I affirm: The abuse of illegal drugs ought to be a matter of public health, not of criminal justice.

abuse is defined as improper or excessive use. (wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn) Illegal drugs are defined as chemical substances that are prohibited to be used. Public health is defined as The science and practice of protecting and improving the health of a community, as by preventive medicine, health education, control of communicable diseases, application of sanitary measures, and monitoring of environmental hazards. (http://www.answers.com/topic/public-health) Criminal justice is defined as the system of
law enforcement(http://www.answers.com/topic/criminal-justice) A matter of is a paradigm shift to focus on one system over the other.

My value is morality because ought is a moral obligation. My standard is consequtionalism.

Maximizing all lives is the only way to affirm equal and unconditional human dignity. We must focus on the end results to uphold rights and lives. Cummiskey 1996 (David, Associate Philosophy Professor at Bates College, Kantian Consequentialism, p. 145-146)
We must not obscure the issue by characterizing this type of case as the sacrifice of individuals for some abstract social entity. It is not a question of some persons having to bear the cost for some elusive overall social good. Instead, the question is whether some persons must bear the inescapable cost for the sake of other persons. Robert Nozick, for example, argues that to use a person in this way does not sufficiently respect and take account of the fact that he is a separate person, that his is the only life he has. But why is this not equally true of all those whom we do not save through our failure to act?

By emphasizing solely the one who must bear the cost if we act, we fail to sufficiently respect and take account of the many other separate persons, each with only one life, who will bear the cost of our inaction. In such a situation,
what would a conscientious Kantian agent, an agent motivated by the unconditional value of rational beings, choose? A morally good agent recognizes that the basis of all particular duties is the principle that rational nature exists as an end in itself (GMM 429). Rational nature as such is the supreme objective end of all conduct. If

one truly believes that all rational beings have an equal value, then the rational solution to such a dilemma involves maximally promoting the lives and liberties of as many rational beings as possible (chapter 5). In order to avoid this
conclusion, the non-consequentialist Kantian needs to justify agent-centered constraints. As we saw in chapter 1, however, even most Kantian deontologists recognize that agent-centered constraints require a non- value-based rationale. But we have seen that Kants normative theory is based on an unconditionally valuable end. How can a concern for the value of rational beings lead to a refusal to sacrifice rational beings even when this would prevent other more extensive losses of rational beings? If the moral law is based on the value of rational beings and their ends, then what is the rationale for prohibiting a moral agent from maximally promoting these two tiers of value8

Observation 1: As the resolution does not specify what public health the resolution applies to or what
illegal drugs, the affirmative should be allowed to constitute what public health is and the type of drugs as long as there is sufficient topic literature. The negative should not get to determine what public health is, as it would skew affirmative strategy and destroy clash by making the entirety of the 1AC irrelevant. Observation 2: `For the sake of the debate, the affirmative needs to only show the desirability of public health, as the resolution asks for what ought to be done. It is the duty of the affirmative to identify what is necessary in order to respond to drug abuse, not implementing the system. Thus, I offer the thesis that the abuse of prescription drugs ought to be a matter of public health in order to educate doctors and the public.

Misusing prescription drugs is illegal. (Buddy, T. Using Drugs without a Prescription is Illegal. 22 Febuary 2010. http://alcoholism.about.com/od/teenfaq/a/illegal_pills.htm)
The federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act makes it clear that the only legal way to access prescription drugs is to have a doctor's prescription. An excerpt: No controlled substance in schedule II, which is a prescription drug as determined under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 301 et seq.), may be dispensed without the written prescription of a practitioner. Sometimes even when a doctor does prescribe a drug, it is illegal to do so. For example, if a doctor
Prescription drugs are considered "controlled substances."

writes a prescription for too many pills - either knowing that they are going to be resold or knowing that the amount is way too much medication for a single patient - that too can be a crime.

Double-Doctoring is illegal because seeking or obtaining, or seeking or obtaining authorization to obtain any substance from a practitioner without disclosing the particulars relating to the acquisition or authorization to obtain such substances from any other practitioner within the past 30 days.

Because abuse is defined as improper or excessive use, (wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn)

and when you misuse a prescription drug it is illegal, I am directly linking into the resolution because I am showing how the misuse of illegal drugs ought to be a matter of public health.

