Some people think that drug addicts should be treated like criminals and sent to jail, while others believe that they should be treated like patients and sent to hospital. Discuss both these views and give your opinion
Some people think that drug addicts should be treated like criminals and sent to jail, while others believe that they should be treated like patients and sent to hospital. Discuss both these views and give your opinion There is a belief that drug addicts should be considered criminals and incarcerated. However, the other stance claims that a more appropriate approach is to send them to a medical institution on the grounds that dependency is a medical condition. I side with the second view. Those who support imprisonment argue that people with drug addiction should be treated as criminals when their behaviour violates the law and threatens public order. This is largely because in some countries the possession, purchase or use of illegal substances is itself a criminal offence, regardless of the personal reasons behind it. From this perspective, the legal system cannot ignore such behaviour, because doing so may weaken respect for the law. Another reason is that addiction is sometim...