norml23 - Page 32
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Drug Problem (1973), at pgo 197. It also leads to kidney dysfunction,
Korsakoff's psychosis, and hypemhyroid. Jaffe, supra, at pg. 292.
Because alcohol supplies calories to the body, thus depressing the
appetite, without supplying needed vitamins and amino acids, alcohol
abuse engenders nutritional deficiencies not common to other types of
drug abuse. These nutritional deficiencies in turn make it more
difficult for the alcoholic to withstand the stresses of the withdrawal
syndrome° {d., at pg. 114.
Tobacco ranks with a[cohoJ in widespread use among Americans; it
is also the single major cause of heart and brood vessel disorders, and
cancer, which are the two most common causes of death in America,
occurring for more than half the deaths of Americans each year.
AIcohol, supra, at pgo 197. Nicotine, the primary active substance in
tobacco is a central nervous system stimulant similar to the
amphetamines in its genera[ effects. The harmful characteristics of
nicotine are well known:
Nicotine is one of the most toxic drugs known and
is usually thought of as a poison .... Cigarette
tobacco contains between 1.5 and 3 percent
nicotine, with each cigarette containing 20 to 30
milligrams of the drug. As little as four
milligrams has produced serious symptoms in
nonhabituated individua3s, a_though the fatal dose
for an adult is about 60 milligrams. The smoke of
an ordinary cigar may contain between 15 to 40
milligrams of nicotine. Heavy doses produce
nausea, vomiting, d{arrhea, headaches, dist_arbed
vision and hearing, confusion, weakness, sharp drip
in blood pressure, convulsions, and untimely death
from paralysis of the respiratory muscles. About
90 percent of the nicotine inhaEed tobacco .smoke is
absorbed compared to sucked into the mouth.
Fort, supra, at pgs° 154-55.
_n addition to heart and blood vessel disorders and cancer of the
rungs, mouth, larynx, and esophagus, tobacco smoking may also cause
chronic bronchitis, emphysema, and loss of vision (tobacco amblyopia).
Id., at pg. 155o It is clear that tolerance develops to the use of
nicotine, ld., and there is strong evidence that the use of tobacco
constitute a withdrawaS syndrome characteristic of true addiction.
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