Most addictive Drug - Opinions

[Lehendakari]

I think those who smoke crack cocaine behave like the rats with brain electrodes named above. They don't eat, don't drink, don't do social stuff they just want to dope all the time till they die.

I've smoked tobacco for longs periods of time and I've never been addicted to it. The longest period was six months and then it gave me headaches and quit cold turkey. I never felt cravings or withdrawal symtoms. I smoked 20 cigarretes a day and many more in weekends.

Right now I still enjoy smoking when going out at night with a few drinks but I don't crave them

[mick mouse]

definately tobacco! SWIM is a certified tobacco cessation specialist and part of that certification required addiction comparisons with other substances. According to the literature that I had, the average person "quits" 15 times before it actually sticks! If a person is not totally motivated, that number goes WAY up! The funny thing is that the actual addiction to nicotene is not that hard to break, the hard part is breaking the habits that go along with it, I.E. cig after sex, cig with coffee in the morning, cig when under stress, etc.

[darawk]

Easiest to get addicted to: meth
Hardest addiction to break: benzo's
Most addictive overall: heroin/opiates

[pankreeas]

WIthout a doubt nicotine. Nothing even comes close. It's acceptable just about anywhere you go, any time of the day. It can be bought virtually anywhere, and what other commodity besides alcohol has over the past 50 years has had thrown to it probably close to a trillion dollars for advertising. If not for the death rate from smoking also, how else would the gov't be able to tax a product due to its lethality. You could even say it's slowly helping with controlling the world population too... It's a cycle that cannot be broken as everybody benfits from smoking more than we detrement. The hospitals get extra money, the lobbyists have jobs forever, smoking cessation backing companies can roll in the money, and everyone is happy. Swim has smoked for 12 years. 6 years ago he quit for almost 2 years cold turkey, then like that he picked it up again. Why? cause it's just that easy.

[radiometer]

Some people who get into IV seem more into the process than the product. The same goes for smoking powders. I think this is partly because these are the most effective methods of admin for most drugs, and also partly cultural (i.e. instant gratification, bigger is better, etc.). Many of these people would probably be just as pleased with spending their days bungee jumping, driving race cars, or cliff diving.

It's rather interesting that South Americans have traditionally used coca orally on a lifetime basis with virtually no reported problems (some studies have shown that coca users were healthier overall than their non-using counterparts) while intranasal and especially smoked usage of the pure alkaloid in modern times has proved significantly problematic.

I also find it interesting that this rather good thread has grown out of the first 2-3 posts it contains. If some mod could get rid of the seven or more gratuitous exclamation points in the title, it may be taken even more seriously.

[ojos_de_brujo]

In Swim's experience the most physically addictive drug is Valium and not heroin. However, Swim never ever mentally craves Valium, because there are much better drugs. Heroin for example. Heroin has a bad reputation, and most of it is true, Swim admits. But Swim would say the most addictive drugs are the ones that are legal and easily attainable. How many people are addicted to alcohol, cigarettes, prescription drugs? And how many people are addicted to heroin?
If heroin really was the most addictive drug, wouldn't it's use spread over the country like a rash?(No pun intended.)

OMFG, Swim just proved THEM right to keep heroin illegal. There must be something wrong with my thinking process, because Swim does not believe drugs should be illegal. Really.

[tayo]

Going to the gym increases steroids in the body, they make you feel good, increase strength, endurance, etc. and improves confidence, gets endorphins flowing. When results are seen and you get ripped they just make you want to go to the gym more and true confidence from self-image is addicting, and is a gateway drug to women. So SWIM says steroids, endogenous but supposes that needle type steroids could likely do the trick too.

[Rio Fantastic]

I'd have to say Meth. Heavy use of Meth can lead to all of your Dopamine and Serotonin being so depleted that you'd have to experience some extremely happy event just to smile. Meth addicts can no longer find happiness in all the simple pleasures in life like normal people can. The only thing they desire in life is that next fix. Several times I have heard of people who regularly used Crack or managed to beat Crack addiction, tried Meth for the first time and that was it.

I don't know about Heroin. It can't really be compared to Meth since they are totally different classes of drugs, but I think Heroin takes longer to reinforce itself in your brain then Meth does. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that Heroin needs to be used a couple of times to have withdrawal symtomns.

[85gtdrop1]

Swim had a pretty wicked Methadone addiction. The withdrawl was HELL and lasted for weeks. Just when you think it is over you get another round. F'n brutal.

