![]() ![]() Addiction’s effects on decision-making are complex. Research now shows that addiction doesn’t mean either being completely subject to irresistible impulses, or making totally free choices. ![]() But simplistic answers have stymied efforts to ameliorate drug use disorders and reduce stigma. These questions are at the heart of drug policy and the way we view and treat addiction. Was my brain hijacked by drugs - or was I willfully choosing to risk it all for a few hours of selfish pleasure? What makes people continue taking drugs like street fentanyl, which put them at daily risk of death? ![]() Until I finally recognized that I needed treatment and began recovery in 1988 - with the prospect of that lengthy sentence under New York’s draconian Rockefeller laws still occluding my future - I didn’t think I had any real choice. But I didn’t believe that I could cope in any other way. I knew that doing this further jeopardized my life prospects and my relationships with everyone I cared about. ![]() Although I was facing a 15 years-to-life sentence, the first thing I did after my parents bailed me out and held a family meeting was to find and secretly inject some prescription opioids that I knew the police hadn’t confiscated. When I was arrested and charged with possession with intent to sell cocaine in 1986, I was addicted to both coke and heroin. ![]()
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