The American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM): A History

The story of the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) is one that includes a signer of the Declaration of Independence (not Hamilton), a politician fighting a death-bed promise, an alcoholic billionaire, Freedom Riders, and the Summer of Love. Interested? Read on!  Dr. Benjamin Rush, a colonial physician and signer of the Declaration of Independence, described alcoholism as a disease as early as the late 1700s, but the concept was not widespread until the 1930s when Bill Wilson and…