ABSTRACT
All drugs have effects on the body, and we can often measure these effects. The immediate effects of drugs in altering the quality of subjective experience can also be measured. We can, further, examine how mood-altering drugs get into the body. In some cases drugs get into the body by accident or because someone puts them there. None of this is uncontroversial. Alternatively, someone may put drugs into his or her own body. What motivates the drug
consumer is much more disputed. Some people, including myself, believe a person makes a choice to take a drug. There is no single reason why people make such choices, which reflect the values, preferences, and goals of each individual drug consumer; just as there is no single reason why people choose to watch TV. Others, whose views are echoed by most politicians, journalists, social workers, and mental health professionals, believe people take certain types of drugs because they have ‘lost control’ over their actions. They are in the grip of some involuntary affliction – a type of mental illness. This chapter defines and describes what addiction is and what it isn’t, and how the differ-
ent ways of explaining addiction based on accurate and inaccurate definitions influence policy decisions in legal, clinical, social, and public policy realms.
