{"id":3766,"date":"2016-03-06T20:54:06","date_gmt":"2016-03-06T20:54:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3766"},"modified":"2016-03-06T20:54:06","modified_gmt":"2016-03-06T20:54:06","slug":"nicotine-listed-by-experts-as-among-the-most-addictive-substances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3766","title":{"rendered":"Nicotine listed by experts as among the most addictive substances"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"nicotine\"<\/p>\n

… but not as one of the most damaging drugs on Earth, a big oversight on their part.<\/p>\n

This is a story from the Conversation<\/a>, based on a survey done with substance abuse experts about the most addictive substances on Earth … and nicotine makes the cut.<\/p>\n

It’s important to always keep this in mind about while tobacco is so evil … the sheer physical addictiveness of nicotine. I’ve often said that it’s arguably as addictive as heroin … I can’t imagine there’s really a way to measure such a thing. I just base this on anecdotal information I gather from smokers about how incredibly grueling and physically difficult it is to quit smoking. People tell me it just wracks their bodies trying to quit.<\/p>\n

\"nicotine_structure\"<\/p>\n

I also believe, and some studies support this, that there is a genetic component <\/a>to nicotine addiction, which could explain why some people are able to quit smoking while others simply … cannot … do … it.\u00a0So, it’s not about willpower or that somehow some people are just stranger than others.<\/p>\n

Anyway, the five most addictive substances mentioned int his article are:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Heroin<\/li>\n
  2. Alcohol<\/li>\n
  3. Cocaine<\/li>\n
  4. Barbiturates<\/li>\n
  5. Nicotine<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Now this story doesn’t talk about meth, which is another incredibly addictive drug, but it does mention that meth is closely related to cocaine, so I suppose the author is bundling them together.<\/p>\n

    One thing I don’t agree with this story: It states that heroin is the second-most damaging drug in the world in terms of damage to\u00a0 users and\u00a0society. Alcohol is listed as the most damaging with an estimated 3 million deaths caused worldwide in 2012. Cocaine is listed as the third-most damaging drug..<\/p>\n

    These experts claim that nicotine is the 12th most addictive drug on Earth — again, how that is measured, I don’t know. And I don’t have a clue what the other 11 substances would be; only four are mentioned in this story.<\/p>\n

    And they don’t even list it as the most damaging drugs, this is where I disagree … even though the\u00a0current death toll from tobacco is 6 million people a year worldwide, double\u00a0the death toll from the so-called No. 1 most damaging drug, alcohol. By 2030, an estimated 8 million people will die every year from tobacco-related diseases.<\/p>\n

    I won’t dismiss the staggering damage done by alcoholism, not only from alcohol-related diseases, but domestic violence, murders and DUI wrecks caused by drinking. \u00a0But, I would argue that nicotine does more damage to society than cocaine, heroin and\u00a0barbiturates combined. \u00a0Here’s where I don’t agree with this story’s logic. In the U.S. at least, tobacco kills more people than alcohol, cocaine, heroin, barbiturates and other illegal drugs combined … like by a pretty sizable margin. Tobacco kills 440,000 people a year in the U.S., while alcohol kills about 110,000 people a year (and this includes DUIs) and Illegal drugs only kill about 20,000 people a year. So, we’re talking three times as many die as a result of tobacco than from alcohol and illegal drugs combined. I’m glad this article talked about nicotine, but I just can’t see how you can dismiss the damage done by nicotine and tobacco and this article did that a bit, in my opinion.<\/p>\n

    This doesn’t take into account other kinds of damage done to society, such as legal costs, incarceration, drug cartel violence, people losing their jobs and families, etc., from drug use and drinking.\u00a0But, in terms of death and sheer health costs … nicotine and\u00a0tobacco are No. 1, in my opinion.<\/p>\n

