Debate----AGAINST

Dr. William Stewart Halsted, also known as “the Father of American Surgery,” became
addicted to cocaine while experimenting with the drug as a surgical anaesthetic. Physicians
treated him with morphine, which led to a second addiction.

Betty, a teenage girl from Nebraska, played varsity lacrosse and was about to go to the
college of her dreams until she tore a ligament. Who knew that this would ruin her life? That
her doctor would be her first dealer. In this vicious cycle, it was no wonder that she
overdosed and had it not been for her timely rescue to the hospital, she would be dead today.

When doctors get addicted to drugs themselves while experimentation, what is the credibility
that patients like Betty wouldn’t become the norm in hospitals if the usage of hardcore drugs
is not prohibited on a larger scale?

The major arguments as to why drugs should be refrained from usage in the case of medicinal
treatment are as follows:

Firstly, most drugs that people consider ‘recreational’ like cocaine or heroin, are actually very
addictive and harmful for the human body and can lead to multiple organ system failures and
death of the individual using them. It doesn’t really matter if the drug is hardcore or
recreational, they cause more harm than good. One example of this is the rare prescription of
oxycontin, which is given for pain control, and is one of the factors in the crackdown of
opioid prescription.

This brings us to the second point. Prescription drugs, specifically with regard to legalized
opioid drugs, have become the root cause of heroin abuse. Around 80 percent of the people
with such an addiction started off on prescription opioids. Moreover, using marijuana has
been linked to be a risk factor between schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, as it
fulfils many criteria for the epidemiological establishment of causation, including
experimental evidence. It can also cause a staggering loss of eight IQ points in teenagers.
Around, 250,000 deaths are caused per year because of drug addiction globally. With that
being said, it is evident that the cons, certainly outweighs the pros.

Lastly, the evidence of the efficacy of these drugs in medical scenarios strongly lacks. For
example, patients who were treated with hallucinogens, such as LSD, and dissociative drugs,
such as PCP, displayed rapid mood swings and hallucinations. Even a safe drug like
marijuana caused effects such as cognitive impairment, and psychomotor impairment.
Even the United Kingdom’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence declined to
approve medicinal cannabis for use in children with severe epilepsy on the NHS, saying there
was not enough evidence to support its use.

In conclusion, I strongly believe and advocate against the prescription of recreational and
hardcore drugs and the reasons are very simple. Something that causes more harm than good
is of no benefit. Be it to the doctor, or the patient.

Thank you!

Toxicity of Beauty Standards

Table of contents:
1. Introduction
2. What are these conventional beauty standards?
3. Effects on people
4. Why we deserve to defy them
5. Conclusion