[anbende]

Research anecdote here. I’m a psychologist in a different area and a friend who did his PhD in cocaine research with rats told me this.

Addiction is highly dependent on the immediacy of the drug’s effect on the brain. For this reason, people who smoke cocaine (directly or as crack) are highly likely to get addicted. It may be the majority. People who snort it are less likely to get addicted. And there are a lot of casual cocaine users (snorting) who do not develop a long term life altering addiction. I believe he (researcher friend) said it was 10-15% who go on to become addicted. Still substantial and dangerous but much less than smoking.

His research was looking at delayed onset of cocaine in rats after they pushed their cocaine lever. At longer delays more and more rats showed little interest.

This is part of the overall addiction picture. Decoupling drug use behaviors (smoking, snorting, and lever pressing) from noticeable drug onset prevents reinforcement of the behavior and makes addiction less likely, often much less.

This would explain why nicotine patches and gum would potentially be much less addictive than cigarettes.

[bilsbie]

I’ve never heard this idea. It seems like coffee bucks this trend though? I’ll take 20 minutes to drink a cup but still wildly addicted.

[baby]

I don’t think people are addicted to coffee in the same way they’re addicted to cocain

[blitz_skull]

It also has to do with the size of the dopamine impact on the brain. Andrew Huberman's metaphor about a "wave" really helped me understand the concept of dopamine addiction in the brain.