Contention 1: Public health is the only way to solve for prescription drug abuse Subpoint A: Education is critical to solve for prescription drug abuse. Prescription drug abuse is worse than illegal drug use. (Szasbo, Liz. Prescriptions now biggest cause of fatal overdoses. USA Today. 8/10/2010. http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-09-30-drug-overdose_N.htm)
Addiction to prescription painkillers which kill thousands of Americans a year has become a largely unrecognized epidemic, experts say. In fact, prescription drugs cause most of the more than 26,000 fatal overdoses each year, says Leonard Paulozzi of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The number of overdose deaths from opioid painkillers opium-like drugs that include morphine and codeine more than tripled from 1999 to 2006, to 13,800 deaths that year, according to CDC statistics released Wednesday. In the past, most overdoses were due to illegal narcotics, such as heroin, with most deaths in big cities. Prescription painkillers have now surpassed heroin and cocaine, however, as the leading cause of fatal overdoses, Paulozzi says. And the rate of fatal overdoses is now about
as high in rural areas 7.8 deaths per 100,000 people as in cities, where the rate is 7.9 deaths per 100,000 people, according to a paper he published last year in Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety.

People are more likely to use medical drugs; they perceive them as safe.
(Laxmaiah Manchikanti, MD. Prescription Drug Abuse: What is Being Done to Add ress This New Drug

Epidemic? Testimony Before the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources. Health Policy Review. Pain Physician. 2006;9,287-321 ISSN 1533-3159.
https://www.asipp.org/documents/PrescriptiondrugabuseWhatisbeing.pdf)

Public perception is that prescription drugs are safer than illicit street drugs (106). The fact that doctors are prescribing these drugs legitimately and with increasing frequency to treat a variety of ailments leads to the misguided and dangerous conclusion that the non-medical use should be equally safe. This misperception of safety may contribute to, for example, the casual attitude of many college students towards abusing stimulants to improve cognitive function and academic performance (29). Greater social acceptability for medicating a growing number of conditions also ad\ds to the perception of safety (138147). In addition, inadequate public perceptions on guarding prescription medications contributes to abuse and diversion. Stephen J. Pasierb (28), president and CEO of The Partnership for a Drug- Free America stated that, the partnerships 18th annual Partnership Attitude Tracking Study (PATS), which examines
teen drug use and attitudes, showed that the intentional abuse of prescription and over-the-counter drugs to get high is now an entrenched behavior among teens. The PATS study confirmed that an alarming number of todays teenagers are more likely to have abused prescriptions and over-the-counter drugs than a variety of illegal drugs like ecstasy, cocaine, crack, and methamphetamine

Doctors are uneducated about prescription drug abuse and have little knowledge on ways to

prevent it.
(Lakes, Franklin. Waging War on Prescription Drug Abuse: New Medco Analysis Reveals Prescription Drug Abusers Engage in Doctor Shopping and Script Filling Across Multiple Pharmacies. PR Newswire. September 29, 2010. http://www.prnewswire.com/newsreleases/waging-war-on-prescription-drug-abuse-new-medco-analysis-reveals-prescription-drugabusers-engage-in-doctor-shopping-and-script-filling-across-multiple-pharmacies-55440287.html) A recent study by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse(CASA) at Columbia University uncovered gaps in healthcare management that open the door for manipulation of the system by patients through "doctor shopping," forgery and deception. According to CASA, more Americans are abusing controlled prescription drugs than cocaine, hallucinogens, inhalants and heroin combined. The study found that 40 percent of physicians do not as about prescription drug abuse when taking a patient's health history, and one-third do not regularly call or obtain records from the patient's previous(or other treating) physician before prescribing a controlled substance. Physicians also cited doctor shopping, patient deception of doctors and forged and altered prescriptions as the primary mechanisms of prescription diversion. "There is a clear need to support the clinical care team with the tools that are necessary to help them identify patients who may be manipulating the system," said Stettin. "High utilization review systems
are one of the secret weapons in the war on prescription drug abuse, and have a valuable place in the arsenal against this type of behavior."

Subpoint B: Education programs succeed. Past campaigns have succeeded.

