I've been thinking about this a lot lately. I'm glad somebody made a thread about it.
When I first started drinking and smoking weed I can remember people saying;
Marijuana - Not Addictive
Alcohol - Addictive
Cigarettes - Addictive
Cocaine - Not addictive
Heroin - Addictive
LSD/Mushrooms - Not Addictive
Ecstacy - Not Addictive.
But here's the peculiar thing. When I was in my 20s I'd drink every day for a month, even longer, but then I could stop with no withdrawal. I was dating a girl and she drank a lot and I was hanging out with her every day so we got drunk every day. I was with her for about a year.
Fast forward to my 30s/40s. I got a really good cocaine connection so I started sniffing coke regularly. Soon I graduated to sniffing heroin. All you have to do is sniff heroin three days in a row and that 4th day is like fighting Mike Tyson in 1986. If you've done heroin for three consecutive days then you have a serious problem on day 4. Your body shakes and quivers, and you can't sit still. The only thing on your mind is how to make the withdrawal go away (actually Advil is a good supplement. You'll have to chew and eat about 10 Advil tablets to make the withdrawal go away but it works. Benadryl works too).
Here's my point; Alcohol is physically addictive, but it takes years to become addicted and/or physically dependent. You can drink to get drunk every day for a month and stop. But once you get addicted to alcohol, you can DIE from withdrawal.
But with heroin, it only takes 3 days to get addicted and the withdrawal is hell, but you won't die from heroin withdrawal, it's just hell for about 3 weeks.
When you go to jail, if you tell them you're addicted to alcohol they can give you something for the withdrawal.
But if you go to jail and tell them you're addicted to heroin they don't have to give you anything because you won't die from heroin withdrawal.
It's weird, you can drink every day for a month and stop with no problem. But if you do heroin for three days you won't be able to stop.
The weird thing is that you can die from alcohol withdrawal, but you won't die from heroin withdrawal.