Pubdate: Fri, 20 Jul 2001
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Section: Pg A13
Copyright: 2001, The Globe and Mail Company
Contact:  http://www.globeandmail.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168
Author: Bruce Alexander
Note: Alexander is a professor of psychology at Simon Fraser University and 
a research associate with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

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.
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MAP posted-by: Beth