(Noar, S.M. (2006). A 10-year retrospective of research in health mass media campaigns: Where do we go from here?
Journal of Health Communication,11, 2142.)

campaign advertising resulted in high awareness of the prescription drug media messages. , data prior to the launch of the campaign showed that approximately 30 percent of parents were aware of advertising about prescription drug prevention. This spiked to 64 percent immediately after campaign launch, growing to a maximum of 71 percent in May 2008. These findings are reinforced with data from the campaigns websites. After the first campaign advertisement launched, traffic to the campaign website increased more than 530 percent, and the increased traffic was sustained at 56 percent over the months following the launch.
The data suggest that More specifically

Parents and students are willinging to participate in ending prescription drug threats. R Gil Kerliwoske, director of national drug policy, writes: (R Gil Kerliwoske. Drug waste and disposal: When prescriptions become poison. Office of National Drug control Policy. June 30, 2010.) EPA has awarded two grants for pilot take-back programs. From January to December 2008, the Regional eXcess Medication Disposal Service (RxMEDs) project managed by the Area Resources for Community and Human Services (ARCHS) in St. Louis collected more than 10,000 bottles of over-the-counter and non-controlled prescription drugs during collection days held at pharmacies.11 In addition, through a mail-back return envelope system, the Safe Medicine Disposal for Maine (SMDME) program collected more than 2,300 lbs of drugs, including controlled substances.1 Several States and many localities have organized one-day take-back events in coordination with
Throughout all of New Jerseys 21 counties, over 440 local police departments sheriff departments hosted collection sites. Over 9,000 pounds of prescription drugs (both controlled and non-controlled substances) were collected at the one day take-back event. This event was organized through the Special Agent in Charge DEA New Jersey Division, the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General (OAG), and the Partnership
appropriate law enforcement officials. In 2009, New Jersey held Operation Medicine Cabinet. for a Drug-Free New Jersey. In March of this year, Oregon organized a statewide Prescription Drug Turn-In Day. More than 2,300 individuals took part, turning in more than 4,000 pounds of pills, tablets, and other drugs. The event was coordinated by the Oregon Medical Association Alliance, Community Action to Reduce Substance Abuse, and the Oregon Partnership. Several other States, including Montana and Missouri, have conducted similar take-back days.

Contention 2: Criminal Justice fails

The war on drugs stops the prevention of prescription drug abuse

It is nearly impossible to arrest prescription drug abusers; double doctoring proves. Manchikanti 2:
(Laxmaiah Manchikanti, MD. Prescription Drug Abuse: What is Being Done to Address This New Drug

Epidemic? Testimony Before the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources. Health Policy Review. Pain Physician. 2006;9,287-321 ISSN 1533-3159.
https://www.asipp.org/documents/PrescriptiondrugabuseWhatisbeing.pdf)

Doctor shopping is one of the most common methods of obtaining prescription drugs for legal and illegal use (2-6, 26, 38, 49, 50, 54, 55, 57, 58, 64- 70, 97-99). The majority of physicians perceive doctor shopping as the major mechanism of diversion (25). Doctor shopping typically involves an individual going to several different doctors complaining of a wide array of symptoms in order to get prescriptions. This type of diversion can also involve individuals who use people with legitimate medical needs, like cancer patients, to go to various physicians in several cities to get prescription medications. Patients practicing doctor shopping may target physicians who readily dispense prescriptions without thorough examinations or screening. Some patients with a legitimate medical condition may get prescriptions from multiple physicians in various states or even in the same state (95). It has been reported that individuals may collect thousands of pills during a 1-year period and sell them on the street (95). Recently, some elderly have been
supplementing their Social Security checks by selling part of their prescriptions (100). Street values of drugs are illustrated in Table 7 (38).

Even if criminal justice has solved for illegal drugs, it fails to solve for medication abuse. There has been a direct correlation between the drop of illegal drug usage and medication drug abuse; illegal medication abuse is on the rise and is MORE DANGEROUS than normal drugs; studies prove. (David Gutierrez. Prescription Drugs Kill 300 Percent More Americans Than Illegal Drugs. Natural News. 10 November 2008. http://www.truth-out.org/111208HA)
An analysis of 168,900 autopsies conducted in Florida in 2007 found that three times as many people were killed by legal drugs as by cocaine, heroin and all methamphetamines put together. According to state law enforcement officials, this is a sign of a burgeoning prescription drug abuse problem. "The abuse has reached epidemic proportions," said Lisa McElhaney, a sergeant in the pharmaceutical drug diversion unit of the Broward County Sheriff's
Office. "It's just explosive." In 2007, cocaine was responsible for 843 deaths, heroin for 121, methamphetamines for 25 and marijuana for zero, for a total of 989 deaths. In contrast, 2,328 people were killed by opioid painkillers, including Vicodin and Oxycontin, and 743 were killed by drugs containing benzodiazepine, including the depressants Valium and Xanax. Alcohol directly caused 466 deaths, but was found in the bodies of 4,179 cadavers in all. While the number of dead bodies containing heroin jumped 14 percent from the prior year, to a total of 110, the number of deaths influenced by the painkiller oxycodone increased by 36 percent, to a total of 1,253.

Across the country, prescription drugs have become an increasingly popular alternative to the more difficult to acquire illegal drugs. Even as illegal drug use among teenagers have fallen, prescription drug abuse has increased. For example, while 4 percent of U.S. 12th graders were using Oxycontin in 2002, by 2005 that number had increased to 5.5 percent. It's not hard for teens to come by prescription drugs, according to Sgt. Tracy Busby, supervisor of the Calaveras County, Calif., Sheriff's Office narcotics unit. "You go to every medicine cabinet in the county, and I bet you're going to find some sort of prescription medicine in 95 percent of them," he said. Adults can acquire prescriptions by faking injuries, or by visiting multiple doctors and pharmacies for the same health complaint. Some people get more drugs than they expect to need, then sell the extras. "You have health care providers involved, you have doctor shoppers, and then there are crimes like robbing drug shipments," said Jeff Beasley of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. "There is a multitude of ways to get these drugs, and that's what makes things complicated." And while some people may believe that the medicines' legality makes them less dangerous than illegal drugs, Tuolumne County, Calif., Sheriff's Office Deputy Dan Crow warns that this is not the case. Because everybody reacts differently to foreign chemicals, there is no way of predicting the exact response anyone will have to a given dosage. That is why prescription drugs are supposed to be taken under a doctor's supervision. "All this stuff is poison," Crow said. "Your body
will fight all of this stuff." Tuolumne County Health Officer Todd Stolp agreed. A prescription drug taken recreationally is "much like a firearm in the hands of someone who's not trained to use them," he said.

While anyone taking a prescription medicine runs a risk of negative effects, the drugs are even more dangerous when abused. For example, many painkillers are designed to have a delayed effect that fades out over time. This can lead recreational
users to take more drugs before the old ones are out of their system, placing them at risk of an overdose. Likewise, the common practice of grinding pills up causes a large dose of drugs to hit the body all at once, with potentially dangerous consequences. "A medication that was meant to be distributed over 24 hours has immediate effect," Stolp said. Even more dangerous is the trend of mixing drugs with alcohol, which, like most popularly abused drugs, is a depressant. "In the case of alcohol and drugs, one plus one equals more than two," said Tuolumne County Sheriff's Office spokesperson Lt. Dan Bressler. Florida pays careful attention to drug-related deaths, and as such has significantly better data on the problem than any other state. But

a recent study conducted by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) suggests that the problem is indeed national. According to the DEA, the number of people abusing prescription drugs in the United States has jumped 80 percent in six years to

seven million, or more than those abusing cocaine, Ecstasy, heroin, hallucinogens an inhalants put together. Not surprisingly, there has been a corresponding increase in deaths. According to the Drug Abuse Warning Network, the number of emergency room visits related to painkillers has increased by 153 percent since 1995. And a 2007 report by the Justice Department National Intelligence Drug Center found that deaths related to the opioid methadone jumped from 786 in 1999 to 3,849 in 2004 - an increase of 390 percent. Many experts attribute the trend to the increasing popularity among doctors of prescribing painkillers, combined with a leap in direct-to-consumer marketing by drug companies. For example, promotional spending on Oxycontin increased threefold between 1996 and 2001, to $30 million per year. Sonora, Calif., pharmacist Eddie Howard reports that he's seen painkiller prescriptions jump dramatically in the last five years. "I don't know that there is that much pain out there to demand such an increase," he said. The trend concerns Howard, and he tries to keep an eye out for patients who are coming in too frequently. But he admits that there is little he can do about the problem. "When you have a lot of people waiting for prescriptions, it's hard to find time to play detective," he said. Still, the situation makes Howard uncomfortable. "It almost makes me a legalized drug dealer, and that's not a good position to be in," he said.