ABSTRACT
The debate about whether drug users use drugs volitionally because they want to, or whether the behaviour is compelled by forces beyond the individual’s control, also has a philosophical origin. Whilst at a detailed level there are many different theories of “addiction”, most of the differences are superficial rather than fundamental. A central feature is the desire to distinguish between addicted behaviour and non-addicted behaviour, coupled to a preference for explaining the former in terms of physical and pharmacological processes laws of nature, and the latter in terms of volition and intentionality. In effect, “the flat tyre keeps being reinvented time after time” with respect to central issues about the nature of addiction. The status of homosexual behaviour as the manifestation of disease, and the conclusion that treatment was an appropriate disposal notwithstanding the wealth of scientific journal articles attesting to the physical and genetic bases of the “condition”.
