The nation’s problem with addiction cannot be ignored as it affects almost every American. Alcohol abuse costs the country 185 billion dollars, along with forty billion dollars spent every year on drug war. Addiction is certainly an epidemic that is plaguing our society today, and the issue must be directly addressed rather than ignored. Addicts are people who are among every one of us, living in a society or as a nation to deal with social problems such as addiction. However, each one of us as individuals can make positive difference – addict or not – by attempting to take responsibility for our own personal transformations. It is individuals who make a society or a nation. Hence, perhaps our attempt to see an addiction-free society could be achieved by each one of us first experiencing it in our individual lives. If every citizen makes it their responsibility to understand addiction and provide support, instead of judgment, for those suffering, the nation would benefit in many ways.
There are several reasons such as physical, psychological or sociological, attributed to the problem of addiction, but addiction is a fundamental human trait. It touches on the search for meaning that tends to define what it is to be human in the first place. While many of us apparently struggle to find a meaning for our lives in a materialistic society, “it is addicts among us who are most in rebellion against the materialism in our society” (Seeburger). While several methods, from criminalization and prohibitions of substance use to medication and treatment through counseling and therapies, have been adopted to handle the problem of addiction evidence suggests that a dollar spent on drug treatment is seven times as effective as a dollar spent on interdiction (Duke). Prison should not be the solution for handling addicts because their crime is deserving of treatment. This