There's a study I found on the net a few years ago. The state of Ca tracked a group of opiate addicts (ave age in their 20's) that were in a rehab program in the 1960's. They followed them for 30 years. There were no more active addicts 30 years out, they had either died or were successful in recovery. They didnt all die of od's, there were homicides from bad drug deals, suicides, medical consequences of long term drug abuse. The average life expectancy was around 50-55. Remember that in the body, all opiates: heroin, oxycontin, codeine, vicodan, darvocet, etc, immediately are converted to morphine. So addicts on narcotic pain killers are on the same track as these addicts were. Life expectancy for addicts on other drugs may be more or less. Alcohol seems to take longer medically, but drunk driving accidents lowers the life expentancy of an alcoholic dramatically. With Meth, it looks like its really fast.