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Tobacco

Are Cigarettes a Gateway Drug?

By Sheleigh Hoover, Mom of 2 grown children, MA, BA

Throughout the years cigarettes have been glamorized and despised – romanticized and feared. Advertisements from yester-year would attempt to link smoking cigarettes with what it meant to be sexy, ‘cool’ or even part of the ‘in’ crowd. Ads from the 1930’s proclaimed cigarettes to be stimulants, which would aid in digestion of food. Years later they would quote psychological facts that smoking “helps your disposition” and that "If you are acting grumpy, then have a smoke and mellow out".1

Many years later, and many research hours and dollars later, have shown a strong connection between cigarettes and numerous health risks – including various forms of cancer, heart diseases and C.O.P.D. (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) – to name just a few!2

What many people do not know about cigarettes, or perhaps may not want to believe, is that for many adolescents, smoking cigarettes may lead to abuse of alcohol and/or drugs.

Research has shown that cigarette smoking serves as a stepping stone or ‘gateway’ to the use of illicit drugs. Answers.com defines a gateway drug as a “habit-forming substance whose use may lead to the abuse of drugs that are more addictive or more dangerous.”3 Adolescents who smoke have a higher likelihood of progressing to drugs more so than non-smokers. Nicotine is an almost ‘necessary’ precursor to the use of marijuana and other drugs. In fact, research suggests that it is “incredibly rare for a ‘hard core’ drug user to bypass the initial behaviour of cigarette use prior to using illicit drugs”.4

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