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It would be interesting to know some more

[Salvinorin A]

SWIM would base his "most addictive" decision on two factors.

1. How quick the withdrawal is (after how many uses)...more emphasis on quick.
2. How powerful the withdrawal is.

Up there in the top 5 or so SWIM would say Oxycodone and it's similarities. SWIM knows that its withdrawal is immediate and very very powerful if it wasn't prescribed for pain reasons.

Other opiates are pretty addictive as well, maybe not heroin (addicitive however...) because it takes a few tries before it's feelings are perfect. SWIM has heard reports that the first few times make people sick.

Then SWIM would say maybe methamphetamine or cocaine, both affect the dopamine receptors which are replenished quickly, so the drug can keep working and working if one keeps ingesting (to a certain point that is).

People actually say meth can be the "most dangerous drug" because SWIM has read a statistic saying that there is like a 70% rellapse rate (YIKES!!).

Nicotine is also up there, however SWIM thinks it takes a few tries before one gets hooked.

[VincentVan]

Dear 85gtdrop1
SWIM gets very curious every time he reads statements like yours because while he knows for sure that the addiction given by methadone is a frightening monster, he never understood why should anyone experience it.
Methadone is meant to be taken in decresing doses for limited spans of time.
Why should someone suddenly interrupt his therapy and go through hell just beats him.
SWIM himself made use of that stuff innumerable times in his decades long love/fight with opiates addiction; and never once occurred to him to interrupt the treatment before having dropped down to omeopathic dosages.
True; he always relapsed in his old evil ways, but he (nearly) always managed to get free of addiction for period varying between a few days and up to a year.
Now he has been behaving for 21 months and counting (his record); and even if occasionally he still feels the bite of temptation, for the first time he begins to be convinced that the world does have something better to offer than oblivion.
He doubts that he would have made it without methadone.
He is quite sure that he would never have made it without the intuition of a couple of members of this forum that reading his posts in a long lost thread, guessed that in that period ,besides the pangs self-detox he was going through a period of depression.
It never occurred to him. SWIM then started to add to his decreasing regimen of methadone a light antidepressant and that seems to have done the trick.
The gratitude of SWIM towards those unknown friends is of course illimited; he still remembers their nicknames with fondness and still hopes to sight their avatars every times he logs on.

Anyway 81gtdrop1: why did you interrupt your methadone therapy before being ready to go without it? Were you in some kind of confinement or you just wanted to see what would happen?
But specially: what happened to you afterwards? Did you manage to keep the monster at bay?
And if you did what do you think it was that tipped the scales to the right side in your case?
SWIM would love to know some more...

VV.

"Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind."
- Romans 12: 2 -

[85gtdrop1]

SWIM started getting methadone illegally through a friend that was going to a pain clinic that wasn't on the up and up. SWIM had years of hydrocodone use and was concerned about the liver issues related to daily accet. use. The methadone seemed like the answer. Transporting it was very dangerous as his dose kept getting bigger and bigger due to tollerance. SWIM had disk degeneration and was in alot of pain. SWIM also had no insurance so street prices were worth it, after the doctor visit, script, it was cheeper. SWIM didnt have a choice but to detox, his connection got caught doctor shopping and went ligit after some major money was spent on legal fees. SWIM now takes 80 to 100mgs of hydro a day from his own doctor. SWIM has not taken methadone for over 2 years, and he still thinks about it every day. SWIM was taking 60mgs a day at his peak of use. Methadone seems like such a great pain med, lasts all day, cheap, kills pain well, feels great. But the downside of the detox makes it not worth it legal or not. If SWIM could have used some control maybe he would be able to still enjoy it every once and a while but he just has to stay away from it. There is more to the story but you get the idea. Stopping methadone was the HARDEST THING SWIM HAS EVER DONE.

[VincentVan]

I see
where SWIM lives any doc can prescribe methadone in tablets or in liquid form and then (once you got the script) it can be purchased in any pharmacy in the country.
SWIM however never needed to do that because the badlands of his city are flooded with black market stuff.
It seems that nearly everyone that gets methadone legally here is out to sell it illegaly to those who really intend to use it to detox.
Well , good for SWIM.
Still, I don´t really understand: when you started to realize that your supplies were drying up and your sources exausted, it never occurred to you that maybe you should have started a decreasing regimen and start substituting methadone with another analgesic?
Nobody ever told you that dropping from 60 mg to 0 in 24 hours is hardly suggested?
I don' t wanna sound like a smart ass and I know that the situations in the States and in Louisiana in particular, are very different from the ones I´m used to move in, but I can' t help thinking that with the right advice in the right moment you could have avoided a lot of unnecessary pain.
I´m sorry man.
Just to think about what you must have gone through makes me shudder;
the words of one of my favorite poets come to my mind:

"Before his eyes in sudden view appear
The secrets of the hoary Deep - a dark
Illimitable ocean, without bound ,
Without dimension..."

(Milton "Paradise Lost")

[kareena]

Nicotine is a monster. Apart from being very addictive and difficult to stop there is something else that adds to its power.
Although long term health is likely to mess you up should you continue and current health from being a smoker is being depleted it does not fuck your life up in the here and now.
At least a solid smack/crack/meth addiction lets you know in the 'here and now' that the drug is destroying your life which gives added incentive to quit. With nicotine most do not reach this stage for a very long time.

However, SWIM is gonna go with benzos (this opinion is not formed from SWIMs personal experience though, fortunately). All too easy to get addicted to and incredibly difficult and unpleasant to quit with the added bonus, like alcohol, that a cold turkey quit of a solid addiction can be lethal.

[cyndi]

Nicotine is bad. I have been trying to get hubby to stop as he is older and has smoker's cough bad. He is up to 3 packs a day!! I never smoked so I don't understand why he continues to smoke when it is killing him. But like I say over and over until you have been there, you don't really know.

Benzos, oh yeah buddy they get out of control fast if you use daily. Swim found that out the hard way as she had a script for them and the doc didn't warn her the vals would have nasty wds. Oh never go cold turkey with benzos, it could kill you. Tapering with those is best and possible.

With hard drugs, one doesn't really know they are messing up their life till they hit bottom. After some clean time and sanity, one thinks what was I thinking? And tend to be really hard on themselves. That is a different animal altogether. You bet it gives the incentive to quit but is hard like all addictive chemicals.

[VincentVan]

You ' re wrong Cindy
or better: your statement is often wrong.
The relationship each person establishes with some particular substance is determined not only by the character of the substance itself, but but specially by the character and situation of the subject assuming the substance in question.
If what you need are absolute truths then turn to religion, pharmacology is not the right field.
I would like to give you some exemples and I´ll start with nicotine only because you choose that particular compound.
For more than two decades I had been married to a (wonderful ) woman who did´nt smoke. Sometimes at parties, or when I used to light up after love, or in some particular occasion, she would take a few drags of my fag; or even light up a cig of her own.
After that, she could go for months,or probably for all her life, without ever missing a cigarette.
One of the few times we had an argument was when in the northern Moluccas islands, I obliged her to sail back to Ternate (the main city, 48 hours sailing away from the place we were) because I was running out of smokes and the only ones available on the spot were cloves scented and I could´nt stand them.
She just did´nt have an addictive personality. I did. (Do?)

I know people who have been shooting heroin for years , but not more than once every few months; and some others that once they managed to detox after a hard struggle, confessed me that they wished to get addicted again as soon as possible , because they think that the maximum pleasure to be had from heroin is when one is in abstinence and then gets to satisfy the urge.
I myself have been drinking liquors for as long as I can remember but never missed them once. Other people become alcoholics in a couple of years.
In the previous couple of posts I tried to explain why I think that the all concept of "addictive substance" , in serious scientific contexts should go the way of flogiston, maybe being substituted by the study of addictive personalities.
I am firmily convinced that the "most addictive substance " could be anything you make it to be. Most often actually, I belive, is not an exogenous substance at all, but an endogenous neurotransmitter secreted when determined areas of the brain get stimulated or activated by whatever mean.
It´s hard for me to understand how some people can get orgasmic episodes by experiencing pain; nonetheless masochists have always existed; and probably for a long time more will continue to experience their particular pleasures by plugging some neuroreceptors with some neurotransmitter that their brains can produce under the right kind of stimulation.
Leave absolute truths to priests, politicians and charlatans.
What's obvious to you is probably absurd for a large number of people; and that' s a good thig too.
It' s the main reason why I still love this little, silly planet of ours.

VV.

" We learn nothing rightly until we learn the symbolical character of life."

(Ralf Waldo Emerson. - Complete Works , vol.X pag 132. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Publish. )

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Vincent, if you wre wondering why you wre a platinum member, it's because of posts like this - well thought out, balance...

