Teen Advice Teen Life Drug & Alcohol
I’ve heard that alcohol and tobacco are as harmful, maybe even more harmful, than marijuana and some other street drugs. Why are they legal while pot and other drugs are not?
That is a question best asked of politicians and legislators. The reasons for legalizing one harmful, addictive and behavior altering substance while criminalizing another are completely based in social policy and accepted norms. These policies and norms are in turn influenced by other factors, like: medical research, social research, baseline cultural morality, perceived or real social costs and plain old politicking.
Some street drugs are genuinely more harmful, both in physical tolls and social costs, than others. But there are other illegal drugs, most notably marijuana, that walk that fine line of equally harmful yet still socially stigmatized. Activists in favor of legalizing, or at least decriminalizing marijuana, point to the many well-controlled medical studies that show marijuana to be no more, and possibly less harmful, than alcohol or tobacco. They assert that while the harm factor is basically the same, marijuana, unlike its legal counterparts, has real and documented value to people with painful critical illnesses like cancer, MS and glaucoma.
These arguments are not wrong but miss the point that we have several controlled substances that are used in medicine but that are not permitted for recreational use. This is because the medical studies only support use in ill individuals and not in otherwise healthy people. In critically ill people the harm is outweighed by the benefits, in healthy people that argument does not hold true. The popular “club drug” Vicadin, which is a legally prescribed medication, is a good example of a substance with real medical value that still has no place being used for purely recreational reasons.
This brings us back to the heart of the question, why are alcohol and tobacco deemed “OK” when they are clearly as harmful as some illegal street drugs? The answer is simple, because they are legal and because their place in our culture is firmly established and accepted as a norm, although an increasingly politically incorrect norm. For teens, this question is really moot since alcohol, tobacco and street drugs are NOT legal for use among people in this age group. There are minimum drinking ages and in North America they range from 18 – 21 depending on where you live. The same holds true for cigarettes, which are not for legal sale to minors, as defined by the laws where you live but which is usually under 19. Since even the legal substances cannot be legally used by teens there is little validity in teens using the argument that alcohol and tobacco are as harmful as street drugs to justify using such drugs.
Next Question - What is the difference between illegal, legal and decriminalized?
The difference between legal and illegal is simple; if something is legal it is permitted under law, if it is illegal, it is not. The line between legal and decriminalized is not so clear-cut. To understand the difference we look to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition of each of the three words.
Legal:
“conforming to or permitted by law or established rules”
Illegal:
“not according to or authorized by law”
Decriminalize:
“to remove or reduce the criminal classification or status of; especially : to repeal a strict ban on while keeping under some form of regulation”
According to these definitions, if something is legal it is permitted with few or no restrictions, if it is illegal it is not permitted, and if it is decriminalized it is permitted with tight regulations and/or restrictions that must be obeyed or it will be viewed as illegal.
Why is it OK for my parents to smoke and drink but not for me, isn’t that hypocritical?
This is a simple question to answer. It is OK for your parents to use alcohol and tobacco because the law says it is OK. If the law ever changed to allow teens to legally use these substances than it would technically be OK for them as well. This is currently NOT the case. For this reason, and this reason alone, your parents are not acting hypocritically when they tell you not to drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes even if they do these things themselves. What may be a bit hypocritical is them telling you not to do these things for health reasons when they do them, but this is likely a matter of parents hoping you will learn from their mistakes more than a matter of a parental “do as I say, not as I do” attitude.
It is important that teens learn to respect the law and the system we have for changing laws that are unjust or wrong. A healthy respect for the law and the legislative system is a lesson that should not be brushed aside with a “my parents do it so why can’t I” dismissive attitude. If you do not like the laws, work to change them, but ignoring them just so you can get high is a sign of the very immaturity that caused legislatures to enact age limits on alcohol and tobacco use to begin with.
