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Using and Abusing: the War on Drugs

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Submitted By CarlyLynch
Words 456
Pages 2
Carly Lynch

Stewart

DC English 4.6

16 February 2012

Leland, John. "'One Step Better Than Reality.' (herbal drug use)(Cover Story)." Newsweek 6

May 1996: 66+. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 16 Feb. 2012.

John Leland’s article, ‘One Step Better than Reality (herbal drug use),’ tells about a young woman named Aniubis Castilla. She lives in Hialeah, California. Castilla enjoys dancing and going out to night clubs. She says that when she needed a “boost…she took the psychedelic drug MDMA,” otherwise known as ecstasy. Consequently, after taking a bad dose of ecstasy one night, she realized that the drug was just distracting her from her goals in life. Shortly after, she discovered a drug similar, but not near as dangerous, called herbal sex ecstasy. Castilla describes the drug as ‘one step better than reality.’ She says that herbal ecstasy is much healthier and safer than its rivals: cloud 9, ultimate xphoria and x. All of these are known as ‘Rave Energy,’ and have flourished in clubs and throughout teenagers and adults in the United States. Leland says that the herbal drug hit at a ‘ripe’ moment, emerging in an expanding drug culture. Other drugs such as marijuana, LSD, cocaine came about in the 90s, followed by herbal drugs about a decade later. But unlike other drugs, Leland says that “herbal’s play both sides, selling the promise of psychedelic euphoria while actually delivering just a mild, caffeine like boost.” Leland concludes his article by stating that overall, herbal drugs are safer than pure MDMA ecstasy, but it is still unhealthy.

Leland is merely neutral in this argument. He does not think that the use of herbal drugs is a good choice, nor does he ‘bash’ the idea of them either. Leland someone’s uses personal experience to prove that his source is reliable. Castilla is a former user of both Ecstasy and herbal

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