Families, mental health specialists, former users, and social workers have tried to answer the question of what causes addiction for decades. And though we as a country have spent countless hours, research dollars, and legislative efforts in an attempt to derive an answer or a “cure-all” to drug addiction and abuse, we are no closer to the answer.
Early drug addiction research in the 1970s led to the theory that drugs “hijack” the brain and was thought to be a breakthrough discovery. Substance abuse treatments and prevention models, such as the organization D.A.R.E., rolled out with philosophies and programs that incorporated this ideology.
Yet despite the early enthusiasm and hopes for a breakthrough cure, the movement turned out to be a bluff. Drug consumption continued, prison populations swelled due to drug-related incarcerations, and D.A.R.E. was deemed counterproductive, with some populations reporting higher usage of drugs amongst those who graduated the D.A.R.E. program.
It seemed telling people about the dangers of drugs and to not do them was not effective when the question of why people use drugs was never addressed. Since then, the perspective toward what causes drug abuse has evolved and more focus is being placed on the social and environmental influences that put people at risk of abusing substances.
But addressing the question of why people abuse substances has only convoluted how we address addiction, changing a one-time singular answer into a myriad of potential answers. With so many new conditions and contrasting perspectives to consider, we find ourselves asking a completely different question these days: Is there really any one “thing” that causes drug addiction?
Early drug addiction research in the 1970s led to the theory that drugs “hijack” the brain and was thought to be a breakthrough discovery. Substance abuse treatments and prevention models, such as the organization D.A.R.E., rolled out with philosophies and programs that incorporated this ideology.
Yet despite the early enthusiasm and hopes for a breakthrough cure, the movement turned out to be a bluff. Drug consumption continued, prison populations swelled due to drug-related incarcerations, and D.A.R.E. was deemed counterproductive, with some populations reporting higher usage of drugs amongst those who graduated the D.A.R.E. program.
It seemed telling people about the dangers of drugs and to not do them was not effective when the question of why people use drugs was never addressed. Since then, the perspective toward what causes drug abuse has evolved and more focus is being placed on the social and environmental influences that put people at risk of abusing substances.
But addressing the question of why people abuse substances has only convoluted how we address addiction, changing a one-time singular answer into a myriad of potential answers. With so many new conditions and contrasting perspectives to consider, we find ourselves asking a completely different question these days: Is there really any one “thing” that causes drug addiction?
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