For some time I have felt that as many people have started on the path to addiction to hard drugs via tobacco as through cannabis. Logically, those who advocate harsh treatment of dealing in cannabis, as a gateway drug, should apply the same punishment to sellers of cigarettes.
Now it seems that evidence has been found that nicotine has a physical effect which might accelerate cocaine addiction. In experimental mice, "nicotine actually changes the expression of genes linked to addiction". It will be interesting to see whether the logical follow-up experiments will be carried out. As the "Discover" article says, "alcohol and marijuana are frequently described as gateway drugs, and it will be interesting to see if they do anything similar to the brain".
1 comment:
Nicotine is a stimulant, so is likely to have a similar effect to cocaine, also a stimulant.
Alcohol is a depresent, ditto Heroin, the link between the two is well know in drug treatment circles.
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