9781422272282

1 CHAPTER

The Addictive Effects of Nicotine

Nicotine is one of the most devastating drugs, in spite of its legal status. Every year, nearly half a million people in the United States alone die from using tobacco products—and this is during a period in which nicotine use is at its lowest level in a century. Until relatively recently, nearly half of all Americans smoked or used chewing tobacco, and millions of people died from the resulting health problems like cancer and lung disease. Beyond the statistics on nicotine and tobacco use, it is important to understand how use of this drug leads to addiction in users. This fact is crucial because it helps to explain why people use tobacco products despite the well-known health dangers. Beating nicotine is often an arduous task for many because of the unique demands that it puts on a user and the more socially accepted nature that it has in many cultures. For example, cigarette smoking is much more common in many European countries than it currently is in the United States. This impact can be widespread and devastating in many ways: for example, the high death rate of the coronavirus in Italy during the spring of 2020 was likely due to the heavier abuse of cigarettes in that country. That is just one of the many ways that tobacco and nicotine use can cause damage in unexpected ways.

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