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CAUTION: Smoking while pregnant can cause miscarriage, still birth, low birth weight, and growth retardation.
Scientific Name: tobacco / nicotine
Drug Class:
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Tobacco is one of the most common and widely used drugs in the world. Although prohibited in many public places in the US, tobacco is a legal substance. Tobacco is a plant whose dried, brown leaves are rolled into cigarettes and cigars for smoking. Tobacco can also come in the form of chewing tobacco or snuff.
CAUTION: Smoking while pregnant can cause miscarriage, still birth, low birth weight, and growth retardation.
The presence of nicotine in the body may cause a person to feel increased alertness, or relaxation, depending on the person. The relaxation may be due to relief from the anxiety of nicotine withdrawal.
Increased heart rate, blood pressure, adrenaline production and metabolism. May be a slight drop in skin temperature, an irritation of lung tissue, loss of appetite, diarrhea, and secretion of saliva.
Tobacco causes many adverse long term effects including pneumonia, bronchitis, post-surgery lung complications, emphysema, lung cancer, increased blood pressure, coronary heart disease, blockage of blood vessels the arms, legs and brain, cancer of the mouth, larynx, esophagus, bladder, kidney, pancreas, and cervix. It can also cause stomach ulcers, an impaired sense of taste and smell, loss of appetite, shortness of breath, chronic cough, tremors, reduced fertility, abnormal sperm forms, possible chromosome damage, and yellow staining on fingers and teeth. In addition, nicotine may suppress the immune system, making smokers with HIV or other immuno-deficiency diseases more susceptible to life-threatening illness.
Nicotine is a powerful central nervous system stimulant. When a person smokes, nicotine is inhaled into the lungs and then is absorbed into the bloodstream. The nicotine reaches the brain in seconds.
adulterants:
In addition to nicotine, chemicals such as carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, hydrogen cyanide, arsenic, formaldehyde and ammonia can be found in cigarette smoke. Tar is also found in cigarette smoke. the average cigarette contains 15 mg of tar. A person who smokes a pack a day will inhale 8 ounces of tar every year.
drug tests
Although nicotine is addictive, it does not produce changes in the content
of blood that could be measured as directly related to smoking. Nicotine gets into
the blood stream through the lungs, when it is inhaled. It moves to the brain by way of the blood and produces the effects that it does after it crosses the blood-brain barrier. The changes that happen in the body to cause addiction to nicotine actually happen in
the brain. Peak levels of nicotine in the blood occur almost as soon as
smoke is inhaled, and recede as quickly. In other words, unless a person were smoking within a few hours prior to a blood test, there would be no nicotine content in their blood at the time of a blood test.
It is possible, however rare, to OD from nicotine. A toxic dose of nicotine would be about 5 mg for every 2.2 pounds of body weight. In an overdose, the nicotine first acts like a stimulant, but then depresses that CNS causing breathing paralysis, convulsions and death. The amount of nicotine in one cigarette is enough to kill a small child, but since not
all of the nicotine is absorbed into the bloodstream, there is usually no risk of overdose.
The symptoms of withdrawal include decreased heart rate, depression, restlessness, sleepiness, inability to concentrate, constipation, and weight gain.
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Interactions with other drugs:
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It is never possible to know for sure the effect that an interaction will have on a user. There are so many factors that affect the action of the drugs, that it is impossible to accurately consider them all. They include, but are not limited to, the user's mood, body chemistry, other medications or illnesses, and psychological history. Even a medical professional would not be able to say for sure what the effect of an interaction will be.
ALCOHOL: prolonged use of alcohol with smoking increases risk of cancer of the mouth and larynx, heart disease and osteoporosis.
ORAL CONTRACEPTIVES: smoking along with use of oral contraceptives increases risk of heart attack and stroke.
MARIJUANA: smoking cigarettes and marijuana increases risk of lung cancer.
CRACK: smoking cigarettes and crack increases risk of lung cancer.
COCAINE: smoking cigarettes and using cocaine increases the risk of heart attack because both substances are stimulants.
OTHER: nicotine may also decrease the activity of benzodiazaepine tranquilizers, insulin, theophylline and anti-depressants.
Tobacco is a plant which is dried until its leaves are brown.
Cigarettes, Snuff, Cigars
It is illegal for minors under the age of 18 to buy tobacco products. It is illegal to smoke cigarettes and cigars in most public places.
There are no medical uses for nicotine other than to use nicotine in gum or patches to treat cigarette addiction.
Tobacco was originally used ceremonially by Native Americans. In the 1500s, tobacco was brought back to Europe, and quickly became popular there. Tobacco remains a major cash crop in the United States.
Sources: Kuhn, Cynthia. Buzzed. W.W.Norton and Co, New York. 1998
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