[85gtdrop1]

SWIM didnt know his options then, he hadn't found the forum yet. If SWIM had to do it over again it would be different. SWIM would like to thank you for your props. It is a struggle he thinks he will have for the rest of his life.

[Gaius315]

Anything related to, derived from, or synthesized from opium. Acting on the opioid receptors and producing the greatest (imho) euphoria, they cause a strong mental dependence (ie. just wanting them so bad you can't stand it) and long term use cases physical dependance second to no other chemical that I have witnessed. I've smoked cigarettes for 12 years and have never successfully quit, but if it came down to the wire, I could quit cigarettes 1000 times easier and quicker than opiates. Opiates are also one of the few substances that with high dosage long term use and a sudden block (cold turkey) can induce delirium-tremens (DTs) and potentially death. The former of which I have suffered myself. An experience I heard best described by a counsellor of a substance abuse clinic as: "Lying in bed feeling like you're going to die and being severely frightened that you won't." During my one experience with DTs, I was literally praying to God to kill me in any manner He could, just so long as it ended the pain.

These substances would include raw opium, refined/cooked opium, morphine, codeine, heroin, poppy straw tea, oxycodone, hydrocodone, oxymorphone, hydromorphone, dihydrocodeine, methadone, etc.

That being said, as mentioned above, there's the opinion of drugs as a functionality in and of themselves. In my opinion, opiates are God's greatest gift to mankind, a proverbial panacea. SWIMs teen years were wracked with depression, social anxiety, suicidal thoughts, low self-esteem and all the rest. After many doctors and a plethora of anti-depression medications and a myriad of benzos, SWIM cured all of his problems with semi-synthetic opiate byproducts (oxycodone primarily.) Every day for him was a beautiful day and every activity, even working 70hrs a week, were joyous activities. He was friendly, alert, no longer depressed, had goals and looked forward to each day with anticipation rather than anxiety. The only drawback? He had to come by his new friend illegally and circumvent the rules of society to hide it from his employers and the like. All because the view on such substances, no matter how beneficial, are of a negative nature. The only physical downside being the dependancy on these substances. But relatively speaking, opium and all it's relatives are more beneficial and safer than cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana, most anti-depressants, and even many over the counter medications, namely acetaminophen (Tylenol) which as we all know can be severely dangerous to the liver and it serves only as a mild pain reliever. Opium, on the otherhand is highly successful as a pain reliever, anti-depressant, anti-anxiety, and even serves useful for bipolar disorder, HPD, and OCD.

Back to the point at hand, the most addictive, in my book, by far would be these. In history, Chinese farmers would cultivate their own opium and let their slaves smoke the refined product to keep them from escaping. In a few short days, the slaves wouldn't even offer to run away because they would rather stay near to a source of opium.

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	Nice Post.
	I
	Nicely detailed post, thanks for sharing your thoughts. Welcome to the forums.

[geophagus]

SWIM once had a therapist who asked SWIM what was his drug of choice?

SWIM thought about it, and then asked if that meant which drug SWIM would chose if he had to make a choice between all the known drugs? The therapist said "yes," and SWIM said "nitrous."

Nitrous always left SWIM feeling like he needed more and more.

[fireflywa]

Swim had no problem quitting cigarettes. One day he simply realized he no longer received pleasure from the nicotine, so he told himself he just wouldn't smoke anymore.

However, swim has instead turned to other drugs to replace the addiction. The day after his last smoke, swim began taking vicodin in the parking lot of swim's workplace before his shift started. Soon this increased in dose until he ran out of his prescription. Swim turned to heavy heavy doses of Kratom. Soon Kratom no longer produced any high for him, so swim turned to Adderall....which eventually lost its effect after using almost 400mg daily.

As of now, Swim is on a daily regimine of 60mg adderall, 25mg lamictal, and .5-2mg of clonazepam, sometimes 1-2mg of alpazoram.

Swim doesn't believe he'll ever feel happy again, and has no motivation to move from where he sits. He simply wonders what his next escape from reality will be...if he doesn't down his whole stash of medication first.

Swim says: escaping reality is the most addictive drug.

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It definitely can be....

[Pino]

Functional use of any upper is very very addicting. The most used is coffee. The whole world would stop for a couple of days, if coffee becomes a forbidden substance. Maybe it doesn't even turn. Swim doesn't know for sure.

