Relationship between Tobacco and Drug

Tobacco is an addictive drug, the use of which will result in the premature deaths of 1 of every 3 of our youth who begin smoking every day. And, tobacco is illegal for anyone under 18. [Executive Summary, The Regulations Restricting the Sale and Distribution of Cigarettes and Smokeless Tobacco To Protect Children and Adolescents, Food and Drug Administration, August 23, 1996]

Tobacco use is at a 16-year high among teens. During the 1980’s, tobacco use among teens remained level. In the 1990’s, there has been a reverse of that trend. Among high school students, past month smoking increased from 27.5% in 1991 to 34.8% in 1995. ["Tobacco Use and Usual Source of Cigarettes Among High School Students United States, 1995," Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, CDC, May 1996]

Teen smoking is one of the few early warning signs we have in public health. According to the newly released 1995 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, youths age 12-17 who smoked were about 8 times as likely to use illicit drugs and 11 times as likely to drink heavily as nonsmoking youths." [Preliminary Estimates from the 1995 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, US DHHS, August 1996, p. 23]

Numerous studies that indicate tobacco use precedes other drug use. For example, studies show that among those youth who had used both cigarettes and marijuana by the 12th grade, 23 percent began using both in the same year, and 65 percent smoked cigarettes before marijuana. The latter relationship was more pronounced for cocaine: 98 percent of persons who had used both cocaine and cigarettes smoked cigarettes first. [U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Preventing Tobacco Use Among Young People: A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta, GA, 1994, p. 35.]

The younger an individual uses tobacco, the more likely that individual is to experiment with cocaine, heroin or other illicit drugs.

An adult who started smoking as a child is 3 times more likely to use marijuana and 4 times more likely to use cocaine than one who did not smoke as a child.
More than half of adults who start smoking before age 15 use an illicit drug in their lifetime, compared to only a quarter of those who did not start smoking until they were beyond age 17.
Individuals who start smoking before age 15 are more than 3 times more likely to use cocaine than those who start smoking after age 17.
Those who start smoking before age 15 are 7 times more likely to use cocaine than those who never smoked.
[Cigarettes, Alcohol, Marijuana: Gateways to Illicit Drug Use, Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, October 1994.]

Not only is early gateway drug use a predictor of any adult use of illicit substances, but it also increases the likelihood of regular drug use as an adult. That is, the younger an individual uses tobacco the more likely that individual is to become a regular drug user. Adults who started smoking as children are almost 4 times more likely to be regular users of an illicit drug and 3 times more likely to use cocaine regularly than adults who did not smoke as children. [Cigarettes, Alcohol, Marijuana: Gateways to Illicit Drug Use, Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, October 1994.]

There is a relationship between the amount of smoking and other drug use. A child who smokes more than 15 cigarettes a day is more than twice as likely to use an illicit drug and 16 times more likely to use cocaine than one who smokes but on less than a daily basis. They are 10 times more likely to use an illicit drug and 104 times more likely to use cocaine than someone who never smokes. Children who smoke a pack a day are also 13 times more likely to use heroin than children who smoke less heavily. [Cigarettes, Alcohol, Marijuana: Gateways to Illicit Drug Use, Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, October 1994.]

Cigarette smoking is also associated with heavier drug use. One study found that among 12- to 17-year-old smokers, those who smoked daily were approximately 14 times more likely to have binged on alcohol, 113 times more likely to have used marijuana at least 11 times, and 32 times more likely to have used cocaine at least 11 times than those who had not smoked. [U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Preventing Tobacco Use Among Young People: A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta, GA, 1994, p. 35.]