the drug war were part of a national penance required tonmake amends for the excesses of the high-flying 1960’s and thenSybaritic 1970’s. In some cases—especially in the MeesenJustice Department—there may also have been a hidden agendanof using the drug war to enhance police and prosecutablenpowers limited by the Warren Supreme Court. However, thenactivists were also able to tap into well-established currents ofntemperance and morality enthusiasm in American society, thensort of movement that has found prominent expression inngroups like M.A.D.D.nBut conservatives represented only one arm of the “nutcracker.”nAs America is the land of Puritanism and Prohibition, itnis also the nation where therapeutic and psychiatric ideas andnsolutions have taken firmest hold, and the attack on dmgs andn”substance abuse” must be seen in the context of the wholenindustry of addiction, treatment, and 12-point recovery programs.nDuring the decade, this became a booming sector ofnthe economy, with ever more positions for medical and nursingnpersonnel, counselors, and of course administrators, all fundednfrom the cornucopia of insurance payments. The morenapparent problems, the more need for specialist physicians andncounselors to treat the proliferating wave of syndromes and disorders—fromnalcoholics and dmg abusers to survivors of childnabuse and ritual abuse, multiple personality and obsessive-compulsivendisorders, co-dependents and adult children of alcoholics.nThis all formed part of what an excellent recent booknhas entitled the “Dis-easing of America.”nNaturally, members of the rehabilitation industry had a vestedninterest in stating the serious dangers of the problemsn18/CHRONICLESnSemblancenby Paul RamseynThe photograph, faded slightly.nOf her hungry, timid facenCalls forth his tenderness, hisnRage having somewhat subsided.nShe looks shyly from the photographnAs though expecting damagenFrom any who would seek out frailtynTo protect, trying to protectnTlieir own frailty and their fiercenessnOf remorse.nnnthey were purporting to handle, and they disseminated theirnviews through the mass media as well as the specialist press.nInevitably, building up the problem implied the vast scale ofnthe measures necessary to combat it, and in the context of then1980’s, that implied support for the “war” analogy. Individualntherapists and researchers might be politically liberal,nand advocate nonpenal medical solutions to drug abuse, butnthey provided the questionable statistics and the exaggeratednclaims used by the dmg warriors to pass ever more stringentnlegislation.nIn other words, the drug war has been so successful andnenduring because it is the triumphant outcome of a broad bipartisanncoalition, the alliance of disparate factions of whom allnhave something to gain in material or ideological terms. Thenwar continues because it is invaluable for any group or individualnwith the nous to claim (however implausibly) that their particularncause or obsession is somehow connected to the drugnplatform. It continues because it offers careers and official positions,nvotes and research funding.nWith so many vested interests, the dmg war has become annaddiction that seems impossible to break, despite all the evidencenof the harm that is being wrought on countless individuals,nand on society as a whole. As with any addiction, reformncan only come when the victim recognizes that the conditionnis beyond his or her control, and decides to seek help. At thatnpoint, just possibly, we can begin the process that leads back,nhowever slowly and painfully, to confronting the problems ofnthe real world. If ever we needed a twelve-stage recovery program.n.. ‘ <^n