[Beanfondler]

Swim's personal favorite addiction would be amphetamine/methamphetamine, but many of Swim's friends and family have been devastated by miscellaneous opiates, given how fast and intensely they lost control swim would have to say that opiates create the greatest dependence if not the most harmful. For this reason Swim has avoided them and cannot anecdotally verify this, but he does not think amphetamine/methamphetamine present dependence on the level of opiates given Swim's roughly three year use without a problem.

[Beanfondler]

Swim is abundantly aware of the dependence that amphetamine/methamphetamine use entails. There was no intention to belittle that fact. Swim was simply recalling various scientific sources as well as anecdotal evidence Swim has observed with countless numbers of his friends who have succumb to complete lack of control because of their opiate dependence. None of Swim's friends have come close to the intense downward spiral when using amphetamines as that of those whose drug of choice were opiates. Both chemicalss have profound dependence I would say that dependence associated with the use of opiates is more profound and potentially dangerous.

Amphetamines may have longer lasting detrimental effects on the concentrations of neurochemicals beyond ceasing to consume them, but these long term effects are irrelevant as far as Swim is concerned when looking solely at the period of abuse. The intensity and short period of time required for an individual to completely submit themselves to a dependence on opiates from Swim's experience is a great deal more "dangerous" than that of amphetamines.

Also the topic is to address "the most addictive drug." Opiates would top my list followed by amphetamines etc...

If you want debate which is the most physically harmfal then you've opened a plethora of separate issues...

[Psych0naut]

SWIM tried almost all of the very physically addictive drugs without a problem, a 3 day binge of snorted and smoked heroin, the morning waking up after his third night SWIM fell so horrible he knew he didn't want to go through it again, so he stopped with opioids for a while.
SWIM still had half a gram laying in his safe, but he didn't even look at it. His experience was very nice, it had nothing to do with quality, but SWIM just couldn't see him get addicted to it, it's only fun when done only once in a very long while.
SWIM also took a good dose of OxyContin(oxycodone) 2 times in the last 2 weeks, not much craving either, the stuff is extremely rare to get where he lives, to he wants to space out every experience as much as possible, to get as much out of it as possible. SWIM still has 32 OxyContins in his safe which he might take again in 4-6 weeks, but not less. SWIM still has 35 MS Contins, 30mg each, but he'll wait until a few months before taking those. SWIM got 30 grams of very pure d-meth previous summer, which he had a very rough summer with, partying a lot, doing all nighters. But when holiday ended and college started again, out of the blue SWIM put his d-meth back into his safe and started with school again, in the following 3 months SWIM took meth on only 4-5 occasions, and haven't touched it since then, so for 9 months now. SWIM is a lucky fuck and has a very good connection in the hospital who treats him with boxes full of benzo's, just as a treat. He has all of them laying around, but he only takes them to help him sleep after stimulant use, he even stopped taking them after psychedelic stimulants, because he thinks he doesn't need them. SWIM had drunk a lot for a long time, because it was socially accepted, almost a good thing to do among almost of his friends, and while partying he drank a lot for a while, but then suddenly realised WTF? SWIM uses ethanol as a lab solvent, it dissolves brain cells, why in the fuck drink that crap? From that moment on he only drink a glass of red wine, cider or beer at times.

Only crack of the nasties remains, SWIM never smoked the rock, only smoked a large heap of cocaine HCl rolled in a fat joint, and which gave him a nice rush.
SWIM has some idea how euphoric it must be, but he'll pass for now, but try it maybe later.
Now comes the last of the lot, nicotine. SWIM has quit for some time, but everytime he relapses buying a new pack and halfway finishing it.
At least SWIM reduced his smoking habit with 95%, but there's still the 5% of nicotine addicted polonium-210 smoking habit left, which is 5% too much.

[jayjohnson81]

booze.

Legal and socially acceptable - you can openly use as much as you want!
Because of the fact that the shit is on every street corner, if you can't get pills,powders,caps,whatevers, BOOZE is right there. You can always get fucked up with booze.

This guy I met said booze was his hardest to kick. Of weed,crack,meth(including IV).

All those illegal drugs you can get yourself cut off from. You know? That point where you crave it, but you know your on a bad track. You can piss off the dealers so you can't get your addiction. Addiction solved.

Booze... there is no escaping booze if you are hooked. And it's easy to get hooked, at least here in the US. It takes some serious use, but booze produces withdrawal's that can kill you. Or if it doesn't, make you beg God to let you die.

(Yeah... I don't drink anymore!)

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i appove-alcohl nsty. too much access