Unintended Consequences
A Slate article on how drug treatment programs for teens tends to result in teens becoming real addicts. The argument is that most teens are trying on different identities, and AA/AN steps that require people to says they are “powerless” over alcohol/drugs becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy when a teen comes to believe he actually is “powerless” over these substances; the anti-social rebel personna someone takes on when they’re young is reinforced and becomes permanent. There’s also the observation that inexperienced teens learn how to score harder drugs from their peers-with-cooler-confessional-stories.