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  • BDD Moderators: Keif’ Richards | negrogesic

Nicotine "THE most addictive drug"? SERIOUSLY??

ChemicallyEnhanced

ChemicallyEnhanced

Bluelighter
Joined
Apr 29, 2018
Messages
9,527
I've seen a million "most addictive" drugs lists. Online, on websites liken this, on YouTube and every single time Nicotine comes in at #1.
Anyone else call bullshit on this?
Nicotine is the LEAST addictive drug there is for me. Even bloody caffeine is more addictive than Nicotine. I've smoked ~20mg nicotine every day for a couple of years now but if I run out of cigarettes or money for cigarettes and have to go like 24 or 48 hours without it's totally no big deal. Zero mental or physical withdrawal. Yesterday I went 23 hours without smoking because I just *forgot* to.

I would say all of these are WAY WAY WAY more addictive than nicotine: opiates, benzodiazepines, cocaine, barbitrates, amphetamines, MDMA, GHB, Gabapentinoids. Even much less addictive things like weed, Ketamine and LSD. Even caffeine. Even sugar. Hell, if I had to quit either smoking or Coke Zero I'd EASILY chose to quit the cigarettes, every time.

And I have a very addictive personality. I'm 3 years sober but was a very hardcore alcoholic (6 bottles of wine a day, plus vodka) for seven years. I've been addicted to opiates for the last 7 years and have been addictive to benzo's, amphetamines and barbiturates in the past. And Pregabalin. And even diet pills (ephedrine) for a while.
 
The most "addictive" drug is subjective imo. For me, opiates/heroin is the most addictive drug in the world. Most people in the world only use LEGAL drugs, so they dont have an idea of what heroin or cocaine feels like (as well as other illegal drugs). So its kinda hard to tell.

More people are "addicted" to nicotine and caffeine because its readily available and legal. Since the majority of "feel good" drugs are illegal its hard to tell (because the majority of people don't use illegal drugs).

For me, if heroin and weed were both legal on a federal level. Id take heroin every single time. (I do love me some weed though)

This is just my opinion, I could be completely wrong.
 
Chris42393 said:
The most "addictive" drug is subjective imo. For me, opiates/heroin is the most addictive drug in the world. Most people in the world only use LEGAL drugs, so they dont have an idea of what heroin or cocaine feels like (as well as other illegal drugs). So its kinda hard to tell.

More people are "addicted" to nicotine and caffeine because its readily available and legal. Since the majority of "feel good" drugs are illegal its hard to tell (because the majority of people don't use illegal drugs).

For me, if heroin and weed were both legal on a federal level. Id take heroin every single time. (I do love me some weed though)

This is just my opinion, I could be completely wrong.
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Your so right! Im prescribed Oxycodone and its the most addictive drug I've ever taken!! Even more addictive than nicotine, alcohol, and illegal drugs.

EDIT: What does it mean on a federal level? I'm from the UK and im confused over state and federal law.
 
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evo4ever said:
Your so right! Im prescribed Oxycodone and its the most addictive drug I've ever taken!! Even more addictive than nicotine, alcohol, and illegal drugs.

EDIT: What does it mean on a federal level? I'm from the UK and im confused over state and federal law.
Click to expand...

Hello there! We have 50 states here in the US. Each state is allowed to govern itself. Meaning each state can have different laws from one another. Those are "State laws". For example: In California, marijuana is legal recreationally. In florida, its not. The residences in the state voted and allowed it, changing the laws (or not changing the laws). Now on a federal level...marijuana is still a Class 1 Narcotic (mean its illegal in every state). Since marijuana is illegal on a 'federal' level, the government can still make arrests in every state, despite if the state made it legal. Federal level trumps state level.

Another example, if the government made a drug legal on a federal level, every state now has the ability to buy and use the drug, without repercussion. Despite if the state originally had it illegal.

Federal > State

Hopefully, that makes sense! Tried explaining it the best i could xD
 
To me, addictive has 2 meanings. 1.) How compulsive the drug is (or how likely you will use it until it’s gone) and 2.) how likely the drug is to get you to restart after stopping or quitting (physical dependence is part of this second category, withdrawals will push you to use the drug again after stopping.

