My personal hypothesis, is that cravings (drug, sugar, food, sex, alcohol, socializing, etc) fill a need for stimulation. Most people get that through maybe watching sports, reading books, or if you can, mental stimulation (math, science, programming, 3d printing, juggling, etc). Or maybe some combination of all of them. If you didn't have very many friends growing up, it felt agonizing with a deep desire to fit in -- that was the "social" craving kicking in early in life.

Some of those cravings exist to extend life and to help the species multiply. Some of them were artificial (drugs, alcohol, gambling, computer gaming).

GLP-1 agonists (wegovy, zepbound) are prescribed for certain addictions other than obesity. This shows that we don't understand addiction at all.

My wife is, in clinical terms, morbidly obese and, since the pandemic, has become more and more reliant on weed to cope with stress.

While Wegovy hasn't helped her lose significant weight or meaningfully enough reduced her reliance on food to deal with stress (yes, she vomits a lot), she has stopped smoking weed.

She claims quitting weed has nothing to do with the Wegovy, but before starting it, she wouldn't even acknowledge it was a problem.