Addiction Is A Matter Of Difficult Choices

When people hear the words drug addict, they think of the negative connotations and stigmas attached to them. People visualize a person who does not care about anything, including family or work. Instead, they worry about obtaining money to buy drugs to get high. However, there are many people who are drug addicts that maintain a normal, functioning life. Before we can examine why people are addicted to drugs, one must first define the word addict. How is addiction defined? Should addiction be viewed as a disease or as a choice? According to Leshner article, addiction is considered to be a disease, while Heyman explains in his article that drug addiction is a matter of choice.
In Leshner article, “Addiction Is a Brain Disease, and It Matters”, he gives the science reasoning for drug addiction being a disease rather than a choice. He argues that addiction is just as much of a health risk as a social problem. Addiction in this article is defined as a chronic relapsing disease that results from a prolonged effect of drugs on the brain.
Heyman implied that most addicts keep using until penalties for excessive use becomes the only answer to maybe quitting. As stated in the article, “Research shows that addicts can take control of their lives”. Heyman feels that phrases like “relapsing brain disease”, which Leshner used to defined addiction in his article, fails to capture the reality of addiction. Effective intervention programs for addiction shows that the search for medical cures and the call for stiffer jail terms is misguided. Programs that work are the ones consistent with the finding that addicts can choose to stop using drugs. The article states that, “What research shows is that those we label addicts have the capacity to take control of their lives”, implying that addiction is all about will power (Heyman,