To say that addicts have choices about whether to go to an AA meeting or stay home and do the dishes does not address the real question.

No one chooses to be an addict, any more than they would choose to have cancer.

Those who are afflicted with the disease cannot choose to have a social drink or two, or to use cocaine recreationally now and then. Their brains are wired differently.

Some people's addiction to alcohol or drugs worsen over time. But many of them are hooked from the time they drink their first illicit beer as a teenager.

They may have a choice about whether to use or straighten out their lives, but they do not have a choice not to be an alcoholic/addict, or whether to become "social" users of drugs or alcohol.

It's a disease, and it's often transmitted genetically -- something else the authors fail to mention.