Surprised by this result? I don’t think we are.
What do you think would happen — you know, hypothetically speaking — if someone created a product that was basically a delivery device for an addictive drug.
First of all everyone would freak out because it would be so ridiculous to even suggest that you could put something like that out to the public. BUT. Let’s suspend disbelief (like we do when movies show people flying, fires blazing in space, or the Browns winning an NFL game), and say that within this fantasy dystopia, delivery devices for addictive drugs are legal and common.
What do you think would happen to the children teenagers in this absurd situation who inhaled the device with the higher drug concentration?
They would become addicted to the drug. Of course they would. Therefore, they would be more likely to continue using in the future (GREAT for the drug dealers, BAD for the addicted), in whatever form they could find it.
Below is a nice article by Reuters showing that this is not Science Fiction, but our current reality.
Higher nicotine in e-cigarettes tied to higher risk of teen smoking
The adolescents who started out using e-liquid with high nicotine levels were more than twice as likely to regularly smoke traditional cigarettes by the end of the study as vapers who used nicotine-free liquid, researchers report in JAMA Pediatrics.
High nicotine liquid in e-cigarettes was also associated with 65 percent higher odds that teens would develop a regular vaping habit.
“The results of this study suggest that nicotine in e-cigarettes may be responsible, at least in part, for the association between e-cigarette vaping and later smoking of conventional cigarettes in youth,” said study co-author Adam Leventhal, director of the University of Southern California’s Health, Emotion, and Addiction Laboratory in Los Angeles.
“Because nicotine may harm the developing adolescent brain and increase the risk of attention problems and depression, continuous exposure to nicotine, even through e-cigarettes, is a concern,” Leventhal said by email. “Teens should not start experimenting with nicotine and tobacco products in any form.”
Big tobacco companies, including Altria Group Inc, Lorillard Tobacco Co and Reynolds American Inc, are all developing e-cigarettes. The battery-powered devices feature a glowing tip and a heating element that turns e-liquid into a cloud of vapor that users inhale.
The liquid may contain nicotine, flavorings, and other ingredients.
For the current study, researchers examined data on 181 students from high schools in the Los Angeles area who were surveyed once during tenth grade and again in eleventh grade.
All of the participants had vaped at least once in the past 30 days when they were initially surveyed. They reported nicotine concentrations for their e-liquid, ranging from none to as high at least 18 milligrams per milliliter.
Beyond its small size, another limitation of the study is its reliance on youth to accurately recall and report on what was in their e-cigarettes and how often they vaped or smoked, the authors note. It’s also possible that factors not measured in the study might influence whether teens developed more regular vaping or smoking habits over time.
Still, this study adds to evidence that e-cigarettes are not risk-free, said Thomas Wills, a researcher at the University of Hawaii Cancer Center in Honolulu and the John A. Burns School of Medicine.
Many people who try e-cigarettes don’t go on to become heavy smokers, Wills, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email.
“But even experimenting will increase your odds of becoming a smoker,” Wills added. “These studies show that if you start using e-cigarettes, even infrequently, you are stepping onto a slippery slope and it is hard to tell where you will end up.”
SOURCE: bit.ly/2lbz9VC JAMA Pediatrics, online October 23, 2017.
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