E-cigarettes a ‘gateway’ to harder drugs, study says
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/09/04/e-cigarettes-gateway-to-harder-drugs-study-says/
From the article:
Like conventional cigarettes, electronic cigarettes may function as a “gateway drug” that can prime the brain to be more receptive to harder drugs, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday. But, for chain smokers trying to quit smoking, e-cigarettes and best tobacco free nicotine pouches are their bestfriends.
“With e-cigarettes, we get rid of the danger to the lungs and to the heart, but no one has mentioned the brain,” coauthor Dr. Eric Kandel of Columbia University, whose findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine, said in a telephone interview.
In laboratory studies, the researchers showed that “once mice and rats are on nicotine, they are more addicted to cocaine” after being introduced to that drug, said Dr. Aruni Bhatnagar of the University of Louisville, who was not involved in the study but chaired a 10-member American Heart Association panel on the impact of e-cigarettes.
“E-cigarettes have the same physiological effects on the brain and may pose the same risk of addiction to other drugs as regular cigarettes, especially in adolescence during a critical period of brain development,” they wrote.
Although it is not yet clear whether e-cigarettes will prove to be a gateway to the use of conventional cigarettes and illicit drugs, they said “that’s certainly a possibility.”
“Nicotine clearly acts as a gateway drug on the brain, and this effect is likely to occur whether the exposure comes from smoking cigarettes, passive tobacco smoke, or e-cigarettes,” they wrote.
The question has to be asked…. if controlled meds are considered “gateway drugs” to Heroin and the like and now this study confirms that Nicotine should be consider a “gateway drug”.. shouldn’t all products that contain Nicotine be made ILLEGAL ? Or is our society being hypocritical about allowing some “gateway drugs” to continue to be legal… because the bureaucrats that pass the laws, are some of the 20% of our population that are ADDICTED to Nicotine ?
Filed under: General Problems
Peon…The US tried Alcohol Prohibition from 1920 with the 18th Amendment to 1933 with its repeal with the 21st Amendment. It was a complete failure. Al Capone in Chicago, Mafia in NYC, theresbeven evidence JFK father was invovled in bootlegging whiskey in Boston. People died from bad ‘bathtub gin’ or went blind because those who made it wrong ended up with more methanol than alsohol. People desparate for alcohol drank ethlyne glycol and died Sounds like meth and heroin today. So I doubt outright prohibition would be tried again. I tend to lean libertarian on several issues which is why I say legalize all of it the war on drugs like prohibition has been a failure and waste of money. Time to quit. You should also read ths history of the Harrison Act, very interesing
Don’t forget to add Coffee, Chocolate and Pasta to your list of addictive substances while you are at it…oh yeah, Sex too!
Steve, I quite agree with you that if we are going to restrict some drugs that could be addicting that all ‘drugs’ should be included and that would include nicotine(cigarrettes) and alcohol(beer, wine, vodka, etc). I bet if someone did a study that alcohol would be at the top of the list of drugs that lead to addiction, not just of alcohol but leading to other addicting drugs. But, you will not see the government prohibiting the sale of alcohol despite it being the most notorious of them all because of auto accidents. Which kills more people, addicting ‘drugs’ or alcohol? The problem in this country is ‘perspective’ and the ability to put things in ‘context’. The drug that is very addicting and kills the most people(alcohol) is openly sold. Yet, pain meds that do have a legitimate use, in people with severe or chronic pain, are being highly restricted. Look at Marijuana…it was banned and illegal for decades; but, now it is being openly sold in some states. This is how peoples opinions change over time. And, the sentiment of people and the government runs in cycles. Currently, we are in a restrictive cycle when it comes to pain meds. Many of us can remember decades ago when this changed and the idea was to keep people, that were in pain, comfortable. It made no difference how strong the med might be. The patient would get what it took to control their pain. Today, the DEA is pushing to limit the use of pain meds because they CLAIM the drugs are being diverted for illegitimate purposes. But, has this not always been the case and will always be the case. There are a certain percentage of the population that will become addicted to ‘something’ and that something can almost be anything. There was a time when I poured out the codeine from a capsule and put sugar in it and the woman picked up her prescription of it each month. The placebo effect will work on at least 5% of the population. Remember kids abusing Robitussin DM? What about the bath salts being abused today? If it is not one thing, then it is something else. The government can legislate, the DEA can arrest, and the prisons can become full of drug abusers but the situation will not change. There is a certain percentage of the population that is going to rob, steal, murder, abuse drugs, and etc. The government nor anyone else is going to change this. Even if we have a police state, it will not stop. And, the DEA is acting toward the medical community like it is the medical police and they have declared Marshall law.
The point I was trying to make – and apparently failed to do — is that, if we – as a society – are going to restrict access to drugs that are POTENTIALLY addicting.. then we should restrict access to ALL DRUGS that are POTENTIALLY addicting. Right now.. we are increasingly restricting access to DRUGS that have a valid medical purpose !
We cannot restrict access to a lot of things that are addicting — like sugar, adrenaline, and the internet. And since the gateway theory was debunked awhile ago, those that still use it are living in the past.
Addiction cannot be cured, just managed. Which is why prohibition and abstinence have never been proven to work. The better process is to educate so that people can make better choices. (Free the leaf.)
If nicotine is so dangerous and addicting, somehow I missed out. While I havent done so in a long time due to the nanny city ordinances on smoking in bars in my town, I considered myself a ”social smoker”. I’d be at a bar now and then with some friends, have a drink and a cigarette and that was it. I didnt smoke more than one or 2 cigarettes and only every couple of months. Never anywhere else, never had nicotine cravings, nothing, so I guess I just screwed up somebodys study right there. I had several friends who were the same. I also had friends who smoked alot, but it never bothered me, it was their choice to smoke, not mine to tell them yes or no. I agree with Anonymous, the worst ones on getting rid of smoking of any kind are former smokers, just like those wanting to get rid of all alcohol are former alcoholics….if they cant have it, no one else should either.
Bullshit. Any study involving “addiction” is always geared to a certain viewpoint.
Any correlation between mice in a cage and a human being is absurd,especially in
addiction studies.Secondly if e cigarettes are a gateway drug then nicotine is a gateway drug which means all people who use patches are doomed to be coke heads. Where is the empirical evidence?
Anti smoking zealots don’t care at all about health.They are so blind in their pursuit of a puritanical lifestyle for us that they are actually hurting the people they so want to help.
Here is a reminder. E cigarettes do not give out smoke. They produce vapor. Smoking has such a negative image that anti smoking bluenoses are using it in
describing e cigarettes.
Steve, this brings up a question in my mind – when comparison studies are done about addicts has a study ever been done to find out how many of them are smokers as opposed to being non smokers? It sure would be fascinating to know the impact of smoking on addiction in opiate users and how it has influenced this war on drugs that is affecting us chronic pain patients and our ability to get our pain medications nowadays.
Maybe caffeine is really the gateway drug..everyone starts on that much earlier in life…how many kids do you see drinking Mountain Dew….im being sarcastic here. I think all this is junk science…every time I turn around its a new gateway drug study…….anything to keep their jobs and get more of our taxpayer dollars.