There is an interesting article on addiction from the Wall Street Journal by Theodore Dalrymple - Article | Poppycock
I found the following quote to be quite witty...
And in China, millions of Chinese addicts gave up with only minimal help: Mao Tse-Tung's credible offer to shoot them if they did not. There is thus no question that Mao was the greatest drug-addiction therapist in history.(HT - Al Mohler)