Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, my roommate in college went pretty deep into opioids for a couple years and eventually quit. He's now a PhD student studying math, smart as ever. I think we know very different addicts. > Can you imagine 50 000 people at a Football game, all doing smack? Sure, it would be a fun game. Within days, 10% of them would be full on addicts. Within weeks maybe 50% of them would. Those people would go through hell or hig…
"Here's probably the most strict source on drugs saying that the addiction rate is 23%" I get what you are saying, but I don't think you're applying the general context: everyone doing heroin as common as they drink - that would lead to massive addiction and total health crisis. So it's not '1 game' of 50 000 users, it's every game . Frat parties, bars, dinner parties, 'netflix and chill', I mean pervasive open used…
For the record I've been prescribed opioid derived drugs and did not get hooked. Why? Because I know how addictive it can be, so I popped some to see what it was like and trashed it.
This world where everyone uses opioids pervasively won't happen because people would know or soon figure out how pointless and devastating it is. It's like asking why we don't have cultural customs where everyone murders a new family member each monday. Any culture dumb enough to try no longer exists.
In reality there is perhaps a good historical example of mass opium addiction you could tie your narrative to though: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_opium_in_China