Later in January, during the month of excess, The Wireless will be looking at addiction – what is it, and how do we treat it. We’ll talk to people who go to extremes, look at binge drinking and cannabis, and ask what causes addiction.
The director of the Recovery Research Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard’s John Kelly spoke to Boston public radio, and says about half the risk is genetic.
“Addiction is like many other medical illnesses, in that there’s an interaction between the genetics and the environment. This makes some people more susceptible. For example, a lot of people are exposed to alcohol in our culture, but not everybody becomes addicted to alcohol. The genes may mediate the liking and wanting of that particular substance. For some people, alcohol is aversive for others, it’s kind of okay; for other people, it becomes everything.”
Treatment is pretty cheap. And yet somehow it's inaccessible, and that's largely to do with differences in funding.
Dr Kelly argues that the stigma around addiction – even the term substance abuse – is a huge barrier to seeking and getting help.
Here in New Zealand, the Ministry of Health is calling for submissions on a new National Drug Policy. The Wireless senior producer, Megan Whelan, spoke to three people working in the field, asking if the country's services for dealing with addiction are getting it right.
