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Joel Spitzer, an anti-smoking counsellor, claimed on whyquit.com that there is a law of addiction which is:

The law of physiological addiction states administration of a drug to an addict will cause reestablishment of chemical dependence upon the addictive substance.

Years ago, I have read this and completely believed it, but today I read it again and it didn't click.

This alleged law of addiction is now being mentioned everywhere, even in books.

I couldn't find this claim on any authoritative websites, nor found any studies which mentioned or said this claim.

Where does it this law come from, or what does science say about this?

drat
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George Chalhoub
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  • Maybe some clarification on what this is supposed to mean, would help. Is this saying, saying, that an ex addict will far more quickly become chemically dependent than someone who has never been an addict/touched said drug before? because just taken on face value, it just seems to be stating the definition of an addicting substance. AKA, you take it, and become chemically dependent. – Jonathon Nov 13 '15 at 02:05
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    There are 11 potentially addictive behaviors including drug abuse which is discussed here-http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4600144/ and five basic elements of addiction discussed here-http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3210595/?log$=activity. A biogenetic predisposition to chemical or addictive behaviors alone is generally not enough to cause the disease since one is also influenced by social factors-https://www.ncsbn.org/Understanding_the_Disease_of_Addiction.pdf, None of these discuss the law of addiction mentioned by Joe Spitzer ! – pericles316 Nov 13 '15 at 13:17
  • [Dr. Gabor Mate](http://drgabormate.com/) is a fantastic resource regarding addiction research. – Ruut Nov 13 '15 at 13:37
  • What's the actual claim here? You sound like you're asking if addicts are addicts. A tautology? – WakeDemons3 Aug 13 '18 at 18:22

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