zlacker

One thing that should be kept in mind is that not all drugs are the same thing. The "drugs are bad" or "drugs are good" discourse breaks down fast, simply because they are gross generalisations.

For example: nicotine is much more addictive (has to do with the speed with which tolerance for a substance is increased) than, say, THC. Which is yet again different from LSD. There are a whole host of factors, and a spectrum of "how dangerous $DRUG is".

(disclosure: it's my pet peeve when people make lump statements about "all drugs")

>>pcpoli+(OP)
You are right about the addictiveness of nicotine. Also, alcohol is a really nasty one - withdrawal can be lethal in some cases. Even heroin does not do that.

I recommend you reading about the delta FOSB protein. There is promising research towards unifying all, or almost all, addictions with a single, coherent theory. In this light, drugs are really beginning to look very similar to one another.