[ricardobeat]

There is most definitely something different at play here, though I can't point out exactly what. It's hard to imagine a 60-year old grandmother hooked on crack, porn or painkillers, but I know several who spend 8+ hours a day glued to a screen playing Candy Crush.

[gen220]

I think it's that crack, porn, and painkillers are, to varying extents, counterculture or taboo. Whereas an "innocent" Candy Crush addiction is more socially acceptable.

It's fun to speculate on why that's the case, but it seems likely intractable to nail down.

Although, I'll point out that while they're both categories of addiction, pension funds can only invest in and make profits from the more "innocent-feeling" category.

I'd guess that, if there were a regulatory environment that allowed for public companies that could legally encourage people to indulge their $taboo_addiction, then said $taboo_addiction would cease to be taboo and become more prevalent, for better and worse.

[benreesman]

We might come from different socio-economic backgrounds then, because the idea of a 60-year old grandmother addicted to painkillers far in excess of medical need is depressingly mundane to me.