The Infectious Myth - Bruce Alexander on Addiction - 12.13.16

David speaks with retired professor Bruce Alexander about addiction. Like former guest Marc Lewis, Alexander also believes that addiction is not a disease, and certainly can’t be fought with a war. His recent book calls it a “poverty of spirit” but, rather than blaming the victim he believes society as a whole is responsible for creating these conditions. He does not believe that drugs are addictive, or at least that only people in a vulnerable state of hopelessness, loneliness and societal disconnection, will become hooked. The discussion ends by talking about Canada’s native peoples who have the worst drug addiction problem, and also enormous, and so far intractable, social problems, that the white society of North America created by destroying their self-sufficiency and culture.

His websites are brucekalexander.com and, relevant to this discussion, globalizationofaddiction.ca.