Running head: Drug Addiction Analysis !

Drug Addiction Analysis

Morgan Buchko

Arizona State University

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Abstract

In this essay I will be discussing the article, The Destructive Capacity of Drug Abuse: An

Overview Exploring the Harmful Potential of Drug Abuse Both to the Individual and to Society

by Thomas Peter Fox, Govind Oliver, and Sophie Marie Ellis. This is a review article about the

epidemic of drug addiction. This paper will analyze the effects from this writers review. How he

appeals to the ethos, pathos, logos, and kairos needed to effectively analysis a article or situation.

This paper is to explain the use of these in the article and the effectiveness.

Keywords: Drug Addiction, ethos, pathos, logos, kairos, appeal to,

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Drug Addiction Analysis

Drug addiction, it is a funny thing isn't it. Many of us believe that it could never happen

to us or to our family. Thats the shocking thing however, it always grabs ahold of the best family

there is in todays society. The family that is perfect, has the blue eyes, blonde hair, tall, skinny,

comfortable living, perfect happy family. It is the family no one would expect this awful disease

to capture. Drug addiction is an epidemic taking over the world. Thats it, addiction is an awful

disease. It destroys the family and the person it captures.

The article The Destructive Capacity of Drug Abuse: An Overview Exploring the

Harmful Potential of Drug Abuse Both to the Individual and to Society explains every aspect of

addiction. It explains the physical addiction, the mental, the psychological impact, and how it

changes the brain and thinking process. As shown in the article, Dependence can be a physical

or emotional adaptive state which results from the bodys homeostatic response to repeated drug

administration (page 2). It even explains how it affects the children, the family, even the

community and society that surrounds the addict. For example on the children specifically,One

of the biggest impacts abuse has is upon the children or dependants of the abuser (page 3). Not

only does this cause a right now problem but it causes life-long health issues. As stated in the

article, As well as acute physical harm, many drugs when used repeatedly over time have

chronic physical consequences. The long-term health problem can either be directly related to the

effect of the drug or due to the method of drug administration (page 1).
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Fox, Oliver, and Ellis make this a strong analysis and review for the persuasive argument

text it is reviewing by appealing to ethos, pathos, and logos of us, the readers. This article is

arguing how this is truly a psychological disease and does not only affect just one person, it

affects everyone connected to that person if not the whole world. As stated in the article, The

cost to the community and society of drug abuse is colossal. Drug abuse has a significant impact

on healthcare services, public services, and criminal justice system ( page 3). This shows how

the abuse of drugs across the world affect every society it is present in. It also proves that this

horrible addiction causes life longs affects. It is not just a right now problem, it is a life-long

battle this person will face. The article is very effective in proving the argument of how drug

addiction affects both the individual and the society.

The article, The Destructive Capacity of Drug Abuse: An Overview Exploring the

Harmful Potential of Drug Abuse Both to the Individual and to Society uses the strong

technique of rhetorical analysis. Ethos is the appeal to ethics. Ethos can cover a wide range of

standards that make the analysis viable and reasonable. It uses everything from their past and

present and their own reputation. The reputation of these authors is unknown at the initial

reading of this article. Before conducting any research on the three authors of this text we are

able to discover the appeal to ethics from the writers. Judging from just reading the article it is

clear the authors are well versed in this subject. They conduct themselves in a matter that does

not discriminate or be-little any addict or family of an addict, but they inform the reader. For

example, Relapse is a very common problem during rehabilitation from opiate use (page 2).

They are not saying the addict who relapses is weak but saying that it is a common process in the

edicts rehabilitation. That is the purpose of these authors. Their purpose is to inform us as readers
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and to argue their side of the argument. The article is written in a way that gradually progresses

and with no information about the authors themselves, we are able to accept and believe the

authors when they inform us with information we may not know is true or not.

However, as humans we do live in a world where we do not easily believe others who we

do not know or their backgrounds perhaps. With this trait as human beings we can not help

ourselves but to conduct some of our own research. One fact that helps us as humans believe that

these authors are true, honest and reliable, is knowing where the come from and where the article

was published. This particular article was published in Kings College Hospital London, NHS

Foundation Trust and International Scholarly Research Notices. These are world known

websites and organizations that have been well trusted for years. They only publish what is

honestly true and reliable form credible sources.

Thomas Peter Fox is known as a Clinical Pharmacology, Psychiatry, and a specialist in

Addiction Medicine. He has also published over nine articles on the topic of addiction. Govind

Oliver is a British Red Cross member and HCRI Research Fellow. He has helped published and

research multiple articles as well as this one and also has had first hand experience with

addiction. Finally, but far from least important is Sophie Marie Ellis. She is a member of KING'S

COLLEGE HOSPITAL NHS FOUNDATION TRUST as well. We know where this article was

published and the authors by looking at the top of the article and researching about the authors.

This helps justify the credibility as she comes from the very organization this article was

published in. This hospital trust would not put themselves in a position to be made out to not be

credible or possibly slaughter their reputation.

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Without appealing to the logic, logos, this article would not make an outstanding effect of

a reader. The reader has already appealed to the ethics and will soon appeal to pathos , but first

must grab the attention and correctly argue this article by making the articles logically in the

minds of the readers. This is majorly discussed and shown in section two of the article. Section

two of the article is where it proves how it is a psychological disorder and greatly affects the

brain and creates life-long problems for the individual as well as their family. For example it

stats, Reinforcers such as food extracellular dopamine in the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) via the

mesocorticolimbic pathway. This results in the sensation of reward. All known addictive drugs

activate this pathway but at levels up to ten times greater than food (page 2). In this section it

discussed multiple different drugs and multiple different side affects it has on the individual. It

discusses the affects on the brain, the dependence of the drugs, and how it changes the

neurological pathways. As discussed in the article, Dependence can be a physical or emotional

adaptive state which results from the bodys homeostatic response to repeated drug

administration. Upon cessation of the drug, the homeostasis is lost and the dependence is

unmasked, for example, cold turkey with heroin dependence (page 2). This shows how the

addiction takes over the brain and it is not only a choice anymore. It shows how different drugs

have different effects but have related damage and how even different drugs, such as heroin and

opioids have the same effect.

This article appeals to the sense of pathos greatly throughout this article. It is possible the

most effective method used through to prove their argument. In this article the authors do a very

effective job of this method. They appeal to the emotion so families, mothers, siblings, and the

society as a whole. They show how this disease tears a family apart. It argues how this disease
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does not only affect the addict themselves, but also their family and community. Fox, Oliver, and

Ellis pull at the heart strings of the reader by making this disease seem non-imaginary to a

individual who has not experienced for themselves. As stated in the article, A recent study on

school-aged children has demonstrated that prenatal cocaine exposure is reliably associated with

impairments in attention and behavioral problems (page 3). This makes it hit home for the

reader, even if they haven't experienced this for themselves, how much of a problem this presents

for this world and society as a whole. It makes it a real life situation not just a what if?

situation. All of this is discussed in the third section of this article, The Effect of drug use on

Families, Communities, and Society. It appeals to the emotions by applying shockingly real

statistics and the reality of this situation. Even though it does not give personal or real life

examples it gives facts, and statistics that can make the reader, us, imagine ourselves in a

situation with our own family.

Drug abuse has damaging consequences and the authors of the article, The Destructive

Capacity of Drug Abuse: An Overview Exploring the Harmful Potential of Drug Abuse Both to

the Individual and to Society have applied the use of rhetorical appeals to prove the point of

their argument that drug addiction has an effect on not only the individual but also to society,

their own and the worlds. It is important to understand these claims to be able to understand the

article written to inform the readers and of this world epidemic. The claims made are here to help

make a reader choose an educated decision of how they feel about a topic when they are unsure

of weather it is comparable or not. It is to make a decision easier and more educated when there

are so many different views on a world argued topic.

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References

Fox, T. P., Oliver, G., & Ellis, S. M. (2013, July 17). The Destructive Capacity of Drug Abuse:
An Overview Exploring the Harmful Potential of Drug Abuse Both to the Individual and
to Society. Retrieved September 15, 2017, from
https://www.hindawi.com/journals/isrn/2013/450348/