Based on that, I don’t find nicotine very addictive. That is, it is mildly compulsive, a person may chain-smoke occasionally and moderate in its ability to have you go back after stopping or quitting.

I chewed tobacco for a decade and smoked for some of that time as well. I stopped using tobacco without any trouble at all. However, I’ll still chew on a nicotine lozenge from time to time.

I don’t agree that literally any drug is more addictive than nicotine (I could quit MDMA use forever with no issues. Not sure I can stop nicotine forever (ie I can stop for months at a time but not forever).

It will depend on the person as where nicotine falls on a scale of addictivness; however it is absolutely not the most addictive drug out there.

In my opinion, for the sake of argument:

Most addictive
Coke heroin meth

Alcohol barbs

benzos

Weed nicotine, most other non-gabagenic drugs not listed

Psychedelics
Least addictive
 
I also have never gotten any physical withdrawal from nicotine even when smoking a pack a day for a year. Of course most people I know get very real physical withdrawals, no idea why I'm exempt. But either way, addiction is more about mental addiction than it is physical. I also disagree that nicotine is the MOST addictive drug, to me that goes to opiates and certain powerful stimulants. But there's a reason why millions of people die from smoking complications every year despite the dangers being screamed into your face constantly. There's a reason why, despite the fact that some weekends (I smoke only when going out now, but I will play shows all weekend sometimes) my lungs will hurt and I'll be thinking fuck, I hate cigarettes, I REALLY don't want this, as I'm lighting a cigarette (because someone next to me did and part of my mind was like "YES PLEASE").

Honestly I dislike the effects of nicotine except a tiny buzz, it feels gross and dirty, I have NO IDEA why I keep smoking. It baffles me, I get nothing from it other than I enjoy the process of smoking a cigarette, the physical sensations, the moment of break/change in focus. Every other drug I do, I do it because it gets me high or something tangible like that. Not so with nicotine. I'm concerned about my long-term health too. I've quit various times, but I always go back. That's addiction right there, even without physical addiction. In fact the lack of physical addiction makes it even more pronounced. Like, my friend quit nicotine recently after he had a baby, he gets bad physical withdrawals. He tapered with a vape for like 2 months and jumped off, and it was torturous for him. Whereas I could just stop with no withdrawal... yet I don't.

On the other hand, I also don't smoke or use any nicotine products on days where I am staying home which is half of my days. I visited my parents for 2 weeks recently and didn't think of cigarettes except like once and didn't smoke any.

So, most addictive drug? No. I think it's just that a lot of people smoke, it's extremely common, so for many people, it's the most addictive drug they've tried. But it is insidiously addictive.

Chris42393 said:
More people are "addicted" to nicotine and caffeine because its readily available and legal.
Click to expand...

This is also a good point. If they made them illegal and I had to go to the black market for nicotine, there's no way I'd keep doing it. Also if I lived in New York City or Chicago or something where it's like $10 or more per pack I think I'd stop, where I live they're cheap. I think if they taxed them really hard (like $20 a pack), tons of people would quit and probably be thankful for it after a bit.
 
Shadowmeister said:
I also have never gotten any physical withdrawal from nicotine even when smoking a pack a day for a year. Of course most people I know get very real physical withdrawals, no idea why I'm exempt. But either way, addiction is more about mental addiction than it is physical. I also disagree that nicotine is the MOST addictive drug, to me that goes to opiates and certain powerful stimulants. But there's a reason why millions of people die from smoking complications every year despite the dangers being screamed into your face constantly. There's a reason why, despite the fact that some weekends (I smoke only when going out now, but I will play shows all weekend sometimes) my lungs will hurt and I'll be thinking fuck, I hate cigarettes, I REALLY don't want this, as I'm lighting a cigarette (because someone next to me did and part of my mind was like "YES PLEASE").

