Just Say Know: Nicotine

Nicotiana tabacum

AKA

Cigs, cigarettes, smokes, cigars, stogies, chew, dip, snuff, plug, spit, gaspers, butts, fags

Drug Class: Stimulant

Compare with...

INSERT: Rates of use amongst campus (ask campus health services for this information).

Compare with...

Percent of students reporting use of nicotine in the past year

Compare with...

YOU TELL US:

Why do you think people use this drug?

Psychological Effects

Physical Effects

YOU TELL US:

What kinds of harms can be caused by drugs?

Note: Nicotine and Tobacco are not the same.

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Nicotine alone was not included in this research study.

EMERGENCY

What does an acute negative reaction to nicotine look like?

Excess oral secretions

Vomiting (common, especially among children)

Diarrhea / abdominal cramping

Convulsions

What should you do?

Call 911 to seek immediate medical help.

If the chemical is on the skin, wash with soap and lots of water for at least 15 minutes.

Harm Reduction

Harm reduction is a set of practical strategies and ideas aimed at reducing negative consequences associated with drug use.

Harm Reduction is also a movement for social justice built on a belief in, and respect for, the rights of people who use drugs.

Principles of Harm Reduction

Accepts, for better and or worse, that licit and illicit drug use is part of our world and chooses to work to minimize its harmful effects rather than simply ignore or condemn them.

Understands drug use as a complex, multi-faceted phenomenon that encompasses a continuum of behaviors from severe abuse to total abstinence, and acknowledges that some ways of using drugs are clearly safer than others.

Does not attempt to minimize or ignore the real and tragic harm and danger associated with licit and illicit drug use.

Establishes quality of individual and community life and well-being–not necessarily cessation of all drug use–as the criteria for successful interventions and policies.

Principles of Harm Reduction

Calls for the non-judgmental, non-coercive provision of services and resources to people who use drugs and the communities in which they live in order to assist them in reducing attendant harm.

Ensures that drug users and those with a history of drug use routinely have a real voice in the creation of programs and policies designed to serve them.

Affirms drugs users themselves as the primary agents of reducing the harms of their drug use, and seeks to empower users to share information and support each other in strategies which meet their actual conditions of use.

Recognizes that the realities of poverty, class, racism, social isolation, past trauma, sex-based discrimination and other social inequalities affect both people’s vulnerability to and capacity for effectively dealing with drug-related harm.

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YOU TELL US:

What are

some ways to reduce harm?

DRUG, SET, & SETTING

Know what you are taking.

Consider the source. Same dealer? Unknown dealer? Pharmaceutical?

Dose conservatively.

Consider the route of administration.

Consider the drug’s timeline.

Use your own equipment/try to keep your own supplies on hand.

Consider addiction, tolerance and withdrawal potential.

Learn about drug combinations.

Harm reduction as it relates to the DRUG

How It Works

About Nicotine

• Tobacco is a member of the deadly nightshade (or belladonna) family of flowering plants, a family that also includes potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, and capiscum pepper plants -- a family rich in alkaloids.
• Cigarettes typically contain about 10 milligrams of nicotine (sometimes up to 20 milligrams, depending on the brand); when you smoke a cigarette, about 1 to 2 milligrams get absorbed by your body.
• Nicotine is also metabolized into cotinine and nicotine oxide by the lungs. Cotinine and other metabolites are excreted in urine, and they're also found in saliva and hair. Cotinine has about a 16-hour half-life, which means if you've smoked in the past day, using this metabolite as a biomarker will give your secret away in a urine screening test

History and Origin

1500s: beginning of cultivation in the Americas

1614: cigarettes first invented in Sevilla, Spain

1881: cigarette rolling machine patented, wide spread in use

1894: ban of sale of tobacco to minors

1994: FDA declares nicotine “dependency-producing”

Nicotine products do cause lung or other cancers, and can lead to lung or heart disease. But safer than the combustion of tobacco

Tobacco smoking, in contrast, is the main cause of lung cancer and the main preventable cause of lung and heart disease.

• Cigarettes are deadly due to its smoke, while its addictiveness is because of the nicotine.
• A large national survey of adults in the United States, cigarettes are reported to be far more difficult to quit than alcohol, cannabis or cocaine.��

Forms of Tobacco

• Tobacco - Burning tobacco creates temperatures of 800 degrees Centigrade. Combustion decomposes complex molecules in the tobacco and breaks them down into harmful toxicants and cancer-causing substances.
• Cigarettes - Descriptors such as “light” are banned in many countries and death rates have not diminished since the advent of “low yield” cigarettes.
• Smokeless tobacco (snus, dip, snuff) - epidemiologic studies have not shown strong evidence of elevated tobacco-related disease risks with smokeless tobacco use.
• Hookah - research indicates that its harmful effects are comparable to cigarette smoking.

