Addiction: A Disease of the Brain

One of the largest debates in the civil and medical world is whether addiction is a disease of the mind or a choice of the individual.  This debate has been associated with many concepts, but have affected the current drug laws that are in place today mostly in the way of the strictness of the laws and lack of the flexibility of those laws.  Thus this debate has shaped the way that people view drug addiction and addiction in all aspects, by the way in which the individual is able to stop at any point in time when they believe that they feel that it is time for them to stop.  Thus in return there is less focus on the rehabilitation and treatment aspects that could be involved with treating multiple forms of addiction.

Back in the early seventies, it was the era to be tough on crime particularly focusing in the political realms.  Those politicians who were not tough on crime during this era and presently were typically not elected to their desired positions.   This philosophy along with moral panic caused for this to be focused on drugs and all the crimes that have been related to drug use and addiction.  Moral panic is the media blowing the effects of drugs on society out of portion without having all the facts and information before they report on the drugs.  This ensured that there were mandatory minimums that were in place for even the smallest of drug offenses.  Thus, putting a criminal stigma of addiction with no medical implications and placing millions of people behind bars for many years without the possibility of parole.  However, this was not the original idea of President Nixon, when he made his first statement, was to be able to provide treatment to those that were incarcerated by spending 75% of the budget on rehabilitation programs to those that were suffering from drug addiction.  However, his language and speeches shifted the focus and caused that every drug user was a criminal and didn’t need any medical assistance.

This idea of thought has changed over the last decade with new developments in understanding how addiction affects the brain and the personalities of those that are involved with chronic use.  Some of the ways that drugs have altered the human brain is through physical alteration of the brain structure, aggression, and genetic dispositions linking to the facts of the addictions.

In the human brain there is two different types of matter that is present; white and grey matter.  White matter connects through axons that hold the grey matter, which allows the grey matter to process the different nerve signals throughout the body.  In a study performed by Hoppenbrouwers, he found that those that have chronic drug use have decreased amount of white matter.  With this decreased amount of white matter present it decreased the amount of pain that the individual was able to feel.  With the lack of pain that the individual was able to feel it lead them to have increased levels of feeling invincible (Hoppenbrouwers, 2013).  With the feeling of invincibility than it causes the individual to go to their limits and commit several different crimes.  However, not only do drugs affect the composition of the brain thus altering the personality of the individual, but the personality of the individual can be altered without altering the structure and composition of the brain.

In a study performed by Fazel, they found an uprise in aggression with those individuals who were chronic drug users.  Fazel compared the findings to those that suffered from traumatic brain injuries and found that they had similar rates in which they reacted to stressful and aggressive situations.  This correlation with actually brain injuries Fazel raises the question of how the drug are affecting the individual’s ability to cope with the situation and thus altering the individual’s personality.  Fazel’s defines brain disease as one that alters one’s personality and way of thought (Fazel, 2011).  Thus with this definition in mind in helps with the common new definition in being able to determine if chronic drug use and addiction is a medical issue or one of a civil issue.  With this increased level of aggression it could lead to many of the violent crimes that are associated with drugs; murder, assault, and robbery.  These reasons that these crimes have been associated with drug use and addiction is because most of the individuals that have been convicted of these crimes were addicted to drugs when the committed the crimes and higher levels of aggression that caused them to be okay with committing the crimes.  Though there has been research to connect addiction to aggression and altering the individual’s behavior.  It also been able to show that addiction can be related to their own genetic composition.

One of the key research study into genetic likelihood of addiction was by Li.  Li was not able to find any single gene that relates to an individual being able to increase the likelihood of becoming addicted; thus concluding that there is no addiction gene.  However,  Li was able to find a correlation between family members that were addicted to drugs and the number of other family members that were also addicted to other substances (Li, 2009).  For example, if a father was addicted to drugs than the likelihood of children are increased compared to a family where no one is addicted to the drugs and then the child begins to do drugs.  Through there is no particular gene there has been many mutations that have been linked to addictions, but they also have to be with other factors that surround the individual’s lifestyle.  Some of the other factors that must be present are socioeconomic standing, the morals that they grew up around, and if they actually begin to start using the drug.

Though there has never been true understanding of addiction and how it can affect the personality of the individual, scientist have begun to do research to help us understand the impact of addiction on society and the individual.  Though originally it was thought that addiction was criminal issue, new research has brought light into the idea that addiction is a possible disease of the mind altering the reality of those that participate in the chronic use of the drugs.  This research has looked at the long term effects of the brain structure makeup and how the drugs alter the white matter in the brain, thus destroying the individual’s ability to feel pain.  The way that drug addiction is able to alter the overall personality typically towards that of aggression leading to a higher likelihood of crime.  Finally, they have been able to find a correlation between family members that have been addicted and increasing the likelihood of the next generation of being addicted to drugs or even addicted to other items in life.  Thus, to begin to reform the criminal justice system they have to determine if addiction is a medical issue or strictly that of civil issues.  Once that is determined will it allow for the new laws allow for the rehabilitation of the criminals and thus increasing the safety of the streets that we all live on.

Hoppenbrouwers, S. S., Nazeri, A., de Jesus, D. R., Stirpe, T., Felsky, D., Schutter, D. G., & ... Voineskos, A. N. (2013). White Matter Deficits in Psychopathic Offenders and Correlation with Factor Structure. Plos ONE, 8(8), 1-8. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0072375

Fazel, S., Lichtenstein, P., Grann, M., & Långström, N. (2011). Risk of Violent Crime in Individuals with Epilepsy and Traumatic Brain Injury: A 35-Year Swedish Population Study. Plos Medicine, 8(12), 1-8. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001150

Li, M. D., & Burmeister, M. (2009). New insights into the genetics of addiction. Nature Reviews Genetics, 10(4), 225-231. doi:10.1038/nrg2536