The Road to Recovery from Alcoholism and Addiction: Retribution or Restoration?

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the abuse of alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drugs in United States costs over 740 billion yearly (https://www.drugabuse.gov/relatedtopics/trends-statistics, accessed March 2018). However, statistics like this rarely include the toll that alcohol tobacco, and illegal drugs takes on family members, employers, educators, or the incredible number of accidental deaths from overdoses, car accidents, etc. This paper examines the historical ways that substance abuse has been dealt with in the US, and includes Portugal's and Germany's new policies toward addicts as a possible way forward. It focuses on education as a vehicle for restorative means of dealing with the addiction pandemic. [For the complete Volume 16 proceedings, see ED586117.]