Bellatrix

Cannabis smokers risk nicotine addiction

Carol Nader | The Age | August 17, 2004

Regularly smoking cannabis can cause an addiction to nicotine in cigarette smokers who were previously not addicted, a study has found.

Bellatrix; so now marijuana has become the gateway drug for nicotine? Hilarious!!

Teenagers who smoke cannabis daily for at least a month are four times more likely to become addicted to nicotine by the time they reach their 20s.

Weekly cannabis use increases the likelihood three-fold and monthly cannabis use doubles the risk of nicotine addiction, the study of 2500 young people discovered.

Bellatrix; who do you have to know to get into one of these studies? I'll tell you who...

The findings are based on the Victorian Adolescent Health Cohort Study, conducted by George Patton and Susan Sawyer from the Royal Children's Hospital Centre for Adolescent Health and the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute.

Bellatrix; okay, it could just be a coincidence, but Rupert does put on the "philanthropist" hat every so often.

Professor Sawyer, director of the centre, said that for teenagers who smoked tobacco but showed no signs of nicotine addiction, a "powerful predictor" of subsequent nicotine dependence was cannabis use.

Professor Sawyer said that not only should we be concerned about cannabis use for all its negative effects, but we should also have real concerns that those using high levels of cannabis were much more likely to develop nicotine dependence, leading to a lifetime of illness.

Bellatrix; this is cut and pasted right out of some campy DARE handbook. Notice that it's Professor, not doctor Sawyer.

The study's finding contravenes the traditional "gateway theory" that suggests drug use starts with tobacco then progresses to alcohol, cannabis and, finally, more illicit drugs. The study suggests a "reverse directionality".

Bellatrix; the study suggests an independent think tank that that's whoring itself out for extra funds. Perhaps the "gateway theory" I heard about as a whelp - the one in which weed was the root of ALL evil, must not have reached Australia.

"People are smoking tobacco at the same time (as cannabis) and are inadvertently getting high levels of nicotine, and it is the nicotine that they're co-smoking which is driving the nicotine addiction," Professor Sawyer said.

Bellatrix; uhm....is this utter nonsense to anyone else? Is this person trying to tell us that marijuana contains nicotine?

The study also found that female users of cannabis on a daily basis were eight times more likely to suffer high levels of depression than non-cannabis users.

Bellatrix; compared to what? What are the "normal" levels of depression amoung women in this demographic? As usual, we're just suposed to take their word for it.

The results will be presented today at a mental health conference at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. Mental health experts at the conference yesterday said there was also a link between cannabis and psychosis.

David Castle, from the Mental Health Research Institute, said most people who became psychotic after using cannabis had an underlying vulnerability to mental disorders. But most people who used cannabis moderately or infrequently were unlikely to experience psychosis.

Wayne Hall, from Queensland University's Institute for Molecular & Bioscience, said 60 per cent of people in their 20s have used cannabis and 10 per cent of cannabis users developed a dependency on the drug.

Bellatrix; I don't know what's worse - the story itself, or the hyper-rationalization of the results.

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