Radicalizing recovery: Addiction, spirituality, and politics

Treatment centers and self-help recovery programs promote individual solutions to substance abuse through changing dysfunctional behavior and relying on spiritual beliefs and practices. The root problems are understood to be diseases within the person. However, the social conditions implicated in causing the addiction remain unaddressed. Although class, race, and gender do not predict substance abuse, many people entering clinics ave from disempowered groups. Can social workers bring recovery and social justice methods together? What can radical social workers in the addiction-recovery industry do?