The five most addictive substances on the planet, in order, are heroin, cocaine, nicotine, barbiturates and alcohol.
Depending on who you ask, however, that order of drugs could skew slightly based on factors like the harm it causes, the street value of the drug, the extent to which the drug activates the brain’s dopamine system, how pleasurable people report the drug to be, the degree to which the drug causes withdrawal symptoms, and how easily a person trying the drug will become hooked, according to CNN.
Heroin was ranked as the most addictive drug by a panel of addiction experts because causes the level of dopamine in the brain’s reward system to increase by up to 200% and because of how dangerous it is. The dose of the drug that can cause death is only five times the required dose to obtain a high, CNN reported.
Similarly, nicotine was ranked third because of how potent a drug it is in terms of addiction. Nearly 70% of Americans who tried smoking reported becoming dependent during their life and in 2002, the World Health Organization estimated there were more than 1 billion smokers. It has been estimated that tobacco will kill more than 8 million people annually by 2030.
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