There are many different views on this. The one I have heard most; recently (due to the fact i have regularly been attending NA meetings in effort to change my habits) has been that the "disease" of addiction does not discriminate as to whether the addict is rich, poor, smart, dumb, healthy or unhealthy. As someone posted above addiction occurs mainly due to the feeling one experiences when they ingest a certain drug. Some drugs cause both physical and psychological dependence while some only cause psychological. Speaking from my experience and the experience others have shared I cant think of a drug that is physically addicting that does not also cause psycholgical addiction (i.e. cravings, preoccupation with how to achieve that next high). For example, my DOC(s) and downfall was mainly heroin and cocaine (only used coke with heroin but needed the dope to physically maintain so I always saw it as the main issue). And as with any drug I have used and liked, prior to physical dependence I always had at least some level of mental desire to experience that high again. But once the physical dependence kicked in, it was like "I cant survive without that shit".
Just realized how bad this has become an off topic cocaine induced ramble about addiction in general and not answering the original question. In my opinion, if you are educated about drugs before you use them and really research drugs like heroin (the first drug I could clearly not control), and truly believe that no matter how good it feels the withdrawl symptoms and other negative consequences of addiction like preoccupation with use, lack of interest in other activities, ect... is not worth the high, then there is at least a higher chance that you will succeed in using recreationally and not becoming addicted. On the other hand what I've been hearing non-stop recently as an addict in recovery is that some people are born with or develop this "disease" of addiction and that you cannot control it. I still struggle with this idea very, very much, because as someone in early recovery I still fantasize about the idea of using again but keeping it recreational, responsible and occasional. I feel that many smart addicts think that because they are smart once they can handle things like heroin or other addictive drugs. In my mind its very important to maintain that level of control in early experimentation with drugs. Life is all about balance, I love drugs, everything about them, but I lost interest in my life in order to get high all the time, and before that happened I loved life. Dont let yourself become preoccupied with using when you first start and I feel it will be much less likely that you will become addicted. Because it's much harder to do away with that preoccupation than it is to become mentally preoccupied with use. So be vigilant about what could happen and what is actually happening and drugs can be an amazing life experience. Just my point of view geekin on yayo with a suboxone and xanny appetizer.
![:\](https://bluelight.org/xf/BL_Images/Orig_Emoji/wrygrin.gif "wry grin :\")
