Addictions vary so much from person to person in their severity and effects that it might be hard to separate out enough objective facts to make a determination.

How about cocaine? Cocaine users place severe stress on their hearts and vascular system that can result in cardiac arrest, heart attack or stroke. Heavy cocaine abusers often experience severe paranoia, get far out of touch with reality and may suffer hallucinations. Crack cocaine results in a very brief high and may drive a person to violent crime to be able to maintain their habits. A person trying to get off cocaine can get suicidally depressed.

Or heroin? This highly addictive depressant causes a person to alternately nod off or exist in a wakeful, euphoric state. Using heroin can be very hard on the heart and lungs. The lining of the heart can become infected, or abscesses, liver or kidney disease may result.

A heroin user is prone to overdose if the batch of heroin is stronger than usual. Heroin often contains toxic contaminants that can cause permanent organ damage. A heroin addict often lives a marginal life. Heroin depresses the respiratory function and so can cause death when a person stops breathing. When used with alcohol, the combined depressive effects of the two drugs may increase the chance of death. The person who wishes to withdraw from heroin may have a period of a week or two where they feel very ill, with vomiting, chills, muscle pains, bone aches, spasms and other symptoms.

Some people might think that marijuana addiction is the worst just because there are more people abusing marijuana than any other drug. Despite what many people say, marijuana is addictive. Each year, hundreds of thousands of people to go drug rehabs to get off compulsive marijuana abuse. The great majority of them are 21 or younger. In the short term, marijuana causes impaired coordination and difficulty learning or solving problems. It can harm memory as well and this effect can last for weeks after marijuana stops being used. As most of the people going to rehab for marijuana addiction are of school age – junior high, high school or college – they may be suffering adverse effects in their educations.

Marijuana may not cause life-threatening conditions like some of these other drugs, but it has been noted that adverse effects were frequently felt in social life, mental health and career status by those abusing marijuana. Users had more accidents, lost more jobs and had lower grades in school.

Prescription painkillers are also frequently abused. This category includes hydrocodone, oxycodone, morphine, codeine, fentanyl, hydromorphone and propoxyphene. These are all opioids which means they are chemically similar to opium but are partly or wholly synthetic. Abuse of prescription drugs creates similar physical effects as heroin with similar possibility of overdose death. In this case, not because of uncontrolled dosage as with heroin but because too much is taken and it depresses respiration and causes death. Here too, when a person wishes to withdraw from the drug, they are likely to have a hard time with pain and sickness.

Hallucinogens can also become addictive, requiring rehab to quit using them either because of cravings or psychological addiction or both. Hallucinogens include LSD, Ecstasy, peyote, mescaline, PCP and other drugs. These drugs can be very dangerous in that they alter one’s perceptions of the real world, which may seem entertaining to the person who is high but can result in very real injuries or even death. Ecstasy has caused many deaths due to overheating and organ breakdown. Other hallucinogens have caused deaths due to accidents. Some of these drugs can cause lasting mental disturbances that mimic schizophrenia. PCP can cause violent, aggressive behavior stemming from paranoia.

All of these drugs and others as well have driven people to drug rehabs for recovery. Unfortunately, most rehabilitation programs state success rates of between 16% and 20% meaning that most people either struggle with addiction again when they get out or they go back to rehab.

The Narconon Arrowhead drug rehabilitation program helps the vast majority of its graduates find lasting sobriety after they go home. Narconon reviews by family who have their loved ones back talk about finding success at last after so many ineffective rehab program that went before.

So which is the most dangerous addiction? That would be the one that takes your loved one away from you – or takes you away from your loved ones. Find help today at Narconon Arrowhead. Call 1-800-468-6933 for details.

References:

http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/infofacts/cocaine
http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/infofacts/heroin
http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/infofacts/marijuana
http://www.drugabuse.gov/drugs-abuse/prescription-medications
http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/infofacts/hallucinogens-lsd-peyote-psilocybin-pcp