ARE YOU AN ADDICT?

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? Althougha person's
vulnerability to drug also depends on individual traits i.e. 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:

DRUG ADDICTIVENESS in %

Nicotine 100
Ice, Glass (Methamphetamine smoked) 99
Crack 98
Crystal Meth (Methamphetamine injected) 93
Valium (Diazepam) 85
Quaalude (Methaqualone) 83
Seconal (Secobarbital) 82
Alcohol 81
Heroin 80
Crank (Amphetamine taken nasally) 78
Cocaine 72
Caffeine 68
PCP (Phencyclidine) 57
Marijuana 21
Ecstasy (MDMA) 20
Psilocybin Mushrooms 18
LSD 18
Mescaline 18
[Research John Hastings]
From: In Health, eye-balling by Harel Barzilai;

"There's some abuse potential with marijuana", Dr Koob says. "For example,
it's probably at least as dangerous for someone to drive while high on
marijuana as to drive while drunk.

But on my list of drugs most likely to produce dependency, people who are
out of control of their use and want to quit, but can't, it's pretty far
down the line"

(Dr. George Koop is a leading neuro biologist at the Research Institute of
Scripps Clinic, San diego) From: In Health

Resaerch by Demetrios Mavroudis.