drugs, one is legal and the second one is illegal. The legal drugs are basically the medicines which we use in our everyday use for various problems in our body such as body ache, headache, etc. These drugs are to cure our body ailments.

But the illegal drugs are the ones that are used to get into the state of being intoxicated or drunk. This helps people to lose their senses and forget everything. Consumption of such drugs is illegal and can have an adverse effect on our body. It can affect us badly both physically and mentally.

Young people often start with just tasting of these drugs and then end up getting addicted to it. They do this due to various reasons. They consume it sometimes because of unfair expectations and stress. The drugs make them feel high and its after-effects are quite relaxing. But its effects, in the long run, can damage their brain, liver, etc.

Students also get into this drug addiction when they fail to get emotional support. So they turn themselves towards drugs to calm their agitation and anger.

Poverty is also one of the reasons behind this drug-selling network. Drug sellers target students and make them addicted to drugs. Initially, they give drugs to the students for free and once, they get addicted, they start charging them. They also target poor children and make them sell drugs in order to earn some money.

Drug consumption makes students mentally and physically weak. It also attracts various diseases. It makes students depressed and makes their recovery difficult.

In the end, I would request you all to stay away from drugs and always reach your parents and family to resolve any problems in your life. Drugs may look attractive initially but it has the capacity to destroy the future of a person. We should say complete ‘No’ to the drugs.

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