The deadliest drug

By Danielle Nedivi

China by babasteve

It’s a question that we have all wondered about at some point. No matter if we are active users, casual dabblers, or outside observers- the mystery confounds in all contexts: why do people smoke cigarettes? Today, virtually everyone in the United States knows that smoking is bad. School programs, public service ads, flyers, doctors- even the cigarette boxes themselves- have drilled that into our brains incessantly enough. Yellow teeth, wrinkles, short breath, not to mention heart disease, lung disease, cancer- the list is seemingly endless. And yet, despite all of the well-known detrimental consequences, smoking is still very much a prevalent activity throughout the US, with the young generations just as much as the old.

According to the American Cancer Society, more than 3,500 people younger than 18 try their first cigarette every single day, and 1,100 others become regular daily smokers. About one-third of these kids will later die from a smoking-related disease. Considering that we all know about this deadly effect, why try that fateful first cigarette in the first place? The answers vary from person to person, but overall they tend to cover the same ground. Some studies have shown social influences from peers to be a major cause. Powell (2005) showed that moving a high-school student from a school where no children smoked to a school where one quarter of the youths smoked would increase the probability that he or she smoked by about 14.5%. Overall, based on 2007 data from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 20% of high school students smoke. Many prefer not to feel left out or appear antisocial by not taking risks or trying new things, and they are willing to compromise their health to achieve that crucial sense of belonging. The health-deteriorating factor of cigarettes is too elusive and vaguely far off to feel critical- if anything, their immediate effects are mostly positive.

Smoking provides many enticements on top of its well-advertised drawbacks.  Cigarettes stimulate receptor sites for the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, and provide a short term boost in dopamine levels.  The results can be a  temporary yet immediate calm and solace to a smoker . They can also render potentially awkward moments such as breaks from conversation natural (Dichter, 1947). They provide a smoky, mature voice and a feeling of sophistication and nonchalance. That society has brought many to believe that smoking is “cool” does not help matters. In media from films to books to songs, from GQ photo spreads to “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” the smoker is usually presented as an alluring rebel worth striving to imitate. “Chain smoking” and “clove cigarettes” have become unpredictably glorified terms. At least at the moment, the image of the slightly neurotic, jaded, risk-taking smoker is trendy, and people will go far to emulate it. Even in college, where we believe students are not only more intelligent and mature but also less impressionable, cigarettes still appear all over the place and incite a mystique the influence of which is difficult to shake off, even for those who had successfully avoided the offender thus far (Reed, 2006) .

Can a couple of puffs really be that bad for you?

by Courtney Kaess

Recently I came along an article from foxnews.com titled Study: Youths Become Hooked on Cigarettes Within Two Days of Inhaling. Intrigued by such a bold headline, I decided to look into the study that the article referenced, and what I found there was definitely surprising. The study, conducted by a group from the University of Massachusetts Medical School, observed 1246 consenting sixth grade students from public schools in six surrounding urban and suburban communities over a four -year period. The study focused on 217 of the subjects who had inhaled from a cigarette over the course of the study. Out of those 217 subjects, 126 showed signs of dependence on nicotine. Ten percent of those 126 lost autonomy within two days of inhaling a cigarette, 25% lost autonomy within 30 days of inhaling their first cigarette, and 50% showed signs of dependence once they had been smoking seven cigarettes a month.

Therefore, even though the original headline I read referenced only about one percent of the original subject population, this study definitely shows that there is evidence that even a small amount of nicotine can trigger dependence on the drug. The use of nicotine causes the release of neurotransmitters such as acetylcholine and norepinephrine, which gives the user a sense of arousal and mental alertness. It also triggers the release of dopamine, which is used as a reward signal in the brain. These pleasurable consequences may explain the frightening effect that tobacco has on our youth.

The Biology Behind Teen Smoking

by Silvana Rueda

According to the American Lung Association, as many as 6,000 adolescents under the age of 18 start smoking each day, amounting to 800,000 new adolescent smokers annually.  We’re all familiar with the typical psychosocial influences on adolescents (peer pressure, parental influences, advertising, etc), which lead to tobacco experimentation, but recent studies shed light on a new biological reason behind teen smoking and cigarette addiction.  According to a study by the UC Irvine Transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Center (TTURC), the rewarding effects of nicotine have a greater response in the adolescent brain than in the adult brain.  Furthermore, researchers also discovered that the first exposure to nicotine produces a greater subsequent behavioral response in adolescents than in adults.

In a study reported on by Science Daily, James Belluzzi and Frances Leslie, tested adult and adolescent rats in controlled environments, monitoring the reinforcing effects of nicotine.  The animals were put in a cage with two distinct chambers, one of which exposed them to nicotine; not surprisingly, the rats preferred the chamber in which they would receive the rewarding drug.  Researchers also discovered that nicotine reinforcement was greatest in adolescent rats.  Following one brief exposure to nicotine, researched noticed extreme motor excitation and increased physical activity in adolescent rats, compared to adult rats.

Nicotine functions like any other addictive drug – by stimulating the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine, in the part of the brain which regulates rewards.  By activating this area and increasing levels of dopamine in the brain’s reward circuits, nicotine produces feelings of pleasure in the smoker.  Other properties of nicotine include the rapid distribution of the drug through the brain; nicotine levels peak within 10 seconds of inhalation, stimulating dopamine release.  However, within a few minutes the acute effects of nicotine disappear, including the associated feelings of pleasure, causing the smoker to continue using the drug, to maintain the drug’s pleasurable effects.

These properties are what make nicotine a very addictive substance.  And this research indicates that nicotine is even more addictive for adolescents than adults, which helps explain why approximately 90% of smokers begin smoking before the age of 21, according to the American Lung Association. Clearly, the danger lies in cigarette experimentation; once adolescents experiment with smoking, they’ll be more likely to get addicted than adults.  Such information promotes the fact that even more emphasis should be placed on discouraging adolescents from smoking.  That first cigarette is no longer as innocuous as it once seemed.