The lead author of the Stylebook was interviewed by Slate magazine as to why he implemented this subtle, but powerful change. He said it was because of a paper he read by President Obama’s chief advisor on drugs, Michael Botticelli, named ‘Changing the language of addiction’. In it, Botticelli cited a study that found that doctors were slightly more likely to recommend harsher measures for ‘substance abusers’ as opposed to ‘people with substance abuse disorders’. That small shift in focus, from the person, to the problem itself, is huge. After all, we don’t describe ex-smokers as
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