The word addiction can mean a lot of different things, to a lot of different people. For most, addiction is just the idea of not being able to give something up. Addiction is classified as a brain disease. Addiction causes compulsive substance abuse, despite any harm that could come from it. The city of Vancouver is facing an addiction problem among their people.
In Vancouver, there has been a heavy and dangerous use of heroin. Heroin is a highly addictive street drug that is very popular in Vancouver. People who suffer from this addiction are willing to go to extreme lengths to acquire this drug. Addiction can ruin a person’s health, relationships, careers, and much else. Vancouver is seeking out these addicts with the idea of helping them with their addiction.
Vancouver has set up an experiment where they will give some addicts doses of methadone and other addicts doses of heroin. They have set up something called Insite, which is essentially just safe zones for people to go to in order to receive the free doses of heroin. Most of these people would be out on the street committing crimes and stealing in order to get their hands on heroin. These has increased the crime rate in Vancouver and it is dangerous for the people in the city. They go through committing crime, just to be left with heroin from the street and unsanitary needles. These safe zones protect these people from being arrested, where as out on the street, police would most likely have multiple reasons to arrest these people. The Insite zones also provide these addicts with some of the best heroin around, as well as clean and sanitary needles.
What Vancouver is doing does not seem to make much sense on the surface, but really looking into what they are doing, they really can help these people in a different way. Of course many people would think it does not make sense to give heroin users heroin, but it is the way they are supplying the addicts. If Vancouver did not have these safe zones, then these people would be out on the street getting heroin some way some how. Unfortunately, that is part of being an addict and having such an addiction to a substance. Addiction interferes with a person’s life so much because the need for the substance becomes compulsive and it is all they think about. Vancouver’s idea may seem crazy, but it is helping their city and these people tremendously and that is really what counts.
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Counterintuitive Spring 2024 
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Feedback provided. —DSH
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Hey, taddo.
P1. Your first sentence is probably true, but it’s the opposite of what you want to do with your first sentence. Instead of suggesting that anybody’s definition is good enough, you want to insist that we all agree to use YOUR definition in the context of your essay.
OR: if your essay’s intention is to demonstrate that someone else’s definition of addiction is flawed, or irrelevant, or useless, then once again, your job is to insist that you have and will share the CORRECT, or IMPORTANT, or RELEVANT definition for the job at hand. Let’s see which one applies in this case.
2nd sentence. Does this matter? If they’re right, it does. If they’re wrong, it doesn’t.
3rd sentence: By whom? By you? You’re delaying saying what addiction IS by telling us what addiction IS SAID to be.
4th sentence: Sounds like a claim. Is this your definition? I accept it if it is, even though it doesn’t apply to non-substance addictions like gambling, or pornography, or workaholism.
5th sentence. OK. You have a definition and a location. Now, what do you want your first paragraph to accomplish?
Recommended first sentence: Vancouver’s heroin addicts have resisted every government program to curb them, cure them, break them of their addiction, get them off the street, and keep them out of emergency rooms, police stations, back alleys, and morgues. So far the city has failed.
Read this again, taddo.
Then read your first paragraph again:
(addiction can mean), (addiction is just the idea), (addiction is classified), (addiction causes), (Vancouver is facing).
Which one do you want to read?
P2. Your claim is that Vancouver is trying to “help” desperate heroin addicts.
P3. Your claim is that Vancouver is providing free heroin and clean needles to addicts who would commit crimes to buy unsafe heroin and inject it with unsanitary needles.
P4. Your claim is that Vancouver’s program is not crazy because it provides heroin to addicts in “a different way.”
Would you be convinced by the argument above to endorse the Vancouver program? Or would you have 1000 questions about the “way” they use to provide drugs to addicts, and how that “way” benefits society or the addicts or both?
Also, how is this a Definition Essay? Your P1 introduces the idea that you might try to define “addiction,” but frankly, you don’t, and it’s hard to imagine why you would need to . . .
UNLESS, you meant to argue that there’s no point trying to CURE 90% of ADDICTS. Maybe you want to argue that keeping them off the street and out of the emergency rooms and police stations is a sufficient social benefit to warrant a program of providing them what they need. Maybe?
Is any of this helpful?
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Sad to see no improvements following feedback.
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