I work for a housing charity who deal with homeless clients. The local housing authority refues to consider heroin users or alcoholics as vulnerable enough for emergency accommodation because their drug use is a "lifestyle choice." Even if they have severe medical problems [deep vein thrombosis, liver disease, etc.] which in another case may be deemed serious enough to make them "vulnerable." My colleagues and I are confused. Can addictive behaviour seriously be described as an act of free will? I don't know if your rules forbid such qestions as being medical/psychological rather than philosophical, but I have worked in addictions services for nearly 15 years, and I have never seen a definitive answer to this question, therefore I suspect it may be one for the philosophers rather than the men in white coats! Please help us if you can.

Thank you very much for your contribution. I'm not a specialist on issues of free will, or on the psychology or neuroscience of addiction. I hope that other panelists will add their comments here as well. However, one thought that comes to mind in response to your question is that there is *a* sense in which drug addicts and alcoholics are in the condition they are in as a result of their own choice: With the exception of those who gained an addiction in utero (I have the impression that this is possible), these individuals made choices that resulted in their addictions. There would have to have been many such choices, since it is only in this way that an addiction can be created; and those choices might not have been made in the awareness that an addiction would likely result. Nevertheless, the housing authority perhaps would suggest that people can be expected to know that certain choices will likely result in an addiction over time. Of course that will not satisfy you and your colleagues,...