Tobacco

Nicotine is probably as addictive as heroin and on a national scale far more dangerous to health.It kills 120,000 every year in Britain alone and if tobacco were reaching the market today for the first time would without question be banned outright as a highly dangerous, addictive substance.

In America tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death, killing 400,000 a year at a cost of $50 billion in direct medical bills.Smoking kills more people than AIDS, alcohol, drug abuse, car crashes, murders, suicides and fires combined.

The medical effects of tobacco are far wider than could possibly be covered in a book of this size. Most people need no convincing of the dangers.The problem is that the addiction is even more powerful than their fears of illness or early death.And teenage smokers are usually particularly relaxed in the knowledge that any health problems will take years to emerge.

Nicotine is a stimulant and a sedative. Nicotine reduces anxiety and makes users feel calm.It is physically and psychologically addictive.Smoking causes an almost immediate "kick" due to triggering adrenaline release and other hormones. Nicotine only takes seconds to reach the brain from the lungs and affects the body for around half an hour. Repeated stimulation leads to depression and fatigue so the user needs more. Research shows that nicotine users regulate their blood levels of nicotine so that levels rarely fall below a certain level - even if it means waking for a cigarette in the night.

Cigarette smoke consists of a dozen gases, mainly carbon monoxide, as well as nicotine and tar - which varies from 7 - 15 mg.The tar causes cancer, emphysema and other lung disease, while carbon monoxide damages the cardiovascular system and heart.Nicotine also affects both heart and lungs.Tar from tobacco causes cancers of the lung, oesophagus, mouth, lips, and larynx.

Pregnant smokers have a greater risk of underweight babies at birth, stillbirths and premature labour as well as of sudden infant deaths. Every time a pregnant woman smokes a cigarette it reduces the blood supply to the developing baby, hence smaller birth weight.

Women who smoke also suffer more from strokes and heart attacks when using the pill - especially if over thirty. Nicotine gum and patches can be helpful to replace tobacco when a person is seeking to change behaviour, but the nicotine addiction still needs to be broken.

So then, caffeine, alcohol and tobacco use are almost universal. Abuse of alcohol and nicotine addiction have made it much harder to take an absolute consistent line against all illegal drugs.As we will see later, society has a clear choice:either take a stronger line against alcohol and tobacco or relax the line on Marijuana, Ecstasy and several other "milder" illegal substances.The present situation is irrational and unsustainable for a new generation who view their parents' addictions, and their campaigns against Marijuana, as both hypocritical and offensive.