OOPS:  HOW CASUAL DRUG USE LEADS TO ADDICTION, By Alan I. Leshner, Ph.D., Director, National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), National Institutes of Health

“This unexpected consequence of drug use is what I have come to call the oops phenomenon. Why oops? Because the harmful outcome is in no way intentional. Just as no one starts out to have lung cancer when they smoke, or no one starts out to have clogged arteries when they eat fried foods which in turn usually cause heart attacks, no one starts out to become a drug addict when they use drugs. But in each case, though no one meant to behave in a way that would lead to tragic health consequences, that is what happened just the same, because of the inexorable, and undetected, destructive biochemical processes at work”  Read the rest of the article here….and what to do when your hooked?  Check out this excellent PDF file of a document produced by NIDA called.  The Principals of Drug Addiction Treatment. Links by Mary Slivinski.