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[Griselda]

I beg to differ.  Some of the more powerful so-called "recreational" drugs, including heroin and the crack form of cocaine, are capable of addicting the user on the very first use.
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I'm sorry, but I just can't believe that statement. I used both of those substances just one time, actually (well, I didn't inject myself, but still). Of the people who did go on to develop a dependency, I'm sorry to say that they seemed to have a glamorized view of what drug addiction would be like (become a better artist, be "cooler", or whatever). Because of that, they weren't able to be as cautious or as aware of what was happening to them. By the time that they were, of course they had developed a physical dependence that made it much harder to break the psychological dependence.

Perhaps it might be better to define the term "addiction." I simply can't believe that the body would develop a psysiological dependency on a substance the first time it encounters it.

Some drugs are hard to "come down" from. Even if one doesn't have a physical dependence on the substance, it can be very tempting to take some more just to avoid the inevitable crash. But that can't be the definition of addiction unless everybody who has ever had a bloody mary the morning after a night of drinking is considered an alcoholic.

I still can't imagine that somebody would develop a mental depencency on a drug the first time they take it, unless they set out with the intention of becoming a drug addict the very first time they try something. :unsure:

This page seems to support my positon that these drugs are not instantly addictive.

Most cocaine addicts in treatment report some control over their use for the first two to four years, giving them the illusion that addiction will not develop.

Change the last word in the link to "heroin", and there's some information about heroin, although in a brief glance I didn't see anything about the length of time that it takes for addiction to develop.

Please keep in mind that I'm not claiming that these drugs aren't dangerous or addictive! I am disagreeing with the claim that somebody can become instantaneously addicted.

I think it's important that correct information about drugs is available, and that we try to avoid scare tactics. I think that overstating the risks of a drug can be a big problem, because when people find out that some of the things they've been told about drugs aren't true, they may be likely to believe that some of the *very real* risks aren't true, either.

Shadow, that link also has some more information on the difference between cocaine and crack. Crack is more common in inner-city environments, whereas powdered cocaine tends to be used more often by middle-class people. One reason might be that crack is a lot easier to deal in a streetcorner-type environment, because the rocks hold together and don't need to be bagged. It's also probably a lot easier to swallow them if the cops are coming, especially if you're not using baggies.

In the US, crack cocaine has been demonized, and the sentences are much more severe for crack than for powdered cocaine. This is one of the factor that leads to the higher proportional incarceration rates in the US of people of color (who also happen to be more likely to live in an inner city environment).