Addictive Qualities of Popular Drugs

[lulz]

Withdrawal: Presence and severity of characteristic withdrawal symptoms.

Reinforcement: A measure of the substance's ability, in human and animal tests, to get users to take it again and again, and in preference to other substances.

Tolerance: How much of the substance is needed to satisfy increasing cravings for it, and the level of stable need that is eventually reached.

Dependence: How difficult it is for the user to quit, the relapse rate, the percentage of people who eventually become dependent, the rating users give their own need for the substance and the degree to which the substance will be used in the face of evidence that it causes harm.

Intoxication: Though not usually counted as a measure of addiction in itself, the level of intoxication is associated with addiction and increases the personal and social damage a substance may do.

Source: Jack E. Henningfield, PhD for NIDA, Reported by Philip J. Hilts, New York Times, Aug. 2, 1994 "Is Nicotine Addictive? It Depends on Whose Criteria You Use."

http://drugwarfacts.org/addictiv.htm

Evil, evil marijuana!

[Shiacmkmleer]

lol... Quick question though is this a logarithmic scale and how were the values calculated? (since the source soucres an article from 1994 which I can't get at)

[lulz]

Here is the original article:

http://www.marijuanalibrary.org/NYT_...ve_080294.html

It looks like they calculated it like this: they look at each of the six criteria, for every criteria that is met one point is added to the total. For a score of six, all six criteria are met, etc.

Edit: sorry I just read through it again, that explanation doesn't make any sense. It's unfortunate that they don't give a more objective explanation of how they calculated each score along that range.

[flipthecandy]

Not surprising..I would have expected marijuana to have a higher tolerance rating though...

[Hyperspaceblastoff]

ya mee too lol
seriously my tolernce is so high i can barely get high for more than 15 minutes
and all i do is vape kushes

[flipthecandy]

It's funny. If someone with no knowledge of drugs looked at that and had to guess the drugs which were legal, they would probably guess caffeine and marijuana. No-one would guess nicotine and alcohol were legal and marijuana wasn't legal. Ludicrous.

[Broshious]

What's really funny to me is none of those categories seem dangerous to me. I don't see any LD50s or comparisons of effective intoxicant dose to lethal dose.

[flipthecandy]

You don't think dependance to harmful drugs is dangerous? Or harsh withdrawals? Sure, it won't kill you in one go but they're still dangerous...

[Broshious]

Originally Posted by flipthecandy

You don't think dependance to harmful drugs is dangerous? Or harsh withdrawals? Sure, it won't kill you in one go but they're still dangerous...

I suppose you have a point. I guess I was thinking more in terms of physical damage to your body, and a drug could be super addictive while having no potential to do any damage to you so it wouldn't be dangerous.

With regard to withdrawals there are only a few that are actually dangerous from my viewpoint. I wasn't paying close enough attention because alcohol withdrawal which they gave the highest rating to is definitely dangerous as are some drugs that can cause seizures and such. I don't believe Heroin(which they put as a 5) has a dangerous withdrawal, unpleasant yes, but I don't think it damages you in any way.

I think my main point was most everything they have listed is kind of a secondary danger. As you said dependence on harmful drugs is bad, but first they have to be harmful. Tolerance which leads to increasing dosages is dangerous only if those higher dosages are. Withdrawal is only dangerous if it causes serious enough side effects, and the only ones I think serious enough to be considered an actual danger can be avoided through tapering.

[thrackelsby]

I am not sure, seeing as I have never smoked tobacco extensively, but it seems that the intoxication rating for caffeine should be higher than nicotine. Smoking a recreational dose, or even much higher, of tobacco doesn't produce a noticeable intoxication. Whereas, at least to a 110-pounder such as My friend, a high dose of caffeine will have a very noticeable effect.