[anovikov]

This sounds awful but i would say somewhat believable because many middle class people do coke regularly and apart from usually, picking a few kilos, they still look OK and keep their careers, families and the stuff. For sure it's not nearly as bad as if they were drinking. My ex is a writer and she was mostly writing on coke, she's as far from being a lost in life drug-addicted person as it gets, honestly i'm a lot closer to there with my alcohol abuse.

[aedron]

From my personal observations, I don't think coke is quite comparable to heroin. Heroin takes over a person's life in a much more scary way than coke. Heroin becomes the number one thing every day, before food, family, or any other concern. Granted, you can easily be a high functioning heroin addict, if the expense and acquisition are not concerns, but at a point, heroin merely makes you 'normal', and even slightly outside that window is a steep descent into withdrawal hell.

Coke is both better and worse. Not quite as addictive, but it seems to damage people more than heroin does (particularly mentally).

[collyw]

Isn't it only 10% of heroin users that become addicts?

[anovikov]

Source? I know a few people who tried but did not become addicted, but i thought of them as more of an exception.

[krsdcbl]

They definitely wouldn't if they were taking coke with the regularity and frequency an alcoholic drinks though.

[AstralStorm]

The thing is, coke is slightly more dangerous, but quite a lot more physically addictive. It's hard to quit once that holds, though it's relatively easy to keep steady dosage as the euphoric effect is short lived.

Unlike cocaine, opiates would hurt productivity in general. There was a time when many people were addicted in China to opium...

Wars were and are fought over best growing grounds of many drugs.