When a law is truly unfair, when it does more harm than good, working to change it is noble but in the case of alcohol, tobacco and even drug use there is little noble in the argument “I like to get high because it feels neato and it isn’t fair to limit my freedom to do so.” Drug and substance control laws are not your typical discriminatory laws that need to be changed and therefore, should be respected.
Alcohol, tobacco and street drugs cost millions every year in healthcare costs, criminal costs and social costs. As our awareness of the real harm of these substances grows the personal freedom argument becomes weaker and weaker. For now, it is more important that you respect the laws on alcohol and tobacco rather than obsess over how unfair it is that parents can drink and smoke while teens cannot. It is a waste of your energy to make an issue of laws that stop you from harming yourself, and potentially harming others. The law feels that teens lack the maturity to handle these harmful substances responsibly and ignoring those laws only validates that stand.
Next Question - Why do so many youth groups and teen web sites warn against the evils of street drugs while ignoring the obvious dangers of legal substances like alcohol and cigarettes?
Why do so many youth groups and teen web sites warn against the evils of street drugs while ignoring the obvious dangers of legal substances like alcohol and cigarettes?
This is not really true. Most web sites and activist groups warn against the harmful effects of all behavior altering substances, be they legal or not. The focus may appear greater on illegal substances because while the harmful effects of alcohol and tobacco are widely established, the harmful effects of street drugs are fraught with inconsistencies and innuendos. This is mostly because of the ethics issue in studying people who use illegal drugs not because these drugs are less harmful than alcohol or tobacco.
It is much harder to control a study on the use of illegal drugs than it is to control one on legal substances. For example a study on the use of alcohol can be controlled with informed consent, age restrictions on participants, validation of the study subject and tight manipulation of confounding variables. Most importantly you can control the potency and/or dosage of the alcohol used in the study. This is not true for street drugs.
Even if such a controlled study on street drugs were ethically possible (which it is not in North America), it would still be easily dismissed in practice since there is no regulation of street drugs. This means that while studies can set out guidelines for per ounce effects of certain concentrations of alcohol and these can then be applied in practice, the uncertainty surrounding the potency of street drugs makes this impossible. With street drugs the potency of a drug can vary greatly even if you get it from the same source and call it by the same name. There is no regulation and therefore no practical way to apply any studies.
Studies on harmful effects of street drugs have had to rely on things like self-regulation by subjects, self-reporting of confounding variables, and doses that are not standardized or the same across subjects. These studies are almost always incidental, where a group of existing users volunteers and is then monitored by way of questionnaires and sometimes medical tests. These studies rely heavily on the truthfulness of the subjects and are vulnerable to honest under-reporting of use by subjects who underestimate how much they have used or who are unable to accurately assess the potency of the substances they have used. The results of such studies are normally correlational which leaves them wide open to interpretation and attack by those groups that do not like the results. So the reason so many sites seem to focus on the harmful effects of illegal substances may simply be a matter or exposure to established facts.
In everyday life, on the evening news and in current events classes, teens may discuss the harmful effects of legal substance and may trust that these effects are based in facts. These discussions are less likely of illegal substances, and when illegal substances they are discussed the lack of controlled studies leaves the door wide open to selective interpretation, misinterpretation and blatant dismissal of harmful effects. If teens are warned against street drugs more often than legal substances it is likely because of the inconsistency of the information you may hear about them and the lack of agreement on the facts by pro- and anti- factions.
Even people who smoke cigarettes are quick to acknowledge that they are harmful; this is less true of people who smoke marijuana. Pro-marijuana activists often state that marijuana is less harmful to the lungs than tobacco even thought the most dangerous substances exist in both and they are both inhaled. This is typical of the problem; street drugs are still surrounded in mythology while the legal ones are not as quickly defended as “safe” or “safer”, even by regular users.
Next Question - What is meant by “gateway drugs” and why do some people say that the idea of “gateway drugs” is a myth?
What is meant by “gateway drugs” and why do some people say that the idea of “gateway drugs” is a myth?
