Theodore Dalrymple in a recent article wrote that heroin addicts tell him that they “would quit if they could.” He said, by that they mean that if there was a pill they could take that would remove the desire for heroin, with no effort of will or change of lifestyle, they would take it.
However, he said, he doesn’t believe they would. They started using heroin, and continued it to the point of physical addiction, because they enjoyed it. They wouldn’t quit even if it were easy.
Have read several articles by him on this topic - he used to write for National Review, but haven't seen him in a while.
With a background of an MD/Shrink in a British prison, he had the weight of experience in what he wrote.