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Freedom Book of the Month for February 2000:
Addiction is a Choice
by Jeffrey A. Schaler
Open Court, 2000, paperback, 179 p.
$14.95 from Laissez Faire Books
"Addiction is a Choice" is a powerful indictment of the very concept of addiction and a clarion call for the repeal of drug prohibition -- not legalization and subsequent regulation, but an outright end to the whole sorry mess. Jeffrey Schaler makes his case with logic, clarity and style.
Among the critics of the War on Drugs are those who believe that "the problem" should be "medicalized" -- that drug use should be viewed as a disease and that those who use drugs should be treated instead of punished. As Schaler demonstrates in "Addiction is a Choice," this position is untenable and plays into the hands of the drug warriors.
If drug use is an involuntary activity, then all arguments against prohibition that are based on individual rights fall apart. The concept of "addiction" allows the prohibitionists to continue their war against drug sellers, and enables them to force "treatment" on drug users.
Schaler documents the origins of the treatment of addiction as a disease and its effects on law and medicine. He examines the cult that has grown up around addiction treatment and the adverse consequences of it, such as increased power for (and abuse by) government and the erosion of the ethos of personal responsibility for our actions.
Without denying the physiological impact of drugs (caffeine, alcohol, and nicotine included), Schaler counters with concrete evidence that human choice is the controlling factor in all of our activities. Schaler points to the fact that drug users can and often do make the choice to quit.
"Addiction is a Choice" continues in the tradition established by Thomas Szasz, integrating many of the ideas put forward in "Ceremonial Chemistry," "The Myth of Mental Illness" and other works into a fresh and focused form that makes for enjoyable reading. This book is high-power intellectual ammunition for advocates of freedom.
edited by Thomas L. Knapp
June 2000: Law's Order by David Friedman
May 2000: Forge of the Elders by L. Neil Smith
April 2000: Reciprocia by Richard G. Rieben
March 2000: The Art of Fiction: A Guide for Writers and Readers by Ayn Rand
February 2000: Addiction is a Choice by Jeffrey A. Schaler
January 2000: Revolutionary Language by David C. Calderwood
Special December 1999 Feature: The Freedom Book of the Year: Send in the Waco Killers: Essays on the Freedom Movement, 1993-1998 by Vin Suprynowicz
November 1999: Conquests and Cultures by Thomas Sowell
October 1999: A Way To Be Free by Robert LeFevre, edited by Wendy McElroy
September 1999: Assassins (Left Behind) by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins
August 1999: Don't Shoot the Bastards (Yet): 101 More Ways to Salvage Freedom by Claire Wolfe
July 1999: The Mitzvah by L. Neil Smith and Aaron Zelman
June 1999: The Incredible Bread Machine by R.W. Grant
May 1999: Send in the Waco Killers by Vin Suprynowicz
April 1999: It Still Begins with Ayn Rand by Jerome Tuccille
March 1999: The Dictionary of Free-Market Economics by Fred Foldvary
February 1999: Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand edited by Mimi Reisel Gladstein and Chris Matthew Sciabarra
In December 2004 this page was modified significantly from its original form for archiving purposes.
, founded in 1995, is now a part of ISIL.
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