Street Names:
Cigarettes, cigars, smokes.

Description:
Shredded, dried leaves of the tobacco plant.  Can be chewed or smoked in cigarettes, cigars or pipes.  Two or three drops of nicotine, the plant's most potent ingredient, will rapidly kill an adult.  Tar and nicotine content of cigarettes in some countries is printed on each package.  Another hazardous substance in cigarette smoke is carbon monoxide.  In all, a lighted cigarette generates 4,000 different chemical compounds.

Origin and Medical Uses:
Discovered among Northern and Central American tribes during 16th century.  There is no medical use for tobacco.

Short Term Effects:
Increased heart rate and blood pressure, drop in skin temperature, faster breathing, decreased appetite.  A first time smoke feels dizzy and energized, may experience diarrhea and vomiting.  Tar accumulates in the lungs.  Inhaling smokers subject themselves to very high carbon monoxide levels.  They also subject people around them to the same thing.  A single cigarette puts less than 1 mg. of nicotine into the bloodstream, but actually contains 15 to 20 mg. of nicotine.  When eaten, nicotine is absorbed slowly in the stomach, which is why small children sometimes survive after eating cigarettes.

Long Term Effects:
Tar causes cancer, and in one year nearly 113.4 g of it is deposited in lungs of pack-a-day smoker of regular cigarettes.  Much of this is coughed up in phlegm.  Other possible effects include cancer of the lungs, mouth and throat, respiratory disease, blockage of blood vessels, stomach ulcers.  Smoking narrows blood vessels, depletes Vitamin C levels, causes skin wounds to heal less quickly and reduces immunity to disease.  Research indicates that each cigarette cuts 5.5 minutes from a smoker's lifespan.  The babies of women who smoke tend to weigh less at birth than those of non-smokers; the risk of prematurity, miscarriage and stillbirth is greater.  Studies suggest that the mother's smoking can have a detrimental effect on the child's growth, intellectual development and behavior.

Tolerance and Dependence:
Most smokers are physically dependent and psychologically dependent on tobacco.  Those who quit generally achieve the same health levels as non-smokers after a few years, but some damage may not be completely reversible.

Sources:

(1).  Straight Facts About Drugs & Drug Abuse, Revised Edition, Health and Welfare Canada, copyright Minister of Supply and Services Canada, 1990

(2).  Drugs and Alcohol Behaviour: An Introduction to Behavioral Pharmacology, Second Edition, by William A. McKim, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Prentice Hall, 1991

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