This article suggests that most of the addiction is due to the environment, not the actual chemical effects on the body.
In particular, the article claims that the common thinking, as encapsulated in the below quote, is wrong.
There are strong chemical hooks in these drugs, so if we stopped on day twenty-one, our bodies would need the chemical. We would have a ferocious craving. We would be addicted. That's what addiction means.
How much of this is grounded in research published in peer-reviewed, high impact-factor journals?