Honestly I dislike the effects of nicotine except a tiny buzz, it feels gross and dirty, I have NO IDEA why I keep smoking. It baffles me, I get nothing from it other than I enjoy the process of smoking a cigarette, the physical sensations, the moment of break/change in focus. Every other drug I do, I do it because it gets me high or something tangible like that. Not so with nicotine. I'm concerned about my long-term health too. I've quit various times, but I always go back. That's addiction right there, even without physical addiction. In fact the lack of physical addiction makes it even more pronounced. Like, my friend quit nicotine recently after he had a baby, he gets bad physical withdrawals. He tapered with a vape for like 2 months and jumped off, and it was torturous for him. Whereas I could just stop with no withdrawal... yet I don't.

On the other hand, I also don't smoke or use any nicotine products on days where I am staying home which is half of my days. I visited my parents for 2 weeks recently and didn't think of cigarettes except like once and didn't smoke any.

So, most addictive drug? No. I think it's just that a lot of people smoke, it's extremely common, so for many people, it's the most addictive drug they've tried. But it is insidiously addictive.



This is also a good point. If they made them illegal and I had to go to the black market for nicotine, there's no way I'd keep doing it. Also if I lived in New York City or Chicago or something where it's like $10 or more per pack I think I'd stop, where I live they're cheap. I think if they taxed them really hard (like $20 a pack), tons of people would quit and probably be thankful for it after a bit.
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I think most of the reason I smoke is to break up the day. I'm too sick to work so I'm home alone all day. Plus I've had to move back in with my parents since I became homeless so I can't use drugs (apart from those I manage to blag prescriptions for) to pass the time. So going outside for 5 minutes for a cigarette every hour or so is a nice break from long periods of watching TV or reading. Hell sometimes I get so bored I take half a dozen dihydrocdeine and a couple trazodone and have a 6 hour nap.

I live in the UK and cigarettes are expensive as hell here. And the prices go up like every six months. I buy "budget" cigarettes (basically, cheap ones and then there are "Luxury" ones for about 150% of the price) and they cost £8.49 for 20, which is $11. Some brands cost up to $17.

Yeah, if cigarettes were made illegal, there's no way I'd go through the bother of buying them on the dark net (where I get all my non-prescribed drugs...I'm a "nice" boy from a "nice" area and drug dealers don't exactly advertise).
 
I agree it’s subjective. But it seems Oxycodone is the most addictive substance in the world. I remember reading somewhere it is basically specifically formulated to be addicting and some ridiculous percentage of people who use Oxy become addicted to it.
 
Haha wow, you guys have expensive cigarettes in the UK. Yeah that's a good way to put it though, "break up your day". I use them at band practice for little breaks, and to focus the energy I get from playing, it starts to overwhelm me and if I don't smoke a cigarette I start pacing and having too much going on in my head to talk to anyone. I used to also smoke at work back in the day and I would use cigarettes whenever I got so bored I couldn't stand it... it sort of "reset" things.

I'm not sure if oxy is specifically formulated to be addictive, opiates are just addictive because they so strongly affect the reward systems. Stronger opiates are more addictive and oxy is quite strong. However, a crazy thing about oxy is that when it was first released, it was aggressively marketed to doctors as a much less addictive version of hydrocodone. So for some time naive doctors thought they were prescribing something with little addiction potential. Perdue (I think it was them) got sued big-time for it much later on.
 
I agree with all the other people who said it's "subjective to the user" (paraphrased of course)

For me personally the list would be:

Coke (amphetamines in general)
Opiates (all of them)
Nicotine

Not really addictive for me but to continue the list:

Benzos
Gaba drugs and alcohol (equal)

Not addictive at all:
Cannabis

Definitely not nicotine at the top though.
 
OpiateKiller said:
I agree it’s subjective. But it seems Oxycodone is the most addictive substance in the world. I remember reading somewhere it is basically specifically formulated to be addicting and some ridiculous percentage of people who use Oxy become addicted to it.
Click to expand...

Oxy is how I got addicted to opiates. Mostly. I had a very severe acute pancreatitis. I'd only ever had codeine and tramadol before and they gave me IV morphine every 4 hours for 3 months so I guess I was dependent from that, but it was when I got out and they gave me a script for OxyContin and OxyNorm that I really got addicted. Snorting or chewing them and buying extra pills.
 
