Hooked: Food, Free Will, and How the Food Giants Exploit Our Addictions

by Michael Moss

Anthony summed up his work for a 2002 publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology. This data represents averages, not any one person’s risk, but the numbers are still startling. For heroin, 23 percent of the people who tried it went on to become dependent on the drug. Cocaine came in at a 17 percent risk for addiction. Alcohol was logged at 15 percent, stimulants like amphetamine 11 percent, cannabis 9 percent, and near the bottom were psychedelics like LSD, at a 5 percent risk of getting hooked. The riskiest substance for addiction? Tobacco, which hit 32 percent. Advocates of legalizing drugs might disagree, but this higher rate of dependency for tobacco may be the result of cigarettes—like food—being so much easier to obtain and use than illicit drugs.