We investigated the association between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in ALDH2, which has been associated with alcohol dependence and several types of diseases, and the risk of drug addiction in a Chinese Han population. In a case-control study that included 692 cases and 700 healthy controls, eight SNPs in ALDH2 were selected and genotyped using the Sequenom MassARRAY platform. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using unconditional logistic regression after adjusting for age and gender. We determined that rs671 is significantly associated with a 1.551-fold increased drug addiction risk (95% CI = 1.263-1.903; p < 0.001). In the genetic model analysis, we found that rs671 is associated with an increased risk of drug addiction under additive, dominant and recessive models (p < 0.001), while rs886205, rs441 and rs4646778 displayed a decreased drug addiction risk under additive and recessive model, respectively (p < 0.05). SNP rs671 remained significant after Bonferroni correction (p < 0.00125). Additionally, we observed that haplotype "GTCAC" was associated with increased drug addiction risk (OR = 1.668; 95% CI, 1.328-2.094, p < 0.001); in contrast, "ATCGC" was a protective haplotype for drug addiction risk (OR = 0.444; 95% CI, 0.281-0.704, p < 0.001). Our findings showed that ALDH2 polymorphisms are significantly associated with the risk of drug addiction in the Chinese Han population.