Content Outline

This post outlines my standard college essay for project three. The following is a rough outline.

Opening Section

1. Intro with attention grabbing stats about number of people in prisons/cost of incarceration
2. Shift into thesis statement, how can we solve this problem? Drug decriminalization lowers number of prisoners, amongst other things
3. Thesis- expensive prisons and lots of lives being ruined by petty drug crimes are the problem, decriminalization is the solution

Body #1

1. Topic- decriminalization means help for addicts
2. Evidence 1- instead of court, fines, prison and a criminal record, drug addicts get rehab, mental health facilities, and therapist help
3. Important because friends and family are affected, prison has significant detrimental effects on peoples's lives
4. Proves that there is hope for addicts, would improve quality of life for a lot of Americans
5. Evidence 2- police interaction in drug affairs would become largely seeking help for addicts
6. Proves that police are there to help public
7. Important because it would improve citizen-police relations and perhaps limit police violence or anti-police groups

Body #2

1. Topic- gets users out of prison, saves space, resources and money
2. Evidence 1- saves taxpayer money
3. Proves that there are economic and personal benefits to people who are otherwise unaffected by the issue
4. Important because taxes are hella high and there are better uses for our money than keeping non dangerous individuals who need help locked up
5. Evidence 2- space/resources in prisons
6. Important because there needs to be space for actual criminals, and it is unsafe and unclean to overbook close living quarters
7. Proves that the rights of prisoners are being neglected by not having enough space and resources (which is important bc human rights)

Body #3

1. Topic- rebuttal paragraph. There are proposed cons to drug decriminalization, but those are wrong because...
2. Evidence 1- claim: drug users and dealers are bad/dangerous people
3. Importantly wrong because drugs are not violent, and dealing/making/using drugs does not directly harm anyone not involved
4. Proves that there is no danger to decriminalization, appeals to families/people with children
5. Evidence 2- claim: all drugs are always bad
6. Importantly wrong because drugs (ex weed) can have health or medicinal benefits
7. Evidence 3- claim: if drugs are legal, more people will get involved
8. Importantly wrong, reference data from Portugal and Czech Republic to show there is no increase in overall drug use
9. Proves that prohibition as a concept overall is flawed because of the appeal to illegality and rule breaking

Conclusion

1. Understandably, the idea of drug decriminalization is initially scary
2. Hopefully after reading there is a better understanding of the benefits and the myths of decriminalization
3. The benefits outweigh the cons for families, people who are benefitted by drugs, or drug addicts and their families
4. Call to action
5. Larger significance because way more people are affected than just users or those incarcerated