GETTING AT THE ROOTS OF ADDICTION

Vancouver recently made an important breakthrough by proposing the "four
pillars" approach to dealing with drug addiction, recognizing the
importance of harm reduction as well as treatment, prevention and
enforcement. This is a step in the right direction. Unfortunately, it won't
stop the rising tide of addiction because it doesn't get at the root causes.

When we talk about addiction, we generally mean substance addiction -- to
alcohol and illegal drugs such as heroin and cocaine. But this is a very
narrow way of looking at the problem. A walk down Hastings Street will take
you through Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, where the most visible forms of
addiction can be seen. But it will also take you through the financial
district, and past casinos, restaurants and bars. There are addicts here,
too -- people with addictions to money, power, gambling, sex, work and
food, for example, that may be just as harmful as substance addiction.

People become addicted to harmful substances or behaviours when they are
dislocated from the many intimate ties between people and groups -- from
the family to the spiritual community -- that are essential for every
person in every type of society. We are now seeing rapid increases in the
spread of dislocation and addiction. To understand why, we need to look at
our rapidly changing society, and especially at the way the "free market"
is becoming ever more prevalent in our lives.

Free markets wreak havoc on people and communities by demanding that we
obey the "laws" of supply and demand. We used to live, work, play and build
our communities within networks of family obligations, social roles,
loyalty to town, guild or union, and spiritual ties. Today, in contrast,
people are expected to move to where jobs can be found, to adjust their
work lives and cultural tastes to the relentlessly changing global market,
and to identify themselves as independent economic actors who vote with
their dollars instead of as citizens with roots and social obligations. The
result is an epidemic of rootlessness and isolation. People often respond
to their sense of dislocation by creating artificial lifestyles devoted to
substitute gratifications -- drugs, alcohol, money, power, gambling, and so on.

The best evidence for this psychological analysis lies in our own history.
Native peoples in Canada, for example, face epidemic levels of alcohol
addiction. Close analysis of history shows that this is not because they
are naturally prone to addiction or because native people were only
recently exposed to "addictive" substances. Rather, it is because they have
faced massive dislocation -- resulting from cultural destruction and stolen
lands, among other devastating changes -- as colonization took place and a
market society was established.

Our society is based on the free-market principles that mass produce
dislocation and addiction. And because Western free-market society provides
the model for corporate globalization, mass addiction is being globalized
along with the English language, the Internet, and Mickey Mouse.

Attempts to treat or prevent addiction that ignore the connection between
free markets, dislocation and addiction can only be Band-Aid solutions. If
we are going to address the problem of addiction, we have to seriously
question the road to ever-freer and more global markets that we are
speeding down. True solutions require policies that help us to find a place
in society, to better care for one another, and to build sustainable,
healthy communities. For example, we need a social safety net and income
support systems that allow people to stay where they have familial and
community supports.

I believe we have actually under-rated the dangers of globalization. We
need to recognize the potentially devastating effects of globalization on
the human psyche along with its catastrophic ecological, economic and
political consequences.