Not everyone views addiction in chiefly negative terms, which isn’t all too surprising to anyone with a little world experience, but it sometimes still feels shocking because of how dominant the mainstream narrative that dependency (on certain drugs) is automatically a moral failing or represents a physical or mental shortcoming. It doesn’t have to be framed this way — and arguably, the overwhelming negative focus is part of the problem. But where do we start when we explore the division between addiction and vice?

Narcotica co-hosts Aaron Ferguson and Troy Farah speak with Elizabeth Roberts, a professor of anthropology at the University of Michigan, who since 2013, she has participated in collaborative environmental health research in Mexico City, which has been a catalyst for her questioning a lot of dogma about addiction in different societies. In many places, Roberts finds in her latest book, “In Praise of Addiction,” the real negative harms don’t come from drugs but isolation and harmful systems like mass incarceration that divide communities. By reframing the question, we can start building a society that doesn’t shame or stigmatize people for arbitrary behaviors.

Roberts’ latest book “In Praise of Addiction: Or How We Can Learn To Love Dependency in a Damaged World,” is available from Princeton University Press.

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If you liked this episode, here are others you might enjoy:
Episode 81: Harm Reduction Against the Prison-Industrial Complex
Episode 66: Overlooking Alcohol and The Nature of Addiction with Dr. Stanton Peele
Episode 83: The Parents Who Oppose The War on Drugs with Tamara Olt and Gretchen Bergman

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Producers: Troy Farah, Aaron Ferguson
Music: Glass Boy / Nomad1 / Algorithms by Chad Crouch
Intro voice: Jenny Schaye
Image: StockSnap / Pixabay