Smoking e-cigarettes may lead to addiction marijuana and cocaine

A new study has observed that smoking e-cigarettes may encourage the addiction to other substances, such as marijuana and cocaine.

The study presented at Massachusetts Medical Society examined that the e-cigarettes may act as a "gateway drug" to addiction to drugs.

Co-author Denise B. