Source Descriptions #2

Hello hello, as you can probably tell I will once again be going over the usefulness and validity of a few sources that I have collected for my argumentative essay on drugs and harm reduction.

This first source is mostly just going over the impact the “war on drugs” has had on our society. It goes over incarcerations, cost, the impact of harm reduction, and the hones in on the opioid epidemic. In this article’s title it says “By the Numbers” and that is another good aspect of it, the author gets right to the point and is straightforward. The article is more of a list of facts surrounding different our current drug situation in America.

This article is relevant to my paper because it allows me to easily pull useful data from it when trying to convince my audience of my point of view. Some of these numbers that the author states are just so devastating, and I think if more people heard them they wouldn’t be so apt to write off another route of dealing with our societies drug problem. The article also provides some statistics of harm reduction programs and the impact that they have had on the community in which they were used.

Pearl, Betsy. “Ending the War on Drugs: By the Numbers.” Center for American Progress, 27 June 2018, www.americanprogress.org/issues/criminal- justice/reports/2018/06/27/452819/ending-war-drugs-numbers/.

This source has a bit more of a professional and serious tone to it. The article is a bit outdated (published in ’93, but I will continue to use it until I find a more informed and up to date article to use, if I find one) but I think that it still has very useful information that shows the solid ideals of a program like needle exchanges. It addresses several key points like; “Do NEPs (needle exchange programs) Result in Changes in Community Levels of Drug Use?”, “Do NEPs Affect the Number of Discarded Syringes?” (I really like this one, because that is a big argument against why people disagree with needle exchanges), and “How Much Does it Cost to Operate NEPs?”. All of these topics are extremely helpful to look.

A lot of people who disagree with programs like NEPs, say that by giving users more clean needles and injection equipment it leads to more improperly disposed of ones. But in reality most NEPs will only give you a new needle/equipment if you bring an old one back to be properly disposed of. This article is also helpful to my research because it goes over some public opinions on a local NEP, where most community members were actually more against the users being around than they were the actual program itself.

Lurie, Peter, Reingold L., Arthur. “The Public Health Impact of Needle Exchange Programs in the United States and Abroad.” The Regents of the University of California, vol. 1, 1993, pp. 1–33. https://harmreduction.org/wp content/uploads/2012/01/NEPReportSummary1993.pdf