The term “gateway drug” is often applied to drugs like marijuana, alcohol, and even tobacco. The belief is that early use of these drugs, mainly by teens and young adults, increases the likelihood that they will start using harder drugs like heroin, cocaine and club drugs later in life. This is an assertion that has been well studied and that is hotly contested by many special interest groups. While the mechanism of the “gateway drug” phenomenon is not understood there are well-documented correlations between early use of light intoxicants and later use of hard drugs. Where the studies tend to fall apart is in the certainty factor -- this is the assertion that all or most people who try “gateway drugs” later move on to harder substances.
All studies have confirmed a link between early use of so-called “gateway drugs” and later use of harder drugs. All studies! There are no studies in existance where ZERO hard drug users report starting out with the hard drugs, they all report first trying light drugs. Where the debate comes in to play is in the number of light users who later turn to hard drugs and the other factors in the lives of those individuals that may make them turn to these drugs. The million dollar question is -– did these people try hard drugs because of their experiences with light drugs or was there some other factor in their lives that led them to escalate their need to get high, a factor totally unrelated to their first experiences with lighter drugs (known in studies as “confounding variables”). The answer hear is unclear and this is what clouds up the “gateway drug” theory.
The reality is very few people first jump into drug use with the heavy ones. In experimentation most people are careful preferring to try out less harmful drugs before trying harder ones. This is why there are such consistent correlations between first use of lighter drugs and later use of hard drugs. On an important note: it is not true that most people who try lighter drugs will later use hard drugs, but it is true that most people who do hard drugs report first using the lighter ones. The answer seems to be that in people predisposed to escapism through drugs the early use of light drugs can lead to heavy drug use. This is likely to be the result of the diminished effect of the lighter drugs over time in helping them hide from their world more than any addictive quality of the drugs themselves. In people without any other issues that drugs help mask, the likelihood of light drug use leading to hard drug use is unclear and mostly circumstantial.
Are there “gateway drugs”, yes absolutely, the attitude that makes you think it is OK to try an illegal or controlled substance for recreational reasons also makes it easier for you to escalate that behavior to include harder drugs. What makes them “gateway drugs” varies between individuals with certain people being very vulnerable to the phenomenon and others demonstrating no effect at all. It is too simple to call a certain drug a “gateway drug”, the other factors in the life and personality of the individual in question play an essential role. In short, for some people lighter drugs are “gateways” to harder drugs and in others they are not. It is all a matter of why you tried drugs to begin with and what role those drugs play in your life that determines your vulnerability to the “gateway” phenomenon.
Next Question - What are the KNOWN harmful health effects of cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana?
What are the KNOWN harmful health effects of cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana?
Aside from the obvious “buzz” or intoxication provided by these substances (and the related conditions such as slurred speech, impaired judgment, decreased reflexes and lowered inhibitions) the known HEALTH effects are as follows:
Cigarettes:
* Chronic bad breath
* Yellowing of teeth
* Yellowing of fingers
* Early wrinkling around mouth and eyes
* Dulling of complexion
* Dulling of tastebuds
* Bad smelling hair, clothes and body
* Lowered immune system; greater vulnerability to common ailments like colds, flus and other viruses
* Increased risk of developing cataracts, glaucoma and other eye diseases
* Increased risk for hearing loss (possibly relating to blood flow problems)
* Increased risk of heart attack, stroke and cancer
* 50%+ greater increase in lung cancer, esophageal cancer, pancreatic cancer, colorectal cancer, bladder cancer, kidney cancer and mouth cancer
* Double the risk of contracting a deadly form of adult leukemia in later life
* Double the risk of contracting adult onset diabetes (in part related to the higher rate of obesity among smokers)
* In women, a greater risk of developing cervical and breast cancer
* 70%+ greater risk of developing emphysema, bronchitis and/or environmental asthma
* Increased risk of complications during pregnancy and with conception in women
* Decreased sperm count, greater number of deviated sperm and higher risk of impotence in men
