This nation pioneered modern life. Now epic numbers of Americans are killing themselves with opioids to escape it.

Portugal treats addiction as a disease, not a crime.

Within 42 minutes, Mr. Franklin had lost £2,600, the latest relapse in a decades-long gambling addiction that he reckons has cost him more than a million pounds, his marriage, several jobs and his relationship with his three children.

New Hampshire has the second-highest rate of drug overdoses in the country. Eric Adams in Laconia (population 16,000) has been assigned one task: to stop them.

A high-powered Silicon Valley attorney dies. His ex-wife investigates, and finds a web of drug abuse in his profession.

As a psychiatrist, I have yet to meet a patient who enjoys being addicted to drugs or compulsively overeating.

Why would anyone continue to use recreational drugs despite the medical consequences and social condemnation? What makes someone eat more and more in the face of poor health?

One answer is that modern humans have designed the perfect environment to create both of these addictions.

A millionaire at 18 and a junkie at 27, Robert Swift is trying to revive his basketball career and repair his frayed life.