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Relative Addictiveness of Various Substances

In Health, Nov/Dec 1990

To rank today's commonly used drugs by their addictiveness, we asked experts to consider two questions: How easy is it to get hooked on these substances and how hard is it to stop using them? Although a person's vulnerability to drugs also depends on individual traits -- physiology, psychology, and social and economic pressures -- these rankings reflect only the addictive potential inherent in the drug. The numbers below are relative rankings, based on the experts' scores for each substance:

100Nicotine
99Ice, Glass (Methamphetamine smoked)
98Crack
93Crystal Meth (injected)
85Valium (Diazepam)
83Quaalude (Methaqualone)
82Seconal (Secobarbital)
81Alcohol
80Heroin
78Crank (Amphetamine taken nasally)
72Cocaine
68Caffeine
57PCP (Phencyclidine)
21Marijuana
20Ecstasy (MDMA)
18Psilocybin Mushrooms
18LSD
18Mescaline

Research by John Hastings

Relative rankings are definite, numbers given are (+/-)1%






Nicotine is so addictive that half of adult smokers smoke themselves to death


Deborah 39 Debbie 43 Neal 53 Johnny 40 Bryan 34 Susan 43 Swayze 57 My Dad 42 Noni 33 Kim 46 Char 33 David 41 Terry 53 Fred 43 Joseph 45 Carrie 33 Barb 42 Melinda 39 Helen 50 Chris 41






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Created 2002 and reformatted 02/25/22 by John R. Polito