Addiction is defined as a disorder with four features: fault in behavior, fault in adaptation, conflict of personal wisdom, and conflict with conventional wisdom. A distinction is made between preventive and remedial addiction interventions. These interventions include the therapeutic community which came from the field of psychiatry and received its inspiration from the Alcoholics Anonymous movement as well as hospitalization, detoxification programs, methadone maintenance treatment programs, methadone to abstinence programs, and law enforcement responses. Four status types are identified with respect to addiction intervention programs: taking (using drugs and not in treatment); receiving (a medically prescribed opiate, predominantly methadone, is received in place of the illegal drug); abstaining (not using drugs while continuing treatment); and conforming (no dependence on either drugs or drug treatment). Treatment models and addiction intervention policies are analyzed. 7 references