Hate to Disagree With Volokh

I do hate to disagree with Volokh, especially on what amount to religious grounds for me, but I think he's wrong here:

I suspect most of us think that a pill (or some other mechanism) that could reduce desire (especially strong desire) for alcohol, drugs, or unhealthy foods would be very good, because it would provide a very valuable, possibly life-saving choice to people.

Well, maybe he's not wrong. Maybe most people would support it. But I wouldn't. Desire is the fundamental human weakness, and it doesn't really matter where it is targeted. But to overcome it through an external source, like a pill, is in my view a tremendous restriction of someone's freedom rather than something that "free[s] them of their physical urges." True freedom comes from facing those urges head-on and defeating them. Now I may be going too far, particularly in cases of addiction. That's not a question I've really grappled with, but insofar as addiction is a disease, I think it should be excluded from the discussion of "desires". In general I do have a problem with this idea of external artificial intervention, and Volokh's main example is of someone who is committed to veganism philosophically but for reasons of desire/taste is unable to follow through. I say it's better for the would-be vegan to learn not to desire the meat than to take a pill that accomplishes the same. I even think it better that he struggle his whole life, falling off the "wagon" on occasion, than to pop a pill and be a vegan the rest of his life. Ease and "happiness" can't really be the only values we're trying to instill, can they?