It’s not a bad thing that every time an alcoholic or addict dies there seem to be articles galore about how science has proven that some people have different brain scans and/or different chemistry and are more prone to becoming hooked on substances. The publicity helps put the disease on the radar screen where it needs to be.

Read an essay on this topic is in the NY Times Science Section, “Who Falls To Addiction, and Who Is Unscathed?”

Just about anyone, regardless of baseline genetic risk, can become an addict under the right circumstances.

It also has profound implications for intervention and treatment. Long-term drug use usually begins during adolescence, a time when the brain is the most plastic.

That’s right! So let’s try to keep addiction and alcoholism front and center of psychology, science and, and journalism.