ABSTRACT
Physicians’ role in defining and treating habituation is undeniable. In his highly influential article “The Discovery of Addiction” sociologist Harry Gene Levine placed the origins of the concept of addiction in the hands of American physician Benjamin Rush. The British Society for the Study and Cure of Inebriety had its roots in the Society for Promoting Legislation for the Control and Cure of Habitual Drunkards, a group that emerged after persistent attempts failed to pass a law to force drunks into treatment. The connection between the habitual use of drugs and alcohol was also an easy slippage because many of the English-language physicians who began discussing “inebriety” were heavily influenced by the temperance movement. Generally, however, most physicians recognized that treating drug or alcohol inebriety involved treating both the mental and physiological state. Initial recognition of the potential habit-forming character of cocaine was a mild form of denial.
