The Causes of Drug Addiction

The causes of alcoholism also pretty much apply to the causes of drug addiction - so before you do anything, make sure you read those, because they will provide you with detailed info on the most common causes of addiction.

But just to recap quickly - genetics and environmental factors (that shape our personalities and how we respond to the environment) are probably the two biggest one's.

What I'd like to do here then is add to the causes of drug addiction, something unique to drugs, and that is the role Gateway Drugs play as a cause of drug addiction.

Gateway Drugs

The two primary gateway drugs are alcohol and marijuana. Now most people use both these substances successfully on a purely social and recreational basis, with no long-term ill effects.

However if you have a predisposition towards addiction, alcohol and marijuana are often the substances initially used before progressing onto harder stuff.

Because alcohol and marijuana are generally regarded as socially acceptable, they are often where it all starts ...

Alcohol lowers your inhibitions, which means you're more inclined to be 'up to' trying something new like using drugs for the first time, whether it be ecstasy, cocaine, LSD, speed or heroin.

I used all those drugs for the first time when I was drunk (in the case of heroin I was so drunk I didn't even know it was heroin until I started sobering up) - and once I'd crossed that initial boundary for the first time, it was much easier to do it again ... and again ... and again ...

I think most of us have some kind of built in mental threshold towards using drugs developed by our upbringing, values, beliefs, etc. - but once we cross that threshold for the first time, it just becomes so much easier to do it again.

Know what I mean?

Alcohol just helps lower that threshold and gets you started on the road to using. And for those of us with an addict inside of us waiting to come out - that's all the help we need - and as a result can become one of the major causes of drug addiction.

Marijuana is similar because its regarded as pretty harmless by so many, so you're more inclined to try it out. Most people will leave things there. But if there's an addict inside of you waiting to be unleashed, marijuana will simply be the stepping stone to harder and more dangerous drugs.

Now for the record, I personally don't believe marijuana is harmless at all. TCH - its main active ingredient has increased in concentration over the last 30 years, making today's joints 5 to 50 times more potent than they used to be.

The result?

Increased risk of developing respiratory diseases, memory damage, cancer, schizophrenia, leukaemia and birth defects in children for women who use when pregnant.

So even if you're just using marijuana on a regular basis and lead an otherwise seemingly normal life, maybe its time to think again because the risks just aren't worth it.

I know alcohol and marijuana (as gateway drugs) aren't one of the causes of drug addiction for every addict but I'm sure you'll find for many drug addicts that alcohol and marijuana is where it all started.