This is all your personal opinion!
Medically speaking, caffeine is not addictive. A person who drinks lots of caffeine regularly (in , say, the form of coffee) is said to be
HABITURATED to caffeine.
Heroin is definatly an addictive drug (it is potently addictive, in fact).
It's still debatable, among scientific experts (like pharmacologists, neuroscientists, psychiatrists who specialise in substance use disorders, etc) whether or not
cannabis is a genuinely (i.e. medically) addictive substance in the sense that opiate drugs like morphine and heroin are or psycho-stimulants like methylamphetamine and crack cocaine are.. Some expert pharmacologists argue that it is, others say it is not. The problem is that it is difficult to research cannabis use, because in many states it is illegal; also, cannabis leaf comes in a wide range of strengths. Some varieties of weed have naturally low low natural amounts of THC in it, other varieties have high THC content (e.g. "skunk"). Then there is cannabis oil and resin which is different again. Also, not everyone who uses cannabis smokes the dried leaf of the plant, some people eat it (e.g. in "space cookies") - this also alters changes the effect the THC has on the user's consciousness (mind) as well.
In the US, I'm sure that the FDA has approved the prescribing of THC in tablets/pills for the treatment of certain medical conditions, like the chronic nausea associated with cancer therapy certain neurological disorders (so I hear). These THC pill/tablets are manufactured by giant pharmaceutical companies and contain[I} precise[/I] quantities (doses) of THC. So if you wanted to research the addictiveness (or lack of of addictiveness) of THC,, patients taking these professionally - standardised doses of THC would make good subjects for investigations.
My own opinion is that Cannabis (THC) probably has a low potential for addiction. The reason I think this is because also every adolescent or young adult has experimented with cannabis. So millions of Americansi have smoked a joint or two at a party, say, or just out of curiousity (like Bill Clinton who admitted that he smoked some dope - "but didn't inhale"...yeah, right, Bill). It seems to me that people can smoke cannabis on a regularish - say once or twice a week basis - and not become addicted. On the other hand, if you fool around with substances morphine or oxcodone or diamorph (even in tablet form) using them "recreationally" - you are playing with fire, because what you may regard as recreational use can very suddenly flick into an addiction. And if you become properly addicted to one of these type of drugs you're totally fucked -
BIG TIME IMO, there's no effect treatment or cure for the majority of persons who have become fully addicted to opiates like morphine, or opioids like heroin or oxycodone, for example. Persons who develop a genuine addiction to this kind of shit ultimately end up in a situation where they cannot "wipe their own ass", let alone function productively on any in society. The only conventional "treatment" is methadone substitution therapy which simply replaces the morphine or heroin with "methadone" which is a long acting opioid that help to stop the sensation of craving for the oxycodone, heroin or fentanyl that the patient was addicted to. It can allow some addicts to regain a certain degree of personal/social functionality, but all things said , it is simply replacing one opioid addiction with another Methadone is a "far from ideal"treatment for opiate/opiod addiction, and it is certainly not a cure.
The reason that drugs like morphine, oxycodone, heroin and fentanyl are so addictive is that when a recreational user takes even a moderate dose of one of these drugs for the first time, they will trigger intense euphoria, that is, they will feel an intense sensation of pleasure - that is better than any type of pleasure they have felt before. The pleasure is so intense they they cannot help themselves from taking another dose of the drug when the first dose wears off which they do, then then another, and then another, and so on, until they have taken enough of the drug to cause an addiction.
What THC lacks is the intense euphoria that is associated with drugs like morphine, heroin, fentanyl or strong amphetamines like ,methedrine, or strong psych stimulants like , cocaine. For arguments sake, suppose that you 25 years old or 30 years old, has never taken any addictive drug before in your life. Then, one day you break your arm and you are in a lot of pain. So you go to your regular doctor's clinic, And you say "Doc I've broken my arm and it hurts like fucking hell. The Doc checks you out and says, "Yes, you've got a very nasty break there , young man. I'll give you some pain relief before I sent you to X-Ray. Your doc has had a very busy day, however, and he is feeling a bit fatigued - not 100% "on the ball. So when he picks what he thinks is a low - dose syringe of oxycontin from his dispensary,, he has actually picked up a 200mg, pre-filled syringe of diamorph (heroin) by mistake He then injects you with the 200mg diamorph shot (intramuscularly). The Doc then sends you downstairs to the X-Ray department. You walk down the stairs and take a seat in the X-Ray department's waiting room. After about 10 minutes you are feeling no pain from your broken arm at all. After 20 minutes you are feeling better than you have ever felt in your life. You are experiencing a degree of pleasure that is better than an orgasm, the pleasure is so intense that you can only liken it heaven or paradise This intense pleasure or euphoria is
