Addiction is a disease that affects ten percent of Americans, but countless others, including family and friends, are devastated by it. Addiction is not a choice a person can make; rather, the disease takes away people's ability to make informed choices. Science has made progress in showing exactly how drugs chemically affect the brain, proving that it is a disease and not a moral failing. Addiction is a disease and should be treated through rehabilitation and community-based support groups such as Narcotics Anonymous (NA) and Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), not incarceration, and state and federal governments should increase funding and programs for prevention and treatment. a disease that causes many neurological effects on the brain. Addiction, in fact, is included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), which is the reference standard for psychiatric diseases (DSM-5) and affects ten percent of the population (Understanding). Most drugs release chemicals that affect the midbrain and change its chemical composition. Specifically, nerve cells in the brain release dopamine when humans perform pleasurable activities, such as eating good food, exercising, and having sex (Understanding). This causes the person to seek that pleasurable activity again and again (substance abuse). Drugs, from alcohol and marijuana to heroin, also cause the brain to release dopamine, but faster and stronger than most activities. (Mandal) With repeated use, the addict becomes accustomed to this stronger and faster sensation of pleasure and can no longer feel the milder pleasures of normal activity. In this way the brain "breaks" and the addict continues to look for that feeling of well-being that can only be felt with the drug (Substance... half of the paper... ten percent of them become addicted to that drug) and try harder drugs (above flu/faq). Teenage drug use is overlooked as normal in most families, but most drug addicts begin using drugs in adolescence and carry it with them into adulthood, so allowing it is risking addiction in own children or in the other allow children to drink and even smoke marijuana in the home. Letting children with peanut allergies eat peanuts in the house endangers people's lives just like addiction a message that is okay and overlooks the fact that ten percent of people who will become addicts. Families who have an addict suffer from theft of property, dealing with lawsuits, wasting time at work dealing with the addict, emotional damage, and fear of losing out. their child.