Addiction - Physical addiction to alcohol: how fast?

[bcubed]

Okay, Lizard had the following question about how long it would take, drinking daily, to exhibit withdrawal symptopms from alcohol.

Here's the setting: over the summer, Lizard's Dad+Step-ma took the entire extended family on a vacation in the Great Lakes region. As a result, he got to hang with his three step-cousins, all of whom are hard-drinking, VERY type-A individuals: envision a poorer, somewhat more conservative version of the Kennedys. (Incidentally, hanging with them is much more fun than it sounds...)

Naturally (in addition to a few drugs), much liquor flowed. Basically, a low-level buzz was kept from, say 2 PM 'till nightfall, at which point the kids were asleep and the REAL drinking happened. Things escalated, as they are sometimes want to do, and by day 6-7, drinking was to blackout.

Now by morning of day 7, Lizard was feeling mild withdrawals in addition to his well-earned hangover. Now, he's a rather experienced drinker, and (once) had a fairly substantial addiction going, but was not addicted going into the week, nor did he have a particularly high tolerance. He killed the W/Ds by tapering for a day, so it was very much milder than he'd experienced before.

How long does it really take to develop a physical addiction to booze? Lizard has always felt that alcohol's addictive potential--while high with effort--took a while to kick in. Upon reflection, he thinks that much of that is due to the moderating after-effects of drinking to excess. (After all, opiate users usually counsel to wait 48-72 hours between use, and hangovers usually encourage a sane drinker to wait about an equivalent amount of time.)

So, how many straight days of drinking does it take?