* Increased risk of birth defects when used during pregnancy
* Significantly decreased cardiovascular fitness
* Decrease in volume of oxygen in blood (making the heart work harder)
* Increase risk of obesity later in life
* Decreased quality of life as one gets older
* Increased likelihood of need for oxygen tank and/or wheelchair
* Increase risk of early death – half of all smokers die from smoking related causes that would not have otherwise killed them
* Addiction
Alcohol:
* Bad breath
* Rotting teeth and cavities
* Dulling of complexion
* Memory loss and increased risk for blackouts
* High levels of alcohol in blood can decrease nutrient distribution and in very high proportions can result in death
* Binge drinking can result in respiratory strain, failure and even related death
* Lowered immune system; greater vulnerability to common ailments like colds, flus and other viruses
* Increased risk for violent or self destructive behavior including suicide
* Increased risk of long-term central nervous system damage
* With heavy use; impotence and loss of libido
* With heavy use; increased risk for esophagitis and pancreatisis
* Increased risk for hepatitis
* Increased risk of birth defects when used during pregnancy
* With long-term use; increased risk of liver disease, heart disease, peptic ulcers, certain types of cancer, complicated pregnancies, birth defects, and brain damage
* Overdose and overdose related death
* Addiction
Marijuana:
* Most of the same effects as listed for cigaretters, specifically those relating to physical appearance, immune system, respiratoty illness, cancer and birth defects -- marijuana contains many of the same toxins as cigarettes, a higher tar concentration (normally 4-5 times higher) making it likely to result in very similar ailments as cigarette smoking
* Weight gain (likely related to “the munchies”)
* Lowered immune system; greater vulnerability to common ailments like colds, flus and other viruses and serious illnesses like cancers, communicable diseases, pneumonias, and super-bugs
* Increased risk of heart attack, stroke and cancer
* Increased risk of birth defects when used during pregnancy
* Increased risk for mental disorders like acute toxic psychosis, panic attacks, flashbacks, delusions, depersonalization, hallucinations, paranoia, depression, and uncontrollable aggressiveness
* In predisposed individuals, can trigger bipolar and schizophrenic episodes
That is a question best asked of politicians and legislators. The reasons for legalizing one harmful, addictive and behavior altering substance while criminalizing another are completely based in social policy and accepted norms. These policies and norms are in turn influenced by other factors, like: medical research, social research, baseline cultural morality, perceived or real social costs and plain old politicking.
Some street drugs are genuinely more harmful, both in physical tolls and social costs, than others. But there are other illegal drugs, most notably marijuana, that walk that fine line of equally harmful yet still socially stigmatized. Activists in favor of legalizing, or at least decriminalizing marijuana, point to the many well-controlled medical studies that show marijuana to be no more, and possibly less harmful, than alcohol or tobacco. They assert that while the harm factor is basically the same, marijuana, unlike its legal counterparts, has real and documented value to people with painful critical illnesses like cancer, MS and glaucoma.
These arguments are not wrong but miss the point that we have several controlled substances that are used in medicine but that are not permitted for recreational use. This is because the medical studies only support use in ill individuals and not in otherwise healthy people. In critically ill people the harm is outweighed by the benefits, in healthy people that argument does not hold true. The popular “club drug” Vicadin, which is a legally prescribed medication, is a good example of a substance with real medical value that still has no place being used for purely recreational reasons.
This brings us back to the heart of the question, why are alcohol and tobacco deemed “OK” when they are clearly as harmful as some illegal street drugs? The answer is simple, because they are legal and because their place in our culture is firmly established and accepted as a norm, although an increasingly politically incorrect norm. For teens, this question is really moot since alcohol, tobacco and street drugs are NOT legal for use among people in this age group. There are minimum drinking ages and in North America they range from 18 – 21 depending on where you live. The same holds true for cigarettes, which are not for legal sale to minors, as defined by the laws where you live but which is usually under 19. Since even the legal substances cannot be legally used by teens there is little validity in teens using the argument that alcohol and tobacco are as harmful as street drugs to justify using such drugs.
