There’s long been a connection between using tobacco and using other drugs. In fact, some authorities and people claim that tobacco is actually the new “gateway drug” that alcohol and marijuana are also purported to be.
There are striking statistics connecting drug use with tobacco use. For example, 90% of heroin addicts smoke cigarettes. — Click to Tweet.
The Tobacco-Drug Connection
There’s also the fact that tobacco use and illegal drug use is correlated in several other
ways. It’s absolutely true that people who have smoked cigarettes are much more likely to have used illegal drugs also.
In fact, for all age groups in a study conducted using data from the 1994 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, those who had smoked before were seven times more likely to have tried marijuana; seven times more likely to have tried cocaine; 14 times more likely to have tried crack; and 16 times more likely to have tried heroin.
This data was adjusted for age, and it was found that the correlation was much stronger in young people. Children ages 12 to 15 who had smoked cigarettes before were 44 times more likely to use crack, versus only a twofold increase in risk for people 50 or older.
It’s important to realize, though, that even though some researchers point to this data and say that smoking causes people to use drugs later in life, there’s actually just a correlation here.
A correlation means that people who smoke are more likely to also use drugs, but there could be any number of causal relations. For example, using drugs could cause someone to
want cigarettes to increase their high. Or perhaps a third causal factor is involved, such as a family history or genetic predisposition that causes people to be more likely to end up addicted to substances of all kinds.
Conclusion
Whether there’s a correlation or causation, the results of these studies are clear in at least one way: smokers are more likely to be drug addicts at some point.
That fact itself should serve as a cautionary piece of information for any parents who see their children smoking. There’s also some new research that says alcoholics who are trying to remain sober do better when they also quit smoking. Perhaps this research does point to a causation, rather than simply a correlation. But then again, perhaps not.
How else do you think the smoking-drug abuse connection should affect people’s decisions concerning smoking?
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