If anybody's ever been fortunate to have a good blast of morphine preoperatively for elective surgery (meaning you weren't in pain to start with) then you've probably gotten a hint of how good serious narcotics are. The question is then whether you devote the rest of your life to seeking them out.

I know this belongs in our separate "depression and addiction" discussion thread, but I just wanted to say that there is mounting evidence to suggest that this is largely determined by genetics. In other words, some people can take certain drugs without easily getting addicted, others will become hopelessly hooked with one snort.