Alcohol also has the worst withdrawal symptoms that I can think of. Actually it's the only one that I can think of right now where you can die from withdrawal.

Opiate (heroin, etc.) withdrawal can be fatal, though both barbituates and alcohol are more likely to kill you. (All of the above are compounded by ther fact that the addiction has probably harmed your overall health significantly before you tried withdrawing.) But yes, all of the above are more powerfully addictive than marijuana in terms of both physical and psychological symptoms, yet one is legal and the other two are prescribed more often than THC is. Society is also considerably more supportive of people with addictions to painkillers-- it's treated more like an illness than a character flaw.

Marijuana is more on a level with cigarettes in terms of addictive power-- the health effects tend to be limited to anxiety, insomnia, irritability, cravings, and other things that are very unpleasant but not life-threatening.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com