Yes, you read that headline correctly – nicotine addicts need to take a drug class. Whether you smoke cigarettes, chew tobacco, use dip or smoke a pipe, nicotine is a powerfully-addictive chemical substance.
You have long heard that marijuana is evil because it is a gateway drug. Well, a new study using mice is seeking to prove that cigarettes are a gateway drug as well.
Is Nicotine a Gateway Drug?
A recent study reported in Psych Central, in mice identifies a biological mechanism that could help explain how tobacco products could act as gateway drugs, increasing a person’s future likelihood of abusing cocaine and perhaps other drugs as well.
The study is the first to show that nicotine might prime the brain to enhance the behavioral effects of cocaine, according to the researchers who conducted it.
The gateway drug model is based upon epidemiological evidence that most illicit drug users report using tobacco or alcohol prior to illicit drug use. This model has generated significant controversy over the years, mostly relating to whether prior drug exposure to nicotine, alcohol or marijuana is causally related to later drug use.
Earlier studies have not been able to show a biological mechanism by which nicotine exposure could increase vulnerability to illicit drug use.
The mice were exposed to nicotine in their drinking water for at least seven days showed an increased response to cocaine.
The study found that the rate of cocaine dependence was higher among cocaine users who smoked prior to starting cocaine compared to those who tried cocaine prior to smoking.
These findings in mice suggest that if nicotine has similar effects in humans, effective smoking prevention efforts would not only prevent the negative health consequences associated with smoking, but could also decrease the risk of progression and addiction to cocaine and possibly other illicit drug use
Nicotine is also a highly-addictive drug that is legal. If through drug education classes we also could curb the number of adolescents who smoke cigarettes, we all would be a lot better off.