have quoted a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association that showed that a history of childhood abuse increases physiological stress reactivity for a lifetime, a reactivity that is “further enhanced when additional trauma is experienced in adulthood.”6 The addict is retraumatized over and over again by ostracism, harassment, dire poverty, the spread of disease, the frantic hunt for a source of the substance of dependence, the violence of the underground drug world, and harsh chastisement at the hands of the law—all inevitable consequences of the War on Drugs.