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Forms of Nicotine

• Nicotine - Orally and sublingually consumed nicotine human studies show no increase in hospitalization, mortality or risk of cancer.
• Medicinal nicotine products (nicotine replacement therapy or NRT), such as nicotine patches, gum, lozenges and inhalers, reduce cravings for the next cigarette.
• It has been widely used as a medicine since 1984 and is safe at the doses used in medicines. Nicotine products do not cause lung or other cancers, nor lung or heart disease.
• E-cigarettes - Vaporizing nicotine occurs roughly below 350 degrees Centigrade. The Public Health England estimates that e-cigarettes are ~95% less harmful than smoking.

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Know what you are taking.

Consider the source. Same dealer? Unknown dealer? Pharmaceutical?

Dose conservatively.

Consider the route of administration.

Consider the drug’s timeline.

Use your own equipment/try to keep your own supplies on hand.

Consider addiction, tolerance and withdrawal potential.

Learn about drug combinations.

Harm reduction as it relates to the DRUG

Harm reduction as it relates to the DRUG

Bioavailability

• Oral: 20% - 45%
• Intranasal: 53%
• Transdermal: 68%

Duration

• Total: 10 - 30 minutes
• Onset: 5 - 60 seconds
• After effects: 1 - 3 hours

Nicotine has an estimated oral LD50 of 6.5 - 13 mg/kg in humans. It is unlikely that overdose can be achieved by smoking tobacco, however, coadministration with other sources of nicotine such as patches or gum may potentially be dangerous.

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Know what you are taking.

Consider the source. Same dealer? Unknown dealer? Pharmaceutical?

Dose conservatively.

Consider the route of administration.

Consider the drug’s timeline.

Use your own equipment/try to keep your own supplies on hand.

Consider addiction, tolerance and withdrawal potential.

Learn about drug combinations.

Harm reduction as it relates to the DRUG

Harm reduction as it relates to the DRUG

Consider the route of administration.

• Smoked vs. transdermal vs. ingested

• Strength, timeline, health risks + benefits

Smoking vs. Vaping

Know what you are taking.

Consider the source. Same dealer? Unknown dealer? Pharmaceutical?

Dose conservatively.

Consider the route of administration.

Consider the drug’s timeline.

Use your own equipment/try to keep your own supplies on hand.

Consider addiction, tolerance and withdrawal potential.

Learn about drug combinations.

Harm reduction as it relates to the DRUG

Harm reduction as it relates to the DRUG

Harm reduction as it relates to the DRUG

Harm reduction as it relates to the DRUG

• It takes about 3 - 7 days for the tolerance to be reduced to half and 1 - 2 weeks to be back at baseline (in the absence of further consumption).

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• Nicotine does not present a cross-tolerance with other dopaminergic stimulants, meaning that after the use of nicotine all stimulants will not have a reduced effect.

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Harm reduction as it relates to the DRUG

Consider dependence potential for nicotine.

For nicotine specifically, withdrawal looks like:

• Cravings
• Restlessness, trouble sleeping
• Irritability
• Headaches
• Anxiety
• Heightened Stress

Harm reduction as it relates to the DRUG

Know what you are taking.

Consider the source. Same dealer? Unknown dealer? Pharmaceutical?

Dose conservatively.

Consider the route of administration.

Consider the drug’s timeline.

Use your own equipment/try to keep your own supplies on hand.

Consider addiction, tolerance and withdrawal potential.

Learn about drug combinations.

Harm reduction as it relates to the DRUG

Harm reduction as it relates to the DRUG(s)

+

=

Different drug combinations have different effects.

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Nicotine + Cannabis

Smoking both marijuana and tobacco increases health risks rather than smoking each alone.

Nicotine dependence can develop if tobacco is used in combination with marijuana.

Nicotine + Alcohol

Consuming both increases the risk of cardiovascular and lung diseases. Risk for developing mouth cancer is 38x more for those who consume both.

Results in nutritional deficiencies, due to the lack of proper absorption of food.

Harm reduction as it relates to the DRUG(s)

Different drug combinations have different effects.

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SET

Know your state of mind.

Take your physical health into account.

Know your tolerance/limits.

Take care of yourself.

SETTING

Consider your immediate setting.

Who are you with?

Where are you?

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SETTING

Consider the legal setting.

Harm reduction as it relates to the SETTING

Consider the national legal setting.

• Nicotine is legal, but there are punishments for selling to minors.

Harm reduction as it relates to the SETTING

Consider campus policy.

INSERT: Campus policy here

HISTORY

Consider your own personal history.

Consider your family’s history.

Consider the historical context.

Consider the historical context.

• The War on Drugs affects all demographics, but harms different people differently, depending on the identity/ies they hold.
• What is your sex/gender?
• What is your race?
• What is your socioeconomic status?

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• This is why drug policy reform is integral to reducing drug related harm!
• SSDP’s Intersectionality Committee seeks to educate our network on the variety of social justice issues related to the War on Drugs.

Learn more!

• Students for Sensible Drug Policy
• Erowid
• PsychonautWiki
• This Week in Drugs
• Tripsit
• MAPS

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Thank you!

Questions?

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