Next Question - What is the difference between illegal, legal and decriminalized?
The difference between legal and illegal is simple; if something is legal it is permitted under law, if it is illegal, it is not. The line between legal and decriminalized is not so clear-cut. To understand the difference we look to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition of each of the three words.
Legal:
“conforming to or permitted by law or established rules”
Illegal:
“not according to or authorized by law”
Decriminalize:
“to remove or reduce the criminal classification or status of; especially : to repeal a strict ban on while keeping under some form of regulation”
According to these definitions, if something is legal it is permitted with few or no restrictions, if it is illegal it is not permitted, and if it is decriminalized it is permitted with tight regulations and/or restrictions that must be obeyed or it will be viewed as illegal.
Why is it OK for my parents to smoke and drink but not for me, isn’t that hypocritical?
This is a simple question to answer. It is OK for your parents to use alcohol and tobacco because the law says it is OK. If the law ever changed to allow teens to legally use these substances than it would technically be OK for them as well. This is currently NOT the case. For this reason, and this reason alone, your parents are not acting hypocritically when they tell you not to drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes even if they do these things themselves. What may be a bit hypocritical is them telling you not to do these things for health reasons when they do them, but this is likely a matter of parents hoping you will learn from their mistakes more than a matter of a parental “do as I say, not as I do” attitude.
It is important that teens learn to respect the law and the system we have for changing laws that are unjust or wrong. A healthy respect for the law and the legislative system is a lesson that should not be brushed aside with a “my parents do it so why can’t I” dismissive attitude. If you do not like the laws, work to change them, but ignoring them just so you can get high is a sign of the very immaturity that caused legislatures to enact age limits on alcohol and tobacco use to begin with.
When a law is truly unfair, when it does more harm than good, working to change it is noble but in the case of alcohol, tobacco and even drug use there is little noble in the argument “I like to get high because it feels neato and it isn’t fair to limit my freedom to do so.” Drug and substance control laws are not your typical discriminatory laws that need to be changed and therefore, should be respected.
Alcohol, tobacco and street drugs cost millions every year in healthcare costs, criminal costs and social costs. As our awareness of the real harm of these substances grows the personal freedom argument becomes weaker and weaker. For now, it is more important that you respect the laws on alcohol and tobacco rather than obsess over how unfair it is that parents can drink and smoke while teens cannot. It is a waste of your energy to make an issue of laws that stop you from harming yourself, and potentially harming others. The law feels that teens lack the maturity to handle these harmful substances responsibly and ignoring those laws only validates that stand.
Next Question - Why do so many youth groups and teen web sites warn against the evils of street drugs while ignoring the obvious dangers of legal substances like alcohol and cigarettes?
Why do so many youth groups and teen web sites warn against the evils of street drugs while ignoring the obvious dangers of legal substances like alcohol and cigarettes?
This is not really true. Most web sites and activist groups warn against the harmful effects of all behavior altering substances, be they legal or not. The focus may appear greater on illegal substances because while the harmful effects of alcohol and tobacco are widely established, the harmful effects of street drugs are fraught with inconsistencies and innuendos. This is mostly because of the ethics issue in studying people who use illegal drugs not because these drugs are less harmful than alcohol or tobacco.
It is much harder to control a study on the use of illegal drugs than it is to control one on legal substances. For example a study on the use of alcohol can be controlled with informed consent, age restrictions on participants, validation of the study subject and tight manipulation of confounding variables. Most importantly you can control the potency and/or dosage of the alcohol used in the study. This is not true for street drugs.
Even if such a controlled study on street drugs were ethically possible (which it is not in North America), it would still be easily dismissed in practice since there is no regulation of street drugs. This means that while studies can set out guidelines for per ounce effects of certain concentrations of alcohol and these can then be applied in practice, the uncertainty surrounding the potency of street drugs makes this impossible. With street drugs the potency of a drug can vary greatly even if you get it from the same source and call it by the same name. There is no regulation and therefore no practical way to apply any studies.
