...but I stopped drinking about 3 years ago and it was fucking easy. Just one day I didn't have the first beer and didn't get hammered and just stopped drinking and it was easy, no cravings, no 'withdrawal', there wasn't even any rebound depression or insonmia, even living in a nation of alcoholics where going to a supermarket involves walking through a liquor store (booze is right by the door in NZ supermarkets- you have to walk past it to get to the food), everything is sponsored by alcohol, all of my friends are drinkers and around 70% of my closest friends would, objectively, be considered alcoholics- even so, no problems what-so-ever.
You've had no real problem kicking your alcoholism; it was "fucking easy," and so then it's an easy thing to do for all alcoholics? Having worked with and known many an alcoholic, I would have to say that you are the exception, the
rare exception, and not the rule. In fact, all of those things that you've claimed to have avoided are all the things that
most recovering alcoholics suffer from... depression, cravings and withdrawal.
I think the distinctive thing about opiate addiction that has no really been noted here is that opiate addiction often takes the form of relationship- junkies tend to be extremely romantic about their addiction in a way that say, meth heads aren't. Opiate addicts often use opiates as a substitute to relationships with other people/the real world- opiates are very enchanting drugs.
I'm not so sure about meth, but alcoholics can be just as romantic about their drinking if not more so than heroin addicts. It's a drink at the bar for the sad, lonely, down-and-out man whose true potential and creative genius has yet to be discovered.
Opiates encourage addiction by becoming more rewarding the more you take them- many people find opiates just make them feel sleepy, itchy and sick the first few times they take them, but as they build a relationship with opiates they learn to appreciate the effects and be willing to experience higher-doses, resulting in an even more profound euphoria (many opiate addicts seem to 'learn to nod'- initially they will take lower doses sorta like benzos to socialise, then they will gradually start using higher doses typically by themselves as they will be fading in and out of consciousness).
The funny thing is that the same is true for alcohol. Alcoholics will sometimes, most of the time, really, drink alcohol by themselves and fade in and out of consciousness. They learn to appreciate those effects that others might deem negative, bothersome, or otherwise unpleasant. They begin to drink at higher doses, etc.
However, I think that one of the most important factors is access. Most people who are opiate addicts have a high degree of access to opiates- this may mean that they have used drugs extensively prior to becoming an opiate user resuting in them being 'integrated' into the 'drug culture' thus able to aquire it on the black market, or they are doctors, nurses or other medical or veteninary staff who have access to opiates through their profession, or they are chemists who have the skills necessary to synthesise opiates and professional access to precursors and lab equipment.
And finally, the same is true for alcohol. You said it yourself earlier in your post, that alcohol is everywhere, in supermarkets, bars, everywhere. Surely an alcoholic will likely progress from drinking socially at bars and with friends to drinking alone and in private.
I'm sorry, but I'm just not at all convinced. I do not see how opiates can be "a whole different ball game" with there being so many similarities between the two.
I think it's high time we shake this impression of opiates that they're somehow the wildebeest of the drug kingdom, something so vastly different from all other substances with appendages unseen before and a mechanism of action truly unique. Really, opiates are not that unique...
