[randomNumber7]

Yes, but often the root issue of addiction is mental health issues (and not only the drug itself). There are many people who occasionaly take drugs without strong addiction.

It depends a bit on the drug to be fair. Like you cant "occasionaly" smoke cigarettes, either you are addicted or not. You can occasionaly drink a beer and not become an alcoholic.

The people who become alcoholics almost always have some personal problems / mental health issues as a trigger.

But the world wide drug policy doesnt make any sense, because even a "evil" and highly addictive drug like cocaine is actually less addicting than smoking.

[stef25]

> Like you cant "occasionaly" smoke cigarettes, either you are addicted or not.

I was an occasional smoker for 20+ years. Could go weeks without a cigarette. Or smoke a few daily when stressed at work. Or smoke an entire pack on a night out.

Recently went through some personal hell and now I'm on 10-15 cigs a day and find it hard to stop. Absolutely because of the recent stress and trauma.

It is without a doubt one of the most pointless drugs in existence.

[randomNumber7]

> I was an occasional smoker for 20+ years. Could go weeks without a cigarette.

I think you are a very rare minority then.

Quit smoking is painfull (went through it multiple times). For me it feels so much better since I finally got it.

And since then my behaviour regarding other drugs also got a lot better, because you dont have that "hunger" to take s.th. from smoking.

> It is without a doubt one of the most pointless drugs in existence.

It doesnt even make you high lol.

[Ylpertnodi]

"Like you cant "occasionaly" smoke cigarettes" I know several endurance sportsmen (no ladies were met, that I knew about) who will smoke an occasional cigarette. As an ex-smoker (took up endurance sports), I was astonished when I saw super-fit people casually smoking.

[OkayPhysicist]

> It is without a doubt one of the most pointless drugs in existence.

I don't know about this one. Cigarettes specifically certainly have enough chronic downsides to outweigh their upsides for me, but nicotine in general serves as a pretty good, light dopamine hit, with relatively few acute downsides. You don't intoxicated, it doesn't take long to ingest, and it's available enough to not become life-consuming. It's not a coincidence that it's a very common habit.

I say this as someone who used to use cigarettes, but took up vaping nicotine instead when I realized it didn't make my clothes reek and scratched the same itch. Everybody has habits around dopamine management. Some people snack, some people spend too much time on social media, some people gamble (in casinos or in brokerages). Personally, I'm prone to snacking, and I eventually realized I could either smoke and be attractive, or snack and get fat. It was an easy enough choice.

[DrThunder]

"Like you cant "occasionaly" smoke cigarettes, either you are addicted or not."

I don't think there's any factual evidence for this at all. I occasionally smoke cigars (like 1-2 times a year) and I'm not addicted to them. Multiple friends/family members do the same.

"Yes, but often the root issue of addiction is mental health issues (and not only the drug itself)."

Agree, but not everyone who has mental illness issues resorts to drugs for help so there are many other factors to consider.