Despite its lifesaving role, addiction treatment and care are often among the first domains to lose resources when a crisis strikes. Across the world disruptions in addiction-related care during the Covid-19 pandemic, armed conflict, or radical political change have been documented. But what happens after the crisis is typically unknown. How do addiction-related problems change during a crisis, and what are the responses at individual and societal level? How do crises affect causes, prevalence, incidence, or severity of addiction in different regions and populations? Does the addiction care system permanently collapse or is the breakdown temporary and reversible? How does a crisis evolve and what happens to addiction care services and their beneficiaries over time? Is residual damage to addiction care services inevitable or can a crisis create opportunities for positive change at individual, organizational, and/or system level? Are harms and benefits (un)equally distributed among different addiction stakeholder groups? And finally, what does a ‘new normal’ look like in addiction and addiction care, and what (new) norms underpin it? These questions not only encompass the importance of such a topic, but also the implications on public health that are applicable worldwide that need to be addressed.