This matches my personal experience with a variety of drugs, although I stopped short of hard opiates. A large proportion of people who took drugs with me when

This matches my personal experience with a variety of drugs, although I stopped short of hard opiates. A large proportion of people who took drugs with me when I was younger got out before things got nasty. Which isn't to say everyone - there was one guy in particular who got into cheap speed and the attendant unhealthy lifestyle so much that his skin turned yellow. But a three factors that I don't see mentioned in the article, which anecdotally seemed to predict quite a bit of the difference, were a supportive family environment, insight into the nature of your drug use, and money. Supportive families helped because when people felt they were doing too much they could drop out of that scene, head home and dry out for a few months. Insight was important because it gave perspective on where they stood in regards to how their drug use was impacting their lives, and before it got really heavy they could head home. Money - enough spare cash to get home and families with enough to support the returning kid - made this kind of flexibility possible. If you don't have many or any of those three things, it becomes much more difficult to make the decision to stop early enough - although even if you have all three it doesn't guarantee anything. I doubt I would have found drug use such a positive experience if I hadn't had that safety net.