Tobacco

Statistics:

In 2014 , an estimate 16.8% 40.0 million . US adults were current cigarette smokers of these 76.8% smokes every day and 23.2% ( 9.3 million) smoked some day.

Source:

wwwcdc.gov/tobacco/campaign/tips/resource/data/cigarettes-samoking-in-united-state.html?glid=CN=C6d7zItacfRBbhgodCv8HIW

Description of the drugs including its classification:

Products such as cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco, chewing tobacco, and wet and dry snuff contain dried leaves from the tobacco plant. The main chemical in tobacco is nicotine, which is a stimulant drug that speeds up the messages travelling between the brain and body. It may be more addictive than heroin.

Source:

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=Classification+and+description+for+tobacco

Short Term Effects

Bad breath.

Bad taste in mouth.

Smelly hair and clothes.

Yellow and brown stains on teeth.

Lost athletic ability.

Damage to the respiratory system.

Addiction to nicotine.

Risk of other drug use.

Decreased lung capacity.

Limited lung growth and function if used in youth.

Elevated heart rate.

Chronic cough.

Increased incidence of bronchitis.

Increased incidence of asthma and more severe asthma.

Source:

http://www.intheknowzone.com/substance-abuse-topics/tobacco/short-term-effects.html

Long Term Effects

Tobacco Kills

Heart Disease

Cancer

Lung Disease

Reproductive Damage

Birth Defects

Other Damage

Source:

http://www.intheknowzone.com/substance-abuse-topics/tobacco/long-term-effects.html

Myth about the drugs:

Light cigarettes are better than for you

Go smoking so your mind

Limited use of tobacco products is not harmful

I can quiet anytime

Source:

dirjournal.com/blogs/7-of-the-biggest-tobcca-myths

Legal consequence of using the drugs:

Implemented smokes free air laws which prohibit smoking in public places and workplaces

Increases tobacco excise taxes which increases the purchase price of tobacco products

Enacted prohibitions on the sale of flavoured tobacco products.

Source:

Betobaccofreehtms.gov

How to get help if you’re addicted to the drugs

Start cutting down on the amount

Get support from family and friends and a doctor

Have other people stop stop with you

Source:

Familydoctor.org

Anna's story

I began smoking at 14 years of age and I was living with father in California just one or two with my high school friend in the evening s when we were out.

I never thought of the damage I was doing to myself. I felt exciting, in the swing of things, and accepted as an adult. So I had a bad cough after a cold, and my teeth weren't as white as my sister's, who never smoked. I no longer played any sports, but most of my friends smoked, so I never felt different.

I met and married my husband Paul when we were 22, both smoking like chimneys. I had 2 children by the time I was 26, and life went on as normal. We smoked around our children, never thinking it would be doing them any harm. They both begged us to stop when they learned about the dangers of smoking. We just rolled our eyes at each other, never tried to listen to them. We weren't going to die! Other people did that!

My son has never smoked, while my daughter does, starting when she was 18. We never thought she would! My parents quit smoking, my aunts quit smoking, but they were older. I had loads of time to quit further down the line. Paul's mother died from a heart attack at only 55, after suffering a brain hemorrhage the year before, both smoking related illnesses. And still we smoked.

At age 36, I had a child with profound mental and physical retardation. We moved outside to smoke, as she had such trouble breathing, and we didn't want to add to that! Thank God no doctor ever said to us that Sinead's condition was smoking related. I couldn't have borne that guilt!

My father died a few years later from cancer throughout his body, as well as emphysema-already damaged even though he had quit for years. Still I smoked, even as he asked me on his deathbed to try to stop. I did mean to, but thought that I had too many worries to cope with. How would I cope without a smoke? Little did I know then, the smoking was only adding to my inability to cope, clouding my whole world in smoke.

Sinead died after almost 11 years in our home. I smoked more than ever. Paul had a stent inserted into a valve in his heart-caused by blockage, smoking related!

This is our last and most successful quit. Both of us still feel that we will never smoke again. I only wish we could have found this strength of purpose before. I have an abundance of energy, a joy in living, more confidence than ever before, and after 11 months of refraining, I am more committed to this quit than ever before!