I'm not sure where they are getting their 25% figure for heroin in your linked article. They link to yet another article as a source, but I see no mention of the 25% there.
The claim seems to be that only 25% of people who try the drug once will end up being addicts. While I doubt this claim in itself, I think this percentage would go way up if you looked only at people who had reasonable access/resources to acquire more of the drug.
If you keep doing heroin (or any opiate) and have the access/resources to get more, you will get addicted.
It may take a few successive uses within a given amount of time, but beyond that you will have physical withdrawal symptoms, 100% of the time.
This is not the same as alcohol, pot, or LSD, all of which are not physically addictive in the same way.
Well, the other two (pot and LSD) are not physically addictive at all, so it would be impossible to be less addictive than that.
Yes, alcohol can have physical withdrawal symptoms for people that stop after already having abused the drug for long periods of time.
According to what I am able to find, even of alcoholics already with a long term problem, only 50% experience withdrawal at all, and only 3 to 5 percent of that 50% experience DTs (tremors) or seizures.
As far as I can tell, even these withdrawal symptoms result from damage to the nervous system, rather than being due to a sudden desaturation of certain receptors in the brain, which cause the craving most associate with addiction.
The big difference for me is the difference in the craving aspect, and the time and number of doses it takes to start feeling the effects of the "addiction".
The claim seems to be that only 25% of people who try the drug once will end up being addicts. While I doubt this claim in itself, I think this percentage would go way up if you looked only at people who had reasonable access/resources to acquire more of the drug.
If you keep doing heroin (or any opiate) and have the access/resources to get more, you will get addicted.
It may take a few successive uses within a given amount of time, but beyond that you will have physical withdrawal symptoms, 100% of the time.
This is not the same as alcohol, pot, or LSD, all of which are not physically addictive in the same way.