How The War On Drugs Creates Violence By Danielle Allen Summary

Danielle Allen is a columnist for The Washington Post. She also is a political theorist Harvard. Allen published her article, “How the War on Drugs Creates Violence”, on October 16, 2015, in the Washington Post. Allen is a conceivable source due to her notable background in ethics and political thought. She uses a verity of sound sources and argumentative skills to call for the decriminalization of drug use to a public health issue in order to cease the many problems caused by the War on Drugs. Her premises argue that the War on Drugs spends a tremendous amount of tax money and impacts many issues that plague society such as murder, police violence and lower than possible education rates. She begins her passage by introducing her conclusion with euphuisms in a premise referring to the amount of death caused by drugs in the United States. “At first blush” refers to how the legalization of drugs may not seem morally just at the first glance. She also uses the idiom “side of the angles", meaning to side with righteousness, to describe the moral choice of legalizing drugs. She then declares the conclusion in a prescriptive claim that calls for the drug epidemic to be viewed as a public health issue instead of a crime. She adds …show more content…
She uses an appeal to authority when citing Wellford, a criminologist that explains possible reason being the War on drugs causing lower clearance rate for murder. She further strengthens her conclusion with premises that support an appeal to common knowledge when alluding to the tragedy of police violence and stop and frisk policies. She uses a similar structure when introducing another rhetorical question and backing it with an appeal to authority and emotionally appealing statements to conclude that part of her argument. Although she uses emotional appeal, she also cites the US district courts for more credible second-hand appeals to