Devotees tout them as a way to break addiction to real cigarettes.

NPR: Marlboro Maker Altria 1Q Profit Up About 16 Pct

It's time for the United States to take real steps to end our addiction to oil.

NPR: Transcript: Obama's Speech at AIPAC

As a result Congress may be missing market signals and failing to see the costs of its spending addiction in time to undertake real reforms.

WSJ: Canada, Druckenmiller and Warsh: Generational Theft Needs to Be Arrested

More specifically, believing that the diagnostic certainties of addiction can explain the very real, new, and quite perplexing problem of people getting trapped by online behaviors goes against current science and clinical experience.

FORBES: Is Brian Williams 'Addicted' to Addiction? Here's What You Really Need To Know About 'Internet Addiction'

In this email interview, we talk about social commentary, the people who reach out to him about addiction and how explaining his real name made him choose a pen name, which he then had to explain to me.

FORBES: John Cheese's icon on Cracked.

The addiction, though, is very real and provides another level of frustration.

FORBES: The 21st Century Novel: Jaded Ibis Sees a 'Mashup'

The most dramatic phrase in the speech was his promise to free America from its addiction to oil, but there was little real change in energy policy (see article).

ECONOMIST: State of the union

Real disorders, however, might cause behavior that is interpreted as sex addiction.

FORBES: The Shadowy Science Of Sex Addiction

Meanwhile, by failing to impose the carbon tax that would present consumers with the real cost of energy, America rejects the best way to kick its own addiction to oil and make greater use of alternatives.

ECONOMIST: Energy security