Lisbon, Portugal - Under a flyover of concrete, alongside a road full of afternoon commuters, a group of people flock around a van. One of them, a woman in a colourful summer dress and a golden necklace, looks like she came to see a show at the nearby theatre. However, just like the man in his unwashed jeans in front of her, she is here for her daily dose of methadone. It will get her through the night. "Drugs started when my father brought me to the south of Portugal, to the Algarve, where I met people who were in the scene," the woman tells Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity.

Unreliable rewards trap us into addictive cell phone use, but they can also get us out. By David Antonio Perezcassar.

Jennifer Frey drank herself to death. By Dave McKenna.

A STAT investigation shows that Purdue Pharma paid rebates to a pharmacy benefit manager to thwart a West Virginia plan to limit prescriptions of OxyContin. By David Armstrong.

A clever experiment pinpoints the brain region involved in taking the perspective of our future selves or that of others. By Catherine Caruso.

Smartphone apps are addictive -- by design. They take advantage of human weaknesses to ensure your constant attention. But there is another way. By Tristan Harris. (July 27, 2016)

Silicon Valley’s most successful tech companies use the insights of behaviour design to pump us with dopamine and keep us returning to their products. But, as Ian Leslie learns, some of the psychologists who developed the science of persuasion are worried about the way it is being used. By Ian Leslie.

Because you’re an idiot, like everyone else. By Alex Balk.

Alcohol When it comes to substance use and abuse, our society is built upon a bedrock of hypocrisy. We drink alcohol at nearly every single social event or gathering we attend, whether it be a birthday party, a child’s party, a wake, marriage, public holiday, or sporting event. We drink just because it’s the weekend or because we had a long day at work. And why? The most common (usually unspoken) reasons are “social lubrication” or escapism. We are trying to escape from feelings, emotions, memories, reality, or the troubling aspects of our lives. Often we need it to have an interesting conversation, to make human interactions more appealing.

This graphic portrays how negative habits, like smoking and drinking, can lead to addiction.

Because kratom can be grown in your backyard, pharmaceutical companies can't monopolize it -- unless the government outlaws it.

Dublin footballer Philly McMahon has called for a change in how Irish society views drug addicts. Speaking yesterday at the launch of the public consultation for the new national drugs strategy, the Dublin defender spoke about his own experiences growing up in Ballymun and losing his brother to drugs. McMahon’s brother John died in London on this day four years ago after a long battle with drug addiction.

Avon Lake,Ohio is an upmarket suburb of a US city - but opiate addiction is tearing apart the fabric of the neighborhood.

Most addicts just stop using in time, without needing costly treatment. Why do some people walk away while others can’t? One of the most persistent and formative influences organising narratives of “ageing out” were the responsibilities and role demands connected to raising children.’ The more that individuals came to embrace their Navajo heritage, the more they expressed a sense that drinking simply didn’t fit anymore.

Are you moody? Prone to distraction? Cellphones may act as a high-tech pacifier. By James A. Roberts.

Illicit OxyContin devastated the entire Everett region in Washngton. At the height of the drug’s popularity, it was a factor in more than half of the crimes in Snohomish County. By Harriet Ryan, Lisa Girion and Scott Glover.

The government is raising the limit on the number of patients a doctor can treat for opioid addiction using the drug buprenorphine to 275 from 100. The move expands office-based treatment options.

A doctor who specializes in helping people addicted to pain medication was preparing to attempt to treat Prince when the music star was found dead in an elevator on the first floor of his sprawling estate here last month, according to a lawyer representing the doctor.

Since entering recovery 28 years ago, I’ve spent a great deal of time thinking about the conundrum of addiction. The most commonly accepted definition – the one used in psychiatry’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, the DSM – can be summarized as “compulsive drug use despite negative consequences”. It’s completely odd, then, that we treat punishment, which is just another word for “negative consequences”, as the best way to stop it.

Prescription painkiller abuse sparked an HIV outbreak in rural Indiana. Kelly McEvers takes NPR's new podcast, Embedded, inside the home where IV drug users meet.