TREATING ADDICTION AS A DISEASE ENABLES ADDICTS

It's been said that half the truth is often a whole lie. So it is with
the prevailing notion that addiction is a disease. On the surface,
this interpretation seems to be at least half right, in that addicts
appear to be afflicted by a disorder over which they have no control.

However, this half truth distorts the reality that, unlike cancer,
addiction can be cured by a choice that is at once simple and profound
- - an exercise of free will and resolve that is not available to
sufferers of actual diseases.

The issue has been on my mind since April, when an Ontario court ruled
that a provincial law, which denied alcoholics and drug addicts the
right to receive long-term disability payments, violated the
province's human rights code. Essentially, the court agreed that
boozers and junkies had a disability. Henceforth, the court ruled,
social assistance to addicts should increase by about 80 percent, to
almost a thousand dollars a month.

But the simple and whole truth is that, while drugs such as alcohol
and heroin may, indeed, exert a powerful hold over people's lives -
and destroy their health in the process - addictions are not at all
like other diseases because the sufferer, through determination
sparked by a "bottoming out," counseling, or a commitment to a
recovery program, can cure themselves. This is impossible with cancer.

It's evident to me that our society's determination to treat addiction
as a disease ends up enabling addicts, be it through generous welfare
cheques as in Ontario or so-called safe-injection sites in Vancouver.

I am not alone in this belief. In his new book, "Addiction: A Disorder of
Choice," psychologist Gene Heyman argues that addiction takes hold of a
person by way of a series of bad choices made by that person - choices that
value short-term pleasure over long-term consequences. Just as clearly,
though, the evidence shows that an addicted person can make a series of good
choices to end that addiction.

My colleague opposite believes addiction is a disease of the body,
mind and soul. Put that way, I'd almost agree with her. But I'd add
that, if this is so, it's also a disease of a society that has lost
the concept of personal responsibility.