[toomanybeersies]

Most of the population drinks alcohol. Most of the population are not alcoholics.

I haven't abused opioids for recreational purposes, but I know people who have saved their prescribed codeine and gotten fucked up on it. They aren't addicted. I also walk to the supermarket every day, past the safe injection centre filled with smackheads. I've seen dead heroin addicts wheeled into the ambulance.

Not everyone is as susceptible to addiction as others, but the more opioids/alcohol/other drugs you take, the more likely you are to get addicted.

[mercer]

that's a very important point. I've had a number of friends who struggle with addiction (whether alcohol, cigarettes, or other things), and a smaller number of friends who seemed almost entirely impervious to addiction. It's been quite frustrating to find that the latter would simply not understand the former. Some of them would suspend judgment, but others just concluded that those who were addicted simply "didn't try hard enough".

To some extent, I can understand this rather uncharitable conclusion. It's like explaining being in love to someone who hasn't been. Addiction is difficult to explain without having experienced it.

Nonetheless, what makes me side with the addicts, so to speak, and their helplessness, is that when I look at the 'whole' of their person, many of them clearly don't lack willpower or discipline in other areas of their lives. I've either seen the addiction infect the rest of their lives, or seen them being functional, even successful, in other areas despite the addiction. The only conclusion I can draw is that some (most?) people are just unusually susceptible to certain vices.