To end the drug crisis, bring addiction out of the shadows
To end the drug crisis, bring addiction out of the shadows Far too often, shame and stigma fuel addiction and prevent treatment, argues Nora Volkow, MD, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. But replacing judgment with compassion can save lives. When I was six years old, as I was having dinner with my mother and three sisters, my mother received a telegram. She broke down crying as she read it. Her father — my grandfather — had died. In her grief, she locked herself in her room and would not let me console her. The memory of my inability to relieve my mother’s suffering still haunts me. My sisters and I were led to believe that our grandfather had died of a heart attack. It was only decades later, when I had already been an addiction researcher for several years and my mother was herself dying, that she revealed the truth: My grandfather had had an alcohol addiction. Unable to stop drinking, he had taken his own life in a final moment of futility and shame. People...