Originally Posted by Blake
The American Medical Association and the substance abuse & mental health services administration. (AMA & SAMHSA respectively) have both stated that addiction is a disease. THey have studied it and it is the accepted conclusion of people far smarter and more trained than I am.
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It is also the highly disputed conclusion of people who are presumably smarter and more trained that we are. The whole story of how the AMA came to that position is interesting. Suffice to say that the alcohol bureaucracy of the 1950s was entirely dominated by the 12-step philosophy, thanks to friends in high places, and that the AMA relied on those experts in adopting it. All contrarian viewpoints have long been frozen out of the government substance abuse decision-making circles. See peele.net for more info.
And I believe that the psychiatric association has not accepted that term. But I'll do some research to find their official position.