Drug and alcohol addiction is a common affliction that affects Americans from all walks of life each year. Every addictive drug has side effects. However, some substances produce physical and psychological effects that are dangerous and sometimes even fatal. To learn more about which drugs are the easiest to develop a dependency to (not including nicotine), browse our list of illegal drugs ranked the most addictive.
How is Level of Addiction Measured?
Before getting into our list of illegal drugs, let's take a look at how the risk of addiction of various substances is determined.
Rate of dependency is determined by several factors:
- To what extent do the effects of the drug activate the brain's reward center (dopamine levels).
- How pleasurable users find the effects of the drug.
- The severity of withdrawal symptoms that the substance causes once use has stopped.
- How much physical and cognitive harm the substance can cause to the user.
- How easily a person can become addicted to the substance.
- What the street value of the drug is.
Most Addictive List of Illegal Drugs
3. Barbiturates
Also known as "downers," physicians commonly prescribe these drugs to treat anxiety or to help with insomnia. When users take these in in small doses, they give off pleasurable feelings of euphoria. High doses, however, put users at risk for overdose as a result of suppressed breathing.
Common street names for barbiturates include blue bullets, gorillas, newbies, bars, and pink ladies.
2. Cocaine
This popular drug is abused by approximately 14-20 million individuals across the globe, making cocaine dealing a billion-dollar illegal industry. Cocaine works by reacting with the brain's dopamine levels and making it impossible for neurons to turn off the "feel good" signal. Users crave the rush caused by the abnormal activation of the brain's reward center.
Cocaine is incredibly addictive. Approximately 21% of all people who try cocaine develop an addiction to the substance at some point in their lives.
1. Heroin
Heroin tops the list as the world's most addictive substance. The opiate drug has an alarmingly high rate of addiction: 1 in every 4 users who experiment with it develop an addiction. If this isn't reason enough to stay away from heroin, consider this: the dosage that can cause death is only 5 times greater than the dose required to achieve a "high." Also, the risk of death from relapse is exceptionally high for heroin. Hopefully, learning heroin facts will help you avoid this drug.
How to Combat Addiction
Millions of Americans struggle with an addiction each year. Only a small portion of these people seek out and accept the professional help they need to beat the disease and learn to live a healthy and productive lifestyle.
If you’re one of the millions of people struggling with an addiction to drugs or alcohol, there is help available that can help you get sober, and also prepare you for a lifetime of sober living. At Pinnacle Peak Recovery in Scottsdale, Arizona, we help patients turn their life around with personalized treatment programs and subsequent therapy for all of the drugs mentioned above and more.
We’ve helped thousands of people overcome their addictions learn important life skills that can help those in recovery stay committed to their sobriety for the long haul.
Contact Us Today
Don't wait until addiction has destroyed your life to seek professional help from a quality drug rehab center. Pinnacle Peak Recovery in Scottsdale, Arizona, has the treatment programs and tools you need to overcome addiction and regain your self-confidence, independence, and strength. To learn more about how our programs can work for you, give us a call at 866-377-4761.