5 minute read
Substance Information
The next few pages will be your guide in regards to particular substances, and how they affect the human body and behaviours. Each substance will be discussed in detail; you may have heard of some of the following that will be covered:
NARCOTICS inhalants
ALCOHOL Prescription Cocaine Pills
Hallucinogens
1 . nicotine
You mean cigarettes are a drug?!
You bet they are. Not only that, but they are the most addictive drug, and cause more long term health problems than any other drug. Interestingly, while adults are finally starting to smoke less, young people have been smoking more and more. In fact, the number of teenagers smoking has been steadily rising over the past ten years.
Why? Well, despite loads of convincing information telling us how harmful cigarettes are for our health, to most young people these risks seem too far off in the future to worry about now. Unlike other drugs, the harm from nicotine shows up later on in life, making the need to quit seem much less urgent.
So, I’ll quit later. When I’m older or something.
That’s the idea that a lot of young people have. “I’ll quit before the wrinkles, the discoloured skin, the breathing problems and the lung cancer have a chance to set in.” The problem with that? Nicotine is addictive, which means it is extremely difficult from a psychological aspect, though not impossible, to quit smoking. In fact, most addicted smokers began smoking as teenagers! Basically, the younger you are when you start, the more ingrained the habit becomes and the harder it is to quit.
When a person smokes tobacco (by far and away the most common form of nicotine use), nicotine is absorbed very quickly into the blood through the lungs and passes within seconds to the brain. Therefore, very soon after having your first drag of a cigarette, you can feel its effects. Within ten minutes, there is a peak concentration of nicotine in the lungs, blood, and brain. Then, the nicotine starts to distribute itself to other body tissues and levels of nicotine in the brain decline. Thirty minutes later, the nicotine has left the brain, leaving the smoker ready for another cigarette. It happens very fast. Nicotine, as a powerfully addictive drug, causes three predictable behaviours in smokers:
• It makes them want more. Because the desire to get more outweighs logic, people will continue to smoke despite knowing that it is harmful to their health. They will also spend increasing amounts of money on cigarettes – from hundreds to thousands of dollars a year per smoker.
There are a lot of different methods used for quitting smoking. The truth of the matter is, quitting smoking is painful and difficult no matter which way you slice it. Bearing the cravings and stress, especially at the beginning, is the most important and difficult step. Quitting smoking is difficult for a couple of reasons. So far, we’ve been talking mainly about the physical aspects of the addiction. Quitting can be very difficult, for example, if you are used to having a cigarette after lunch, or in the smoke pit with your friends. Smoking can provide a way to socialize and connect with others, even if it’s only a surface connection. All of a sudden, you may not know what to do with your hands, or you may find yourself feeling really antsy in situations during which you would normally be smoking. These are all common struggles experienced by people trying to quit, and it’s normal to be tempted.
• Tolerance. If you were to smoke for the first time, you would likely experience dizziness and nausea. If you continued to smoke, these effects would go away within days. Tolerance to the other effects of nicotine develops even more rapidly, and smokers will increase their dosage and frequency of smoking in order to still feel the effects of nicotine. So if you started out just having drags of your friend’s cigarette, you would probably go on to having one all to yourself; first bumming one off another person, and then gradually buying your own. When a smoker stops smoking, he or she will quickly go into withdrawal. Symptoms of withdrawal from nicotine are:
Cravings (i.e. powerful urges to use the drug) Irritability (i.e. everyone and everything is getting on your nerves) Preoccupation (i.e. you can’t stop thinking about how badly you need a smoke)
It’s no wonder, then, that most people find it so difficult to stop.
Nicotine is the most addictive of all drugs, but not impossible to quit.
EFFECTS ON THE BODY, BRAIN AND BEHAVIOUR
• Adolescents who are smokers are twice as likely as non-smoking adolescents to suffer from an episode of major depression, and teens with long-term depression are more likely to be smokers than teens without depression
• Smoking causes lung cancer and chronic lung diseases, like emphysema
• Smoking increases the risk of heart disease by increasing heart rate and blood pressure, creating extra stress on the heart
• Smoking effects circulation, making the skin of smokers thinner and more wrinkled
• Smoking can delay the physical and mental development in the fetuses of pregnant women
SUBSTANCE INFO 2 .
e cigarettes / VAPING
Electronic cigarettes are battery powered devices that vapourize liquid nicotine, so that the user is inhaling a fine mist, not unlike the fog you see at some music concerts.
The devices look eerily similar to a cigarette, right down to the glowing tip. However, because no tobacco leaves are actually being burned in the process, there is no smoky smell, no ash, and in fact, no actual fire. Liquid nicotine contains fewer harmful chemicals than tobacco, and proponents of this method suggest that “vaping” e-cigarettes poses fewer harmful effects to the body than conventional cigarette smoking.
So, all of the cool factor and half the harm? It seems like a nobrainer! But, while this slim, misting, gadget may not require a match, it has generated a fiery controversy. On one hand, those already addicted to tobacco have a really hard time quitting and often relapse. At the same time this had led some people to view e-cigarettes as a safer alternative to typical tobacco smoking, and maybe even a way to gently quit. However, e-cigarettes still do contain nicotine – an addictive chemical substance – and the actual safety of this method is a bit, well, foggy. Equally foggy is the question of whether people who switch to e-cigarettes actually end up quitting.
Parents and youth need to know that nicotine can impact brain development in children and teens, regardless of whether it is smoked or vapourized. Furthermore, some e-cigarettes have candy flavouring, which may keep kids coming back for more. The bottom line is: if you don’t already smoke, there is no reason to start “vaping” e-cigs. If you do smoke and are struggling to quit, talk to your doctor before prescribing e-cigarettes to yourself.