    Anyway, it was an interesting article even if i didn’t totally agree with it. Nicotine needs to be very much spoken in the same context as alcohol and illegal drugs as far as the damage done by it.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    … but not as one of the most damaging drugs on Earth, a big oversight on their part. This is a story from the Conversation, based on a survey done with substance abuse experts about the most addictive substances on Earth … and nicotine makes the cut. It’s important to always keep this in mind … Continue reading Nicotine listed by experts as among the most addictive substances<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3767,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[260,1],"tags":[645],"class_list":["post-3766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nicotine","category-uncategorized","tag-nicotine"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/nicotine.jpg?fit=960%2C720&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4hpEa-YK","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":406,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=406","url_meta":{"origin":3766,"position":0},"title":"Department of Justice urges Big Tobacco to finally tell the truth","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"February 24, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"An interesting story here. The Department of Justice is urging Big Tobacco (RJ Reynolds, Altria and Lollilard) to admit that for decades, it lied about the safety of \"light\" cigarettes and that it lied about how addictive nicotine is. These \"corrective statements\" are part of a 2006 federal judge's decision\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anti-tobacco campaign"","block_context":{"text":"Anti-tobacco campaign","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3177,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3177","url_meta":{"origin":3766,"position":1},"title":"Study: Nicotine-like chemical in pesticide may be turning bees into junkies","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"April 24, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Another interesting study, this one from Newcastle University and scientists in Sweden and published in Nature, suggest that a chemical in pesticides which has chemical similarities to nicotine is killing bees. These chemicals, called\u00a0neonicotinoids, have molecular similarities to nicotine, which is generally considered one of the most addictive substances on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "nicotine"","block_context":{"text":"nicotine","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=260"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Bee-apis.jpg?fit=1000%2C668&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Bee-apis.jpg?fit=1000%2C668&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Bee-apis.jpg?fit=1000%2C668&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Bee-apis.jpg?fit=1000%2C668&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2908,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=2908","url_meta":{"origin":3766,"position":2},"title":"Tourist dies drinking nicotine tea — you don’t mess around with nicotine","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"February 6, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 This is a tragic story. A young tourist in Peru was participating in an\u00a0ayahuasca ceremony. As part of that ceremony, she drank nicotine tea to purge her body beforehand. She then died of nicotine poisoning. This demonstrates a little-known fact about nicotine: Not only is it incredibly addictive, arguably\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "e-cigarettes"","block_context":{"text":"e-cigarettes","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=21"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/video.ppcnbc.com%406a124e6d-7c09-3e61-9c50-82354cb58dc6_FULL.jpg?fit=1000%2C665&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/video.ppcnbc.com%406a124e6d-7c09-3e61-9c50-82354cb58dc6_FULL.jpg?fit=1000%2C665&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/video.ppcnbc.com%406a124e6d-7c09-3e61-9c50-82354cb58dc6_FULL.jpg?fit=1000%2C665&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/video.ppcnbc.com%406a124e6d-7c09-3e61-9c50-82354cb58dc6_FULL.jpg?fit=1000%2C665&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2002,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=2002","url_meta":{"origin":3766,"position":3},"title":"Europe to regulate e-cigarettes; FDA next?","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"March 4, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"This came from an editorial from the New York Times\u00a0supporting ecig regulation. The European Parliament last week (honestly didn't realize there was such a thing, but it's the governing body of the European Union, apparently) \u00a0voted to regulated e-cigarettes, perhaps laying the groundwork for the FDA in the U.S. to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "E-cig advertising"","block_context":{"text":"E-cig advertising","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=240"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/27ecigs-pic1-master675.jpg?fit=675%2C450&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/27ecigs-pic1-master675.jpg?fit=675%2C450&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/27ecigs-pic1-master675.jpg?fit=675%2C450&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2345,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=2345","url_meta":{"origin":3766,"position":4},"title":"How Big Tobacco has made cigarettes more deadly in the past 50 years","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"June 29, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids put out an interesting report last week about the various additives tobacco companies are putting into cigarettes today to make them more addictive and hence more deadly. According to this graphic from CTFK, there's a number of things the tobacco industry has done over\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "cigarettes"","block_context":{"text":"cigarettes","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=18"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/tobacco-2.jpg?fit=622%2C486&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/tobacco-2.jpg?fit=622%2C486&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/tobacco-2.jpg?fit=622%2C486&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4159,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=4159","url_meta":{"origin":3766,"position":5},"title":"FDA proposes reducing the amount of nicotine in cigarettes","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"March 16, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Got mixed feelings on this one and I definitely need to get more information to have a hard and fast opinion. The FDA, which under the Trump Administration I seriously no longer trust at all, is taking public comment on its proposal to drop the level of nicotine to \"minimally\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "FDA"","block_context":{"text":"FDA","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=25"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/1521131595_73d101454ee06f32c77b5d679c68a5fb.jpg?fit=740%2C493&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/1521131595_73d101454ee06f32c77b5d679c68a5fb.jpg?fit=740%2C493&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/1521131595_73d101454ee06f32c77b5d679c68a5fb.jpg?fit=740%2C493&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/1521131595_73d101454ee06f32c77b5d679c68a5fb.jpg?fit=740%2C493&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}