DIVINE - like the old hippy song says: "its all too beautiful" When the diamorph your Doctor injected you with wears off in 4-6 hours time, you think to yourself, "I would do anything to capture that that experience again, because it was so totally "out of this world." After your X-Ray is done, you take it back up to your Doctor's room, you are so high you can barely walk. You knock on the door of your Doctor's clinic and he he says "Come in". So you open the door and take a seat next to your Doc's desk. Your Doc looks at you and says "Are you OK? You look a little "peaky" and flushed, young man." You say "No, I'm fine, Doc, in fact, I never felt so good in my life." Then, while your Doctor is organising a cast for your broken arm, you say to him, "Hey Doc, I was just wondering, out of curiosity, what was in that injection you gave me earlier?" The Doc says, "Let me see", and he looks into his refuge container where he puts all his used syringes and dressings and such like. He pulls out a used syringe, and suddenly his face turns white. The syringe is marked "DIAMORPH (Heroin) 200mg/10ml, there are no other used painkiller syringes in the refuge bin. The Doc knows that this is a
very serious error that could get him in big trobled with the state medical regulator, so he tells a fib and says, pretending to read the used syringe barrel, "It's painkiller called "Oxcontin" - just 50mg, quite a mild dose" You say to him, in a giddy-sounding voice, that's teetoring on the verge of hilarity: "Well it sure packs a
fucking punch, Doc - Hee, Hee- oops, pardon my French, Doc. Your Doctor stops putting your arm brace together and says:"Before I finish up, I just want to run a few quick measurements - nothing to worry about." Your Doc then takes a blood-pressure reading, a heart- rate reading, listens to your heart - beat with a steathyscope, shines a pencil light-beam in each of your eyes and measures your respiratory volume. Your Doc seems rather jittery, and he says to you:When I have your arm cast done, I'm going to call a taxi to take you home, and when you get home I want to you lie down on your bed and relax for at least 6 hours. I want to literally stay lying on your bed for at least 6 hours, right? Will you promise me you'll do that." You say, "Yeah, no problem, Doc, and thanks for the taxi."
This example, would apply to you, as well. If you were accidentally injected with, or even swallowed, in tablet form a high - but not lethal - dose of diamorph (heroin) you would shortly experience the most intense and exquisite euphoria ( extreme pleasure) you had ever felt in your life. I have never heard or read about THC (in the form of cannabis resin, or the smoked dry leaf/flowering heads of the
cannabis sativa plant, procuding anything like the kind of intense euphoria that addictive drugs like opioids, opiates, amphetamines, cocaine,etc; do. If high THC were capable of producing the same kind of intense eupohoria that cocaine or heroin or fentanyl can in sufficiently large doses, THEN WE WOULD SURELY KNOW ABOUT IT BY NOW. I have never heard of the pot/cannabis/THC high (i.e. the pleasurable affective experience) being compared to the high (pleasurable affective experience that morphine or heroin or methedrine can produce. In other words, I have never heard the term "eurphoria" used in the context of cannabis-smoking. Cannabis intoxication seems to provide a generally milder, less intense experience of pleasure than drugs like morphine or heroin.
I still think that heavy use of cannabis over a long time can cause an amotivational syndrome and perhaps some cognitive blunting (as in mild- moderate dementia). I have seen quite a number of older men (say 40 years of age or older) old "Hippies" who were known to be heavy, consistent smokers of cannabis (pot/Weed) and were called were "shit-heads" A cannabis "Shit-head" was characteristically:" slow-moving and slow-thinking, glazy/vacant - eyed, dopey, apathetic, displaying a blunted affect (face is largely devoid of expressivity - like Dr Spock on "Star Trek")manifesting a rate of speak that was noticeably slow, (and "drawn"), like: "Oww ya Fucckin' goooin' maate ??... Wooddja liike anuvvva farrrkin coone, bruvver?" However, I think to become a
bone fide (brain-damaged) "Shit-head" means you would need to have smoked a
LOT of cannabis on a regular (daily ?) basis over quite a long time (i.e. a period of some years ?). I have to use the "question marks" because Unfortunately there is no mainstream, scientific research published at present to suggest any particular number of years or even what a relatively "high" daily dose of cannabis is interns of actual quantity of THC in milligrams.
Finally, I seen some evidence (not particularly strong) to support the clain that women who smoke THC, may give birth to children who have congenital body defects. These are relatively mild, from memory; i.e. deformities of the hand/finger, toes, eyelid/s and such like. I only mention this issue because when I was in my 20s I had a female friend who smoked pot on a weekly ("Friday night" - type basis. When she was in her early 30s she fell pregnant and gave birth to an infant with a number of mildish congenital body deformities/defects (?)
THE BOTTOM LINE....
I would say, as a rule of thumb, that if a drug has the ability to produce the experience of intense euphoria when taken in a sufficient dose - the size of which will vary from individual to individual - then it is very likely to have a strong addictive potential. THC doesn't seem to be a drug that ever induces intense euphoria, therefore I doubt it has the potential to be genuinely addictive in the same (fully-blown) sense as morphine, heroine, metamphetamiince, or crack cocaine, etc.
Dachshund - the WONDER HOUND
DLM....Dachshund Lives Matter !!