VANCOUVER AGREEMENT A BREAKTHROUGH, BUT DOESN'T GET TO ROOT 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.

But unfortunately, it won't stop the rising tide of addiction because it
doesn't get at the root causes.

Today when we talk about addiction, we generally mean substance
addiction-to alcohol, and illegal drugs like 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
addictions.

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. Today we are 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 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, today 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
market society was established.

Today, 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.

Bruce K. Alexander is a professor of psychology at Simon Fraser University
and a research associate with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
He is the author of a recent study called "The Roots of Addiction in Free
Market Society" (www.policyalternatives.ca).

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