Studies on harmful effects of street drugs have had to rely on things like self-regulation by subjects, self-reporting of confounding variables, and doses that are not standardized or the same across subjects. These studies are almost always incidental, where a group of existing users volunteers and is then monitored by way of questionnaires and sometimes medical tests. These studies rely heavily on the truthfulness of the subjects and are vulnerable to honest under-reporting of use by subjects who underestimate how much they have used or who are unable to accurately assess the potency of the substances they have used. The results of such studies are normally correlational which leaves them wide open to interpretation and attack by those groups that do not like the results. So the reason so many sites seem to focus on the harmful effects of illegal substances may simply be a matter or exposure to established facts.
In everyday life, on the evening news and in current events classes, teens may discuss the harmful effects of legal substance and may trust that these effects are based in facts. These discussions are less likely of illegal substances, and when illegal substances they are discussed the lack of controlled studies leaves the door wide open to selective interpretation, misinterpretation and blatant dismissal of harmful effects. If teens are warned against street drugs more often than legal substances it is likely because of the inconsistency of the information you may hear about them and the lack of agreement on the facts by pro- and anti- factions.
Even people who smoke cigarettes are quick to acknowledge that they are harmful; this is less true of people who smoke marijuana. Pro-marijuana activists often state that marijuana is less harmful to the lungs than tobacco even thought the most dangerous substances exist in both and they are both inhaled. This is typical of the problem; street drugs are still surrounded in mythology while the legal ones are not as quickly defended as “safe” or “safer”, even by regular users.
Next Question - What is meant by “gateway drugs” and why do some people say that the idea of “gateway drugs” is a myth?
What is meant by “gateway drugs” and why do some people say that the idea of “gateway drugs” is a myth?
The term “gateway drug” is often applied to drugs like marijuana, alcohol, and even tobacco. The belief is that early use of these drugs, mainly by teens and young adults, increases the likelihood that they will start using harder drugs like heroin, cocaine and club drugs later in life. This is an assertion that has been well studied and that is hotly contested by many special interest groups. While the mechanism of the “gateway drug” phenomenon is not understood there are well-documented correlations between early use of light intoxicants and later use of hard drugs. Where the studies tend to fall apart is in the certainty factor -- this is the assertion that all or most people who try “gateway drugs” later move on to harder substances.
All studies have confirmed a link between early use of so-called “gateway drugs” and later use of harder drugs. All studies! There are no studies in existance where ZERO hard drug users report starting out with the hard drugs, they all report first trying light drugs. Where the debate comes in to play is in the number of light users who later turn to hard drugs and the other factors in the lives of those individuals that may make them turn to these drugs. The million dollar question is -– did these people try hard drugs because of their experiences with light drugs or was there some other factor in their lives that led them to escalate their need to get high, a factor totally unrelated to their first experiences with lighter drugs (known in studies as “confounding variables”). The answer hear is unclear and this is what clouds up the “gateway drug” theory.
The reality is very few people first jump into drug use with the heavy ones. In experimentation most people are careful preferring to try out less harmful drugs before trying harder ones. This is why there are such consistent correlations between first use of lighter drugs and later use of hard drugs. On an important note: it is not true that most people who try lighter drugs will later use hard drugs, but it is true that most people who do hard drugs report first using the lighter ones. The answer seems to be that in people predisposed to escapism through drugs the early use of light drugs can lead to heavy drug use. This is likely to be the result of the diminished effect of the lighter drugs over time in helping them hide from their world more than any addictive quality of the drugs themselves. In people without any other issues that drugs help mask, the likelihood of light drug use leading to hard drug use is unclear and mostly circumstantial.
