‘They tried to make me go to rehab, but I said “no, no, no” …’ (Amy Winehouse, Rehab, 2006).
The tragic death of singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse at the age of 27, following a series of highly-publicised problems of drug and alcohol abuse, has been widely interpreted as confirming the conventional view of addiction as a disease requiring medical treatment.
Within days of Amy's death, her father Mitch launched a campaign for the establishment of residential drug rehabilitation centres in memory of his daughter, leading a delegation to meet MP Keith Vaz, chair of the House of Commons home affairs committee.1 Mitch emphasised the need …