Damian Thompson: ‘Addiction is a messy and frightening reality’

The motion ‘Addiction is not a Disease’ received overwhelming support from a lively crowd at last night's Spectator debate. Despite moving speeches from recovering addicts, Dominic Ruffy (of the Amy Winehouse Foundation) and fashion designer Trinny Woodall, the audience came out strongly in favour of Damian Thompson’s insistence that addicts are fundamentally people who ‘like something too much for their own good and crave its rewards’.

Theodore Dalrymple opened the debate for the motion by asserting that Mao Tse Tung was the greatest therapist of drug addiction: ‘Mao Tse Tung was by far the best therapist of drug addiction in world history,’ he said, ‘for he threatened to execute opium addicts if they didn’t give up - and 20 million people gave up.’ This remark was considered distasteful by Vik Watts. In a speech laced with historical references, Dr Dalrymple concluded that addiction was fundamentally a ‘pattern of behaviour’ and ‘not an illness’.

Vik Watts opened his remarks by waving a pouch of white crystals in the air (sugar), as he described the effects of ingesting toxic substances as being symmetrical with those of eating too much sugar. Drug addiction and diabetes were compared throughout Dr Watts’s speech, which was based on John Bowlby’s theory of attachment and bonding.

Damian Thompson, himself a recovering alcoholic, rebutted Dr Watts with a persuasive argument. He defined addiction as a ‘messy and frightening reality… a disorder of choice,’ which ‘we won’t find easier to fight by the reductionism that labels addiction a disease’.

Thompson’s obvious conviction compensated for his American team-mate,  Aric Sigman, who seemed ambivalent. ‘You’ll think me quite a pussy after this,’ he remarked with an air of apology, ‘I am not militaristically for or against a disease model’. After some back-and-forth, Sigman thankfully came down in support of the motion.

In reply, Dominic Ruffy and Trinny Woodall gave moving accounts of their own battles with addiction. Ms Woodall acknowledged that addiction fits the bill for a disease, being a ‘disorder of function that produces symptoms and effects a specific location,’ while Mr Ruffy mused upon what caused his 23-year habit.

But their life stories did not sway the Spectator audience, who finally voted in favour of the motion 165:77.

Listen to the full debate: