Debate

On Monday the 8th of October we had been given a option of doing a debate between or group on the 15th of October. We had to choose a topic ourselves and decided on the concept based on Russel brands comment "Is it wrong to be abstinent into taking methadone".

We the split the group up into two teams in which there was a for team and an against team. The team I was put on was the against team. I found this to be the easier side to be on as I was against Russell brands concept as soon as we decided on the topic.

Debate topic:

"Is it wrong to be abstinent into taking methadone"

For the week of 8th October till the 15th of October we had to research the topic and find out information about it and have strong arguments to make towards the other team. For me the reason I was against the idea of methadone be cut out and the idea of people coming off drugs without using it is in my opinion not a good idea. Methadone is like a prevention from people going back on drugs and is a way of tricking the body to thinking the person is still taking drugs, so the side effects of with drawl can be avoided and eased.

On the day of the debate there was very good arguments from both teams but one that really caused alot of questions from both sides. This argument was that poverty plays a major role in drugs and drug consumption. If people are poor most of the time they will resort to drugs and if they become abstinent then what life have they to return to, Poverty is the motivation to taken drugs. As part of the against team we argued that Russel Brand cannot fix this problem and by making people go off methadone altogether. as this in itself a very bad idea. There is a better chance of people staying off drugs if they are put on a program which involves methadone than people who are going straight off drugs and taking nothing. We felt also because of Russel Brands history with drugs and his previous record his advice isn't as valuable as he may think. He has been through rehabilitation and has walked out so in my opinion I feel he has not given the system a chance and so therefore again his advice is false and misconceived. He has been through using methadone and it hasn't worked cause he hasn't used it correctly.

His celebrity status and money means that he would have had the funds there to help him afford rehabilitation and extra help if needed but he didn't take the opportunity when it was there and so relapsed again and again, bringing him straight back to the starting point. Not everybody has the funds or financial support like he had to be doing rehabilitation over and over again. People who is perhaps in poverty have one chance to recover if there lucky and so this brings me back to the point of Russel Brand not having the authority to say what to do also the point that poverty also has a big role to play in drugs and drug use.

In my opinion the debate was very good as you got to see it from two points of view and I did think that the people on the for team had a tough job trying to change our teams opinion of the topic. The debate was interesting and I enjoyed it and liked getting my opinion across to people and letting them see my point of view so overall would like to do debates in the future.