In this excellent video from the HMA Institute on Addiction, Dr. R. Corey Waller describes the research on the brain science behind addiction and the implications for public policy change (20 minutes into the video). He says, “In the criminal justice world, we have to stop criminalizing patients for having a disease that we have a treatment for. We know that that behavior can be defined based on craving. We know that that craving can be seen on a functional MRI. We know that it’s greater than starving and dehydration. And most importantly we know we have treatments for this. So to take someone who has very obvious behaviors of addiction and put them in jail with no treatment doesn’t make any sense.”
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