Tobacco - Nicotine

In Texas, it is against the law to supply tobacco to anyone under 18 years of age. Providing tobacco to minors is a Class C Misdemeanor.

It is also illegal for someone under age 18 to purchase, possess or use tobacco. If teens are caught with tobacco, they must attend (4) two-hour classes on tobacco awareness or do tobacco-related community service. If they do not attend the awareness classes nor do the community service, their driver’s license may be taken away for up to 180 days. They could pay a $250 fine.

In Amarillo, the average that kids first try tobacco is 11.6. The average age that those who use tobacco begin smoking  regularly is 13.6. 33% of our youth in 6th – 12th grades have tried cigarettes and 15% have tried smokeless tobacco.

An estimated 46.5 million adults in the United States smoke cigarettes even though this single behavior will result in death or disability for half of all regular users. Cigarette smoking is responsible, in some form, for more than 400,000 deaths each year; that’s one in every five deaths. Additionally, if current patterns of smoking persist, over 5 million people currently younger than 18 will die prematurely from a tobacco-related disease.
Source: CDC

Nicotine is one of more than 4,000 chemicals found in tobacco smoke and is the primary component that acts on the brain. Smokeless tobacco products such as snuff and chewing tobacco also contain high levels of nicotine as well as many other toxins.

Nicotine is absorbed through the skin and mucosal lining of the mouth and nose or by inhalation into the lungs. Depending on how tobacco is taken, nicotine can rapidly reach peak levels in the bloodstream and brain. Cigarette smoking, for example, results in rapid distribution of nicotine throughout the body, reaching the brain within 10 seconds of inhalation. Cigar and pipe smokers, on the other hand, typically do not inhale the smoke, so nicotine is absorbed more slowly through the mucosal membranes of their mouths, the same as for smokeless tobacco.
Source: streetdrugs.org

PROPERTIES OF NICOTINE

Nicotine is a stimulant drug, but effects of both stimulation and relaxation may be felt. The mental and physical state of the smoker, and the situation in which smoking occurs, can influence the way in which a particular cigarette will affect psychological perceptions. The addictive effect of nicotine is linked to its capacity to trigger the release of dopamine - a chemical in the brain that is associated with feelings of pleasure. However, recent research has suggested that in the long term, nicotine depresses the ability of the brain to experience pleasure. Thus, smokers need greater amounts of the drug to achieve the same levels of satisfaction. Smoking is therefore a form of self-medication: further smoking alleviates the withdrawal symptoms which set in soon after the effects of nicotine wear off.

DIFFICULTY IN QUITTING NICOTINE

Possibly one of the strongest indicators of the effect of nicotine is the discrepancy between the desire to quit and success rates in quitting. Surveys have shown that the majority of smokers (around 70 per cent) want to stop smoking yet the successful rate of quitting remains very low. Twenty per cent or less of those who embark on a course of treatment succeed in abstaining for as long as a year, while only around 3 per cent succeed in quitting using willpower alone. Most smokers take several attempts to quit before they finally succeed. The power of addiction is also demonstrated by the fact that some smokers are reluctant to stop smoking even after undergoing surgery for smoking-induced diseases. Around forty per cent of those who have had a laryngectomy resume smoking soon afterwards, while about 50 per cent of lung cancer patients resume smoking after undergoing surgery.

NICOTINE WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOMS

Another marker for addiction is the occurrence of withdrawal symptoms following cessation of drug use. For smokers, typical physical symptoms following cessation or reduction of nicotine intake include craving for nicotine, irritability, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, restlessness, sleep disturbances, decreased heart rate, and increased appetite or weight gain. The fact that these symptoms can be attributed to nicotine, rather than behavioral aspects of tobacco use is shown by the finding that withdrawal symptoms are relieved by nicotine replacement therapy (gum, patches, etc.) but not by a placebo (i.e. products that do not contain nicotine).

GENETIC INFLUENCE OF NICOTINE

Recent research suggests that certain smokers may be predisposed to nicotine addiction through the effects of a gene responsible for metabolizing nicotine. Scientists have found that non-smokers are twice as likely to carry a mutation in a gene that helps to rid the body of nicotine. In addition, smokers who carry mutations in the gene, (known as CYP2A6) are likely to smoke less because nicotine is not rapidly removed from the brain and bloodstream. By contrast, smokers with the efficient version of the gene will tend to smoke more heavily to compensate for nicotine being removed more rapidly.