Cigarettes Are the Real Gateway Drug

From an early age kids have traditionally been taught that marijuana is the gateway drug; meaning that exposure to marijuana will inevitably lead to use of harder drugs in the future. But when you really think about it, what is more easily accessible to young kids — marijuana or cigarettes? It’s more likely that a parent or adult figure in a young kid’s life smokes cigarettes as opposed to marijuana. Once these kids are first exposed to cigarettes, marijuana is likely to follow—but would if they weren’t exposed to cigarettes in the first place, would marijuana followed by harder drugs inevitably be the next step?

Young Americans have a misguided idea about cigarettes, mostly because they are legal and so widely and casually used by people in all social classes. Tobacco companies advertise everywhere and most likely some respectable people in kid’s lives, like parents or teachers, smoke cigarettes. It’s almost as if nicotine isn’t considered a real drug because it doesn’t get you high or intoxicated, but the fact of the matter is that nicotine will kill more people in a year then all of the hard drugs combined. Nicotine is highly addictive and results in withdrawal symptoms when a person tries to stop smoking. Parents may breathe a sigh of relief to find out that their kids are only smoking cigarettes and not using drugs or alcohol, but the reality is that tobacco is more often than not the first step towards drug addiction.

Nicotine addiction is a serious matter that affects millions of people worldwide. To downplay addiction to smoking cigarettes is a great injustice. Nicotine is the true gateway drug, and addiction should be treated as soon as possible, especially in young adults. Seabrook House offers pharmacological treatment combined with behavioral treatment, including psychological support and skills training to help combat nicotine addiction. Seabrook House is an internationally recognized private and exclusive inpatient drug rehab and alcoholism detox treatment center, located in rural Bridgeton, New Jersey—roughly a 6 hour drive south of Boston, or about an hour flight. Don’t allow the youth in the Boston, Massachusetts (MA) community succumb to cigarette addiction– it will most likely lead to harder drugs in the future, and it can be treated through programs at Seabrook House.