Gambling and the Politics of Addiction

BUREAUCRACY NOW –

Feb. 7, 2024 – Historically, addiction has often been seen as a criminal problem. The addicted person acts wrongly or illegally, and the problem of addiction is one of assigning blame and, where appropriate, punishment. Many of us have come to see this conception of addiction as basically mistaken. Instead, we should see addiction as a fundamentally political problem. Addicted people are systematically exploited and discriminated against, and the problem of addiction is how to ensure equitable treatment—in health care but also society at large—for an often marginalized group of people.

This broad approach to addiction is already being implemented in various ways, though implementation varies greatly from place to place. People with addictions in disadvantaged communities often lack the resources for advocacy that people with addictions who happen to live in better-resourced communities. It also varies, in important ways, from addiction to addiction. Alcohol addiction, for example, is supported by many large non-profit or governmental research institutes—such as the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism…