Cigarette smoking is increasing among Americans with drug problems
Odds of smoking among Americans with a substance use disorder are more than five times greater than the overall population
December 19, 2017
Science Daily/Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health
While cigarette smoking has declined in the U.S. for the past several decades, since 2002 the prevalence of smoking has increased significantly among people with an illicit substance use disorder, according to a new study by researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and the City University of New York. Until now, little was known about whether the decline in smoking was also occurring among individuals with illicit substance use disorders. The findings are published online in the journal Addiction.
The data show that smoking rates increased among those with substance use disorders, including hallucinogens, inhalants, tranquilizers, cocaine, heroin, pain relievers, simulants, and sedatives, while cigarette smoking decreased among individuals with cannabis use disorders, as well as among those without any substance use disorders.
The researchers analyzed data from 725,010 Americans ages 12 and older in the National Survey on Drug Use and Health for 2002 to 2014. They found more than half of individuals with a substance use disorder (56 percent) reported cigarette use in the past month, compared with 18 percent of those without a substance use disorder. When cannabis use disorders were excluded, smoking rates for those with a substance use disorder climbed to 64 percent; among those with cannabis use disorder, 51 percent reported past month cigarette use.
"We found that cigarette use was not only disproportionately common among those with a substance use disorder, but that the odds of smoking were five times greater than that of the general population," said Renee Goodwin, PhD, in the Department of Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health, and senior author. "And individuals with a substance use disorder other than cannabis were 7.5 times more likely to be smokers."
"Given the extremely elevated rates of smoking among persons with substance use disorders, it seems that neither population-based tobacco control efforts nor clinical smoking cessation strategies have reached or been as effective among persons with substance use disorders," noted Goodwin. "New and innovative public health strategies are needed if we are to reach those with substance use disorders and bring down the smoking rates among this vulnerable group of individuals."
"An increasing number of substance-use treatment programs are offering smoking cessation services, presenting an important opportunity for smoking cessation," observed Goodwin. "How substance disorder treatment programs can integrate smoking treatments into their service delivery most effectively, however, still remains an open question."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171219091306.htm
Teen contraband smokers more likely to use illicit drugs
December 16, 2014
Science Daily/University of Alberta
A University of Alberta economics professor has discovered a link between contraband cigarette use and illicit drug use among Canadian teens.
Professor Mesbah Sharaf, a health economics lecturer at the University of Alberta in Canada, recently published a joint study with the University of Waterloo titled "Association Between Contraband Tobacco and Illicit Drug Use Among High School Students in Canada" in The Journal of Primary Prevention.
The study shows that 31 per cent of adolescent smokers in Canada between grades 9 and 12 use contraband tobacco and indicates that teens who smoke contraband tobacco are more likely to use illicit drugs.
"The rate of illicit drug use among the contraband smokers is higher than that among teenagers who smoke non-contraband cigarettes--sometimes double or triple the rate," says Sharaf.
According to the study, 22 per cent of all adolescent smokers in Canada used cocaine. Among those who smoked contraband cigarettes, 31 per cent reported using cocaine, whereas only 18 per cent of non-contraband smokers reported using cocaine. Use of MDMA (ecstasy) was also more prevalent among contraband smokers (45 per cent) than among non-contraband smokers (33 per cent). The rate of ketamine and amphetamine use among the contraband-smoking teens was almost three times as high as the rate among non-contraband-using teens--and more than six times as high for heroin.
This is the first published research to specifically examine the potential connection between contraband cigarette smoking and drug use among adolescents.
"If, as we believe this study shows, contraband cigarette use is associated with illicit drug use, then intensive effort needs to be made to avoid this--by both government and tobacco companies," says Sharaf. "Adolescence is a critical period, and most unhealthy habits are developed at an early age."
Sharaf is calling on the federal government to strengthen contraband enforcement and enhance public education efforts to combat this trend. "This is an important insight, and we encourage the government to come up with measures to tackle this problem," he says.
In producing this study, three researchers--Sharaf, along with Sunday Azagba and David Hammond of the University of Waterloo--used a national sample of 2,136 current smoker students in grades 9 to 12 from the 2010-2011 Youth Smoking Survey conducted by Statistics Canada.
The survey assessed students' past-year use of the following drugs (including some street names for each type of drug): amphetamines, cocaine, hallucinogens, heroin, MDMA and ketamine. The study also showed a significant relationship between truancy and drug use, as well as binge drinking and drug use.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/12/141216144121.htm