Are there “gateway drugs”, yes absolutely, the attitude that makes you think it is OK to try an illegal or controlled substance for recreational reasons also makes it easier for you to escalate that behavior to include harder drugs. What makes them “gateway drugs” varies between individuals with certain people being very vulnerable to the phenomenon and others demonstrating no effect at all. It is too simple to call a certain drug a “gateway drug”, the other factors in the life and personality of the individual in question play an essential role. In short, for some people lighter drugs are “gateways” to harder drugs and in others they are not. It is all a matter of why you tried drugs to begin with and what role those drugs play in your life that determines your vulnerability to the “gateway” phenomenon.
Next Question - What are the KNOWN harmful health effects of cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana?
What are the KNOWN harmful health effects of cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana?
Aside from the obvious “buzz” or intoxication provided by these substances (and the related conditions such as slurred speech, impaired judgment, decreased reflexes and lowered inhibitions) the known HEALTH effects are as follows:
Cigarettes:
* Chronic bad breath
* Yellowing of teeth
* Yellowing of fingers
* Early wrinkling around mouth and eyes
* Dulling of complexion
* Dulling of tastebuds
* Bad smelling hair, clothes and body
* Lowered immune system; greater vulnerability to common ailments like colds, flus and other viruses
* Increased risk of developing cataracts, glaucoma and other eye diseases
* Increased risk for hearing loss (possibly relating to blood flow problems)
* Increased risk of heart attack, stroke and cancer
* 50%+ greater increase in lung cancer, esophageal cancer, pancreatic cancer, colorectal cancer, bladder cancer, kidney cancer and mouth cancer
* Double the risk of contracting a deadly form of adult leukemia in later life
* Double the risk of contracting adult onset diabetes (in part related to the higher rate of obesity among smokers)
* In women, a greater risk of developing cervical and breast cancer
* 70%+ greater risk of developing emphysema, bronchitis and/or environmental asthma
* Increased risk of complications during pregnancy and with conception in women
* Decreased sperm count, greater number of deviated sperm and higher risk of impotence in men
* Increased risk of birth defects when used during pregnancy
* Significantly decreased cardiovascular fitness
* Decrease in volume of oxygen in blood (making the heart work harder)
* Increase risk of obesity later in life
* Decreased quality of life as one gets older
* Increased likelihood of need for oxygen tank and/or wheelchair
* Increase risk of early death – half of all smokers die from smoking related causes that would not have otherwise killed them
* Addiction
Alcohol:
* Bad breath
* Rotting teeth and cavities
* Dulling of complexion
* Memory loss and increased risk for blackouts
* High levels of alcohol in blood can decrease nutrient distribution and in very high proportions can result in death
* Binge drinking can result in respiratory strain, failure and even related death
* Lowered immune system; greater vulnerability to common ailments like colds, flus and other viruses
* Increased risk for violent or self destructive behavior including suicide
* Increased risk of long-term central nervous system damage
* With heavy use; impotence and loss of libido
* With heavy use; increased risk for esophagitis and pancreatisis
* Increased risk for hepatitis
* Increased risk of birth defects when used during pregnancy
* With long-term use; increased risk of liver disease, heart disease, peptic ulcers, certain types of cancer, complicated pregnancies, birth defects, and brain damage
* Overdose and overdose related death
* Addiction
Marijuana:
* Most of the same effects as listed for cigaretters, specifically those relating to physical appearance, immune system, respiratoty illness, cancer and birth defects -- marijuana contains many of the same toxins as cigarettes, a higher tar concentration (normally 4-5 times higher) making it likely to result in very similar ailments as cigarette smoking
* Weight gain (likely related to “the munchies”)
* Lowered immune system; greater vulnerability to common ailments like colds, flus and other viruses and serious illnesses like cancers, communicable diseases, pneumonias, and super-bugs
* Increased risk of heart attack, stroke and cancer
* Increased risk of birth defects when used during pregnancy
* Increased risk for mental disorders like acute toxic psychosis, panic attacks, flashbacks, delusions, depersonalization, hallucinations, paranoia, depression, and uncontrollable aggressiveness
* In predisposed individuals, can trigger bipolar and schizophrenic episodes
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