Drug Use as a Destructive Naturally Loathsome Pandora Box

Introduction

Rob Delaney’s article Drugs will Kill your Friends published by the Atlantic magazine in 2013 describes a drug addict’s journey and the destructive impacts drug use has on individuals and families. The author makes a serious argument for the negative implications of drugs by comparing rehab or halfway houses to war because not all people who go through this journey make it as drug addiction can be compared to facing powerful adversaries and as opposed to the external nature of combat drug addiction occurs inside the individual. The significance of this story is that it is particularly persuasive as the Delaney extensively utilizes pathos to persuade readers not to engage in drug use. It is for this reason that David Barash, in his article “Two Cheers for Nature,” he suggests that because some things while natural are loathsome, they are best left alone.  Thus,Barash seems to contend that everything in this world cannot be unnatural, but it is crucial to understand the folly and avoid it with all determination. Arguably,drug use incorporates various issues such as the laws of natural selection because once fed; a human being will choose something that makes him feel alive. As such, drugs should be a no go zone because the act is ideally a Pandora box for those who have never used it.

Drugs as Naturally Destructive Agents

Drugs are destructive, as explained by Delaney as he recounted three of his friends who died due to that practice. His friend Chris died from both Cocaine and Heroin abuse, and due to drugs, his arm was severely infected, as evidenced by a big abscess where he shot the needles(Delaney, 3). Delaney also recounts when he was younger when Boston Celtics drafted the young Len Bias, who died prematurely from Cocaine. Delaney’s other friend, Arturo a Mexican bass player and crack smoker who shot himself after rehab. As well, the author also explained the pain of losing a talented doctor who overdosed on some prescription drugs. From this story, it shows that all the individuals having drug use issues had their ways of making sense of living. Chris and Arturo were musicians while Luke has a significant job as a doctor, so he was responsible for other peoples’ lives. The author used a very persuasive language to illustrate empathy and how it affected him, and also Luke’s brother, who called Delaney a few days after his brother died. Besides the loss of life, the quality of life is highly reduced due to drug use. For example, Delaney and Luke met at an emergency room where he was admitted for an infection due to his excessive alcohol abuse that could lead to a kidney bleed. Similarly, Chris faced infection issues due to the extreme trauma on the arm he used for injection, causing an abscess and, ultimately, infection. As such, drugs are destructive not only because they lessen the quality of life but because they often disrupt active lives making individuals’ zombies.

Barash provides a reason why addicts may keep using to the point of no return is due to the law of natural selection. The law of natural selection affirms that “Nature, acting through natural selection, whispers in our ears—cajoling, seducing, imploring, sometimes threatening or demanding—and undoubtedly inclining us in one direction or another” (Barash, 11). The claim that natural selection is a seriously hindering factor to decision autonomy is one significant reason that may cause drug addiction because natural selection necessarily obliges one to do what they deem as good and for the body and hence it is normal for a person to drink, sleep or get sexual satisfaction when that act is deemed fit. However, the law of natural selection here goes against ethics and morality, which are also essential aspects. Looking at three of Delaney’s friends, the act of natural selection takes over because all of them seem to have wanted to feel good by taking drugs as opposed to being sober, mostly because they want to feel good. Therefore, while their behaviors obey the natural, it is not to mean that their actions were ethical or moral because firstly, their taking drugs is irrational and immortal. Also, they cause pain and suffering to families, as in the case of Luke, and thus, their decisions are unethical. The actions by the addicts are selfish and are, therefore, compared to the act of adult Robins feeding on their offspring, which is very disquieting..

From Delaney’s article, the author uses persuasion to indicate the short-term and long-term implications of drug abuse. In one instance, Delaney affirmed that recovering from drug abuse is a naturally complex process that left him severely lonely and that due to drug use, their people feel the incredible need to have human comfort. To reduce these feelings, drug addicts usually say masturbate or take a significant amount of sugar. Delaney explained that these activities occurred early during sobriety and thus were methods of overcoming drug use, however, both actions attempted to divert from natural selection of feeling right effects, which for most people backfire because ultimately, the desire for drugs is very intensive which often leads to overdose. Delaney stated that he had never taken hard drugs or prescriptions because when he was younger, he had understood the severity of Cocaine. However, Delaney got into alcohol, which is even worse than all other hard drugs combined because it kills more people than all other drugs combined. The significance of this example is that the author wanted to demonstrate that “In the nonfiction world we all inhabit, there are pleasure and pain, suffering and delight, eaten and eater, life and death, growth and decay” (Barash, 22) all dependent on life choices mainly based on how ethical and moral judgments are and not in how they make people feel.

It is imperative to note that Delaney’s primary audience is not drug addicts but those who are using and on the road to addiction or those that have never used it. In concluding his, article Delaney proclaims that the deaths of his three friends are not just a cautionary tale for people. Thus, Delaney, in a way, made an argument to note that drugs are destructive. Hence, it is essential to heed Barash’s evidence that people, instead of emulating nature or heeding as it does, including the kind of natural selection people must then do good. Barach’spresumption takes Philosopher and mathematician Gottfried Leibniz’s viewpoint that because God created the world, then it must be the best of all possible worlds meaning that it is best to emulate a world where one does good and not merely taking in the pleasures bound the body with all the strength and determination. Hence, Delaney seemed to point out that drugs are like a paradox box and once open become very problematic and therefore it is best to become cautious because while medicines are natural; they are better not taken and instead people should use all their strength and determination to avoid negative behaviors such as drugs regardless of how innocent they might seem. That is the idea of the Pandora box.

Conclusion

One crucial factor to note is that the laws of natural selection state that human beings will be seduced by behaviors that often make them feel good. Therefore, people who do not use drugs should treat drugs as a cautionary tale and also as a Pandora box that waits to be open without any answers. Drugs impact on individuals and societies negatively, and Delaney’s article was vital in making a critical argument about why drugs kill friends. The significance of this paper is that Delaney’s essay provides a persuasive argument on the destructive nature of drugs. At the same time, Barach’s viewpoint gives a grounding proof on what readers should do to mitigate drug use. Thus, both articles, when combined, formulate a concise argument on the drug as a Pandora box. Any reader assessing this paper ought to be aware of the nature of natural selection as an innate non-changeable trait and use this law as a means to avoid engaging n destructive behaviors. Delaney proclaimed in his article that he often cried due to the loss of his three friends to drug use because while he was an alcoholic, he noted that substance use is complicated to change an element that causes severe destruction to people, their health, and families.

Works Cited

Barach, David. Two Cheers for Nature. The Chronicle of Higher Education,https://www.chronicle.com/article/Two-Cheers-for-Nature/125651. Accessed 4 March 20202

Delaney, Rob. Drugs Will Kill Your Friends.The Atlantic, https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/11/drugs-will-kill-your-friends/281418/ Accessed 4 March 2020.