ABSTRACT
How do the various drugs of addiction (opioids, cocaine, meth) affect behavior and a person’s life toward self-destruction, psychologically and legally? Why is addiction considered a brain disease? How is the path to addiction different for a man than for a woman?
The first part of this chapter considers these questions through the lens of biology. Then the focus turns to early childhood trauma to show how such trauma and PTSD if left untreated can lead to an attraction to mood-altering substances which can be devastating in one way or another. Some recover, some die, and some go to prison. This chapter explores both the criminalization aspects of illicit drug use as well as the victimization aspect. The final portion of the chapter addresses policy issues and describes treatment innovations that are gender-sensitive and trauma-informed. That drug misuse should be treated as a public health problem rather than a matter for the criminal justice system to solve is a basic argument of this chapter.
