"186 Section 8.7 Drug Addiction More than three decades of research supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA ) has proven that addiction is a complex brain disease characterized by compulsive, at times uncontrollable, drug craving, seeking, and use that persist despite potentially devastating consequences. Addiction is also a developmental disease; tha t is, it usually starts in adolescence or even childhood and can last a lifetime if untreated. Disagreements about the nature of addiction remain: namely, whether it reflects voluntary or involuntary behavior and whether it should be punished or treated as a health issue. Even though the first time a person takes a drug, it is often by choice — to achieve a pleasurable sensation or desired emotional state — we now know from a large body of research that this ability to choose can be affected by drugs. And when addiction takes hold in the brain, it disrupts a person’s ability to exert control over behavior — reflecting the compulsive nature of this disease. The human brain is an extraordinarily complex and fine - tuned communications network made up of billions of cells that govern our thoughts, emotions, perceptions, and drives. Our brains reward certain behaviors such as eating or procreating — registering these as pleasurable activities that we want to repeat. Drug addiction taps into these vital mechanisms geared for our survival. And although not a life necessity, to an addicted person, drugs become life itself, driving the compulsive use of drugs — even in the face of dire life consequences — that is the essence of addiction . How Does Addiction Take Hold in the Brai n? The rewarding effects of drugs of abuse come from large and rapid upsurges in dopamine, a neurochemical critical to stimulating feelings of pleasure and to motivating behavior. The rapid dopamine “rush” from drugs of abuse mimics but greatly exceeds in intensity and duration the feelings that occur in response to such pleasurable stimuli as the sight or smell of food, for example. Repeated exposure to large, drug - induced dopamine surges has the insidious consequence of ultimately blunting the response o f the dopamine system to everyday stimuli. Thus the drug disturbs a person’s normal hierarchy of needs and desires and substitutes new priorities concerned with procuring and using the drug. Drug abuse also disrupts the brain circuits involved in memory a nd control over behavior. Memories of the drug experience can trigger craving as can exposure to people, places, or things associated with former drug use. Stress is also a powerful trigger for craving. Control over behavior is compromised because the affe cted frontal brain regions are what a person needs to exert inhibitory control over desires and emotions."