Letter: Smoking gateway

Sitting on the sofa with a steaming cup of coffee and a good book. Engaging in delightful after-dinner conversation with your closest friends. These are some sacred moments in a smoker’s life when it seems unlikely having a cigarette in hand could be harmful.
Sure, newspapers and magazines talk on and on about the link between smoking and a long list of diseases. And, yes, there are those times when the reality of smoking isn’t all that pleasant. (Think Sunday morning, eating breakfast with head in hand, cigarette butts from last night’s get-together spilling out of the ashtray.) But, tobacco is a legal product, after all. And in the grand scheme of things, cigarettes don’t seem to be nearly as noxious as other drugs.
I mean, there’s a big difference between the girl who uses cigarettes and the girl who hides in her room with crystal meth. Surely there’s a difference between the guy with smokes in his pocket and the guy who keeps a mickey of rye in his office drawer.
Or is there?
According to substance-use experts, cigarettes may be much more than just lung crashers that yellow your teeth. It’s possible they can influence the way you think and act later on in life, too.
Results of the 2004 Canadian Addictions Survey reveal that cigarette smoking is a strong indicator of other forms and levels of substance use. While it’s still up for debate whether tobacco is indeed a “gateway” to the hard stuff, evidence shows smokers are substantially more likely to drink alcohol and use illegal drugs than people who never took to cigarettes in their teens.
Among teenagers themselves, cigarette smoking is linked to involvement in a wide range of risky activities, including illegal and excessive drug use. Canadian smokers aged 15 to 19 are 14 times more likely than their non-smoking classmates to drink alcohol. They’re a lot more likely to be reckless drinkers, too.
When it comes to illegal drugs, young smokers are up to 25 times more likely to use cannabis than their smoke-free friends. They toke up much more often, too. And, yes, you guessed it: teen smokers are 12.5 times more likely to dabble in illegal drugs – cocaine, heroin, amphetamine, ecstasy, and hallucinogens – than teens who have never used tobacco. (According to the CAS, 31 per cent of smoking youths under 20 reported using hard drugs compared with 3.5 per cent of non-smoking youths.)
Cigarette-related risk-taking doesn’t stop at teens getting drunk or taking frequent magic mushroom rides. U.S. research hints that young smokers may be more likely to do other harmful and careless things, too, like have sex at an early age.
So, what does this mean to me, you ask, having outgrown your teen angst? Why should you quit smoking as a full-blown adult who’s already past the more experimental stages of life?
For one, if you have kids, you might want to consider how your cigarette intake is influencing them. Kids with parents who smoke tend to have easier access to cigarettes and are more likely to take up smoking themselves, which means they’re a lot more likely to get involved in things you might not think so socially acceptable.
The other reason to quit is simply because it’s the only way to truly protect yourself and those you love from smoking-related diseases, lung cancer being the big one, but by no means the only ailment.
Yes, quitting smoking can be tough, and it would mean giving up those romantic nights on the seashore with your silver-wrapped cigarettes. But it is possible to change your lifestyle. Many people quit smoking on their own, on their first try. For those who need help, there are programs like QuitNow, a free-of-charge telephone and internet-based service available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
QuitNow offers advice on quitting strategies and information on pharmaceutical treatments. It also gives people a chance to build relationships with others facing the same struggle..
Nicole Pankratz
publications officer
Centre for Addictions Research of B.C.
University of Victoria