National Institute on Drug Abuse Strategic Plan on Reducing Health Disparities

Abstract

Unlike other diseases, drug addiction poses many peculiar challenges to health researchers, providers, and public health officials in the search for effective prevention and treatment strategies and policies. These challenges emanate primarily from the fact that drug abuse and addiction are usually the result of illegal activity and drug abusers are often viewed as morally corrupt or weak-willed individuals who engage in not only voluntary self and socially destructive behavior but also criminal activity. In short, despite the fact that we know unequivocally that addiction is a disease like any other medical disease, it remains a stigmatized disease. And this stigma spills over to all aspects of drug abuse research, prevention and treatment (e.g., obtaining measures of use, safety and legal concerns, early intervention is compromised by efforts to hide the disease, and denial of dependency).