Is Addiction a Disease?

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the possibility of addiction being a disease. The author explores two point of views; That addiction is a disease because addiction's destructive effects resemble those of other physical and mental illness, and addiction is not a disease as it centers on the nature of free will.

From the Paper:

"Finally, it is also contended that after an addiction is severe and properly identified, people can and must responsibly look back and recognize its milder forms during which life was more in control, even though control was slipping away. In essence, in pertaining to the disease perspective of addiction, in its pure form, it is still argued that it bypasses moral questions and defines the problem as a disease that undermines and eliminates much, if not most, responsible decision-making. Being under the influence of an addiction is seen as similar to having contracted an infectious illness that affects brain function."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Block, Michael. The Disease Concept. World Wide Addiction.com <http://www.worldwideaddiction.com>
• Fishbein, Morris, M.D. (1970). Medical and Health Encyclopedia. New York: H. S. Stuttman Co., Inc.
• Firshein, Janet (2008). Introduction: Addiction as a Disease. Moyers on Addiction: PBS Online. < http://www.thirteen.org/closetohome/science/index.html>
• Gottfried, Ted (2000). Should Drugs Be Legalized? Brookfield, Connecticut: Twenty-First Century Books.
• Johns, Christina Jacqueline (1992). Power, Ideology, and the War on Drugs: Nothing Succeeds like Failure. New York: Praeger Publishers.

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