This project is not about heroin addicts in doorways or ‘the war on drugs’.  It’s about how and why mainstream addictive products have been allowed to flourish for the benefit of companies at the expense of the rest of us.

We will explore the commercial and political values, decision-making and strategies which have made addicting one’s customers an commonplace business model, whilst simultaneously decimating the mental and physical health of millions of individuals and damaging societies as a whole.

(The incentives that mean heroin addicts end up in doorways are much the same, but the pushers and their facilitators get knighthoods not jail sentences.)

We also want to understand why the attention of media and  medicine is so often focused on the problematic personal qualities and situation of the addicted, while the addicters remain unscrutinised.

There are plenty of examples to explore.  In scope are cigarettes, vapes, alcohol, opioids, ultra-processed foods, gambling, social media and computer games and crypto-trading and who knows what else is being invented in the meantime!