random wrote on Oct 14
th, 2022 at 5:07am:
I used to think it was not, but after seeing what it has done to friends and family, hooter is definitely addictive. Worse, for those who have smoked it for decades, lung damage that has been fatal.
Those who make the now-debunked claim that it's not addictive will, invariably, have ulterior motives for making it.
There was a time when a narrow definition of addiction was plugged to differentiate between the likes of opioids (where the brain manufactures an excess of opioid receptors due to opioid abuse) and those drugs that do not appear to cause that phenomenon - such as the THC/CBD in marijuana.
But addiction is the result of complex neurochemical interactions - primarily with dopamine and the so-called dopamine cycle.
And the dopamine cycle doesn't necessarily require the ingestion of a chemical, as anyone will confirm who has seen the agitated, high-anxiety state of a compulsive gambler who' s trying to quit gambling 'cold turkey'.