On Friday, the Deep End featured Damian Thompson’s brilliant piece for the Spectator on addiction. Focusing on pornography, he shows how technology is widening the exposure of our society to addictive activities.
The conventional wisdom is that addiction is a demand-led process, i.e. that addiction drives supply. But Thompson argues that history shows the opposite, i.e. that supply drives addiction:
The same pattern was seen in the heroin epidemic among American soldiers in Vietnam:
The heretical suggestion here is that people become addicted because they can, not because they must. The implication is that addiction can be resisted: specifically, at the level of the individual, by exercising personal responsibility; but also, at the level of society, by countering advances in the supply of addictive products.
Thompson is sceptical about the ability of governments to achieve the latter. But is he too pessimistic? Policy options such as Claire Perry’s case for requiring an opt-in system for access to online pornography show that we aren’t helpless in the face of new technology. If individuals have a choice on addicition, then so do societies.