If you have been reading this blog series on addictive drugs, you know I always ask how many people you know are using the drug subject to the blog. Because it is both legal, and arguably, widely-accepted, tobacco is one of the “Big 2” with alcohol for most used and people addicted.
It is most commonly used as a recreational drug, and is a valuable cash crop for countries such as Cuba, China and the United States.
In consumption it most commonly appears in the forms of smoking, chewing, snuffing, or dipping tobacco. Upon the arrival of Europeans in North America, it quickly became popularized as a trade item and a recreational drug. This popularization led to the development of the southern economy of the United States until it gave way to cotton.
How Addictive is Tobacco?
Let’s put it this way, the odds are heavily in favor that if you know one smoker, you know one tobacco addict!
Because of the addictive properties of nicotine, tolerance and dependence develop. Absorption quantity, frequency, and speed of tobacco consumption are believed to be directly related to biological strength of nicotine dependence, addiction, and tolerance. The usage of tobacco is an activity that is practiced by some 1.1 billion people, and up to 1/3 of the adult population. Over 1,000,000,000,000 addicts and growing!!
An article in The Lancet compared the harm and addiction of 20 drugs, using a scale from 0 to 3 (with a 3 being the most addictive substance like heroin) for physical addiction, psychological addiction, and pleasure to create a mean score for addiction.
On the list of top 10 most abused and addictive drugs tobacco finished fourth, right behind alcohol, cocaine and heroin which ranked 3 to 1. Tobacco scored a 1.8 for physical dependency, equal to benzodiazepines and more physically addictive than both alcohol and cocaine!
Tobacco is also highly psychologically dependent scoring a 2.6, which was significantly higher than alcohol (1.9) and benzodiazepines (2.1).
The World Health Organization (WHO) reports it to be the leading preventable cause of death worldwide and estimates that it currently causes 5.4 million deaths per year. Rates of smoking have leveled off or declined in developed countries, but continue to rise in developing countries.
Man, don’t start smoking or dipping or using tobacco products. They are highly addictive and very hard to quit. Of course, thousands of people quit every day, so if you use tobacco, it is never too late to quit!