There are three principal ways to consume tobacco: smoking, chewing and dipping, and snuffing. All three ways produce approximately equal blood nicotine levels in tobacco users. SMOKING has been identified as the single most preventable cause of death and disease in the United States. Approximately 50 million Americans smoke. They consume about 540 billion cigarettes each year, and each year approximately 390,000 people die from smoking-related causes. Cigarette smoke contains more than 300 known poisons, including such deadly substances as nicotine, arsenic, cyanide, carbon monoxide, phenol and formaldehyde. Cigarette smoking is such an enticing habit that few smokers realize it is addictive - until they are hooked. Prevention of other illegal drugs use begins with the prevention of tobacco and other gateway drug use. Gateway drugs are drugs that serve as almost essential social and psychological precursors to use of other drugs, such as marijuana, heroin and cocaine, although the link between the gateway drug and the other drug is not biochemical.
Cigarettes are the ultimate gateway drug. In 1987, a research team at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research found that among high-school seniors, daily cigarette smokers were 10 times more likely to use cocaine regularly than were seniors who never had smoked regularly. Students who never smoked were much less likely to experiment with controlled substances and very unlikely to use them regularly. A tobacco-free lifestyle serves as a powerful protective factor against abuse of controlled substances. Studies show that the younger a smoker becomes addicted, the tougher it is to quit. According to the American Lung Association, 60 percent of smokers begin by age 14, and 90 percent by age 19, and most of them think they never will get hooked.
