GB, trust me. It is a different mentality. --- A whole different reality!
For someone who gets to craving the dragon it is far outside of what you or I could imagine.
I don't want to speak for these guys with a lot more experience and knowledge, but I think that is what they are trying to say.
Maybe this will help. You or I cannot crave the dragon, now. Yet. We would have to take a bit of a journey first.
Some who use scientific terminology would call it 'Incentive-Sensitization Theory.'
In other words, until certain biopsychological transformations have occurred, you can't really experience the overpowering craving that a severe addict feels.
It isn't as much as 'pleasure from using' as it is 'unquenchable agony from absence.'
So how does one develop this craving? A number of components contribute. But the constant is use. Use of lesser drugs, lesser amounts, even in controlled amounts under supervision. Everyone is different, different psychological and physiological makeups.
Some people it takes next to nothing. For others it may take lethal amounts and dosages before anything would begin to happen. Therefore, some may experience it after relatively minor experimentation, others may never experience it, because if they cross the threshold, it is already too late. Those that worry about greater use of more powerful narcotics have the right idea. They move you faster and more surely down the slope than other mundane possibilities.
But sooner or later the basic function of your central nervous system changes, like it does with smokers. And if you remain alive long enough for that to happen, recreation rapidly becomes survival. And you crave the dragon.