Weakness of character was behind Hoffman's addiction, the same as it was behind the heroin addiction of the fictional character Sherlock Holmes. Conan Doyle, a tolerant and spiritual guy, knew of what he wrote -- at a time when many otherwise good and upstanding Britishmen were closet opium addicts. That's not even mentioning the laudanum addicts, which included perfectly respectable ladies and gents, in America in the 1800s.
Drug addition is a spiritual malaise whose solution lies 90 percent with religion, and only 10 percent with government. But those who seek to use government, both right and left, confuse government's role with religion's role.
Very good post. I’d also suggest that the use of the term “epidemic” to describe any and all personal and social disorders doesn’t help, either. An epidemic is a medical condition that is dangerous to a large population simply because it can be spread through casual contact. Heroin abuse isn’t an “epidemic” any more than alcoholism is a “disease,” and pretending otherwise results in a gross misuse of public resources.