Shadowmeister said:
Perdue (I think it was them) got sued big-time for it much later on.
Click to expand...
Yes it was Perdue. Last I knew they settled one case for $280 million with many more lawsuits active and in the works. However they made something like $34 BILLION off oxy alone so they are still doing alright for the time being even though they considered bankruptcy. We'll see what happens.
 
Shadowmeister said:
Haha wow, you guys have expensive cigarettes in the UK. Yeah that's a good way to put it though, "break up your day". I use them at band practice for little breaks, and to focus the energy I get from playing, it starts to overwhelm me and if I don't smoke a cigarette I start pacing and having too much going on in my head to talk to anyone. I used to also smoke at work back in the day and I would use cigarettes whenever I got so bored I couldn't stand it... it sort of "reset" things.

I'm not sure if oxy is specifically formulated to be addictive, opiates are just addictive because they so strongly affect the reward systems. Stronger opiates are more addictive and oxy is quite strong. However, a crazy thing about oxy is that when it was first released, it was aggressively marketed to doctors as a much less addictive version of hydrocodone. So for some time naive doctors thought they were prescribing something with little addiction potential. Perdue (I think it was them) got sued big-time for it much later on.
Click to expand...

They did the same thing with benzodiazepines, claimed they were a "safe, non-addictive" alternative to barbiturates.
 
Yeah that's true. What an absurd statement that is... benzos have possibly the worst and most drawn-out withdrawal syndrome of any drugs. People were also saying GHB was non-addictive when it came out, though it wasn't prescription and was sold as a bodybuilding supplement. Then people said phenibut was a nonaddictive replacement for GHB. All untrue. It's always just people who stand to profit from a drug that's new making the claim it's non-addictive so people will think it's harmless and buy and do a bunch of it.
 
Chris42393 said:
Hello there! We have 50 states here in the US. Each state is allowed to govern itself. Meaning each state can have different laws from one another. Those are "State laws". For example: In California, marijuana is legal recreationally. In florida, its not. The residences in the state voted and allowed it, changing the laws (or not changing the laws). Now on a federal level...marijuana is still a Class 1 Narcotic (mean its illegal in every state). Since marijuana is illegal on a 'federal' level, the government can still make arrests in every state, despite if the state made it legal. Federal level trumps state level.

Another example, if the government made a drug legal on a federal level, every state now has the ability to buy and use the drug, without repercussion. Despite if the state originally had it illegal.

Federal > State

Hopefully, that makes sense! Tried explaining it the best i could xD
Click to expand...

Sorry no I still dont get it lol. In Colorado weed is completely legalized and weed shops have been built why aren't the police, FBI, or DEA shutting them down?
 
evo4ever said:
Sorry no I still dont get it lol. In Colorado weed is completely legalized and weed shops have been built why aren't the police, FBI, or DEA shutting them down?
Click to expand...

Because medicinal (ie with a prescription) weed is legal in some states.
 
evo4ever said:
But you still be arrested under federal law. It seems very contradictory to me
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It is incredibly contradictory. Basically during Obama's presidency the federal government has taken a stance that they won't seek to prosecute or go after it in states where it's legalized. But officially it's still a schedule 1 drug. I am quite sure it's because the drug war is very profitable for some people, and weed being illegal also allows them to lock up and enter certain groups of the population into the prison industrial complex. It allows for-profit prisons to fill their capacity and make more money, and it allows them to subjugate various groups. It's really fucked up. But, I don't think the day is far off where it will be federally legalized, more and more the people in power are realizing what a massive industry it is becoming and they want a piece. Also individual states are realizing it even faster because states like Colorado have a budget surplus, brand new infrastructure and schools and so forth, whereas many states are really struggling money-wise and are seeing that they could be making a huge tax revenue.

I just hope they retroactively pardon people who are already in prison, let them out and remove their "crimes" from their records. As we speak many people are still being incarcerated for weed offenses, when at the same time, people in the legal states are making huge sums of money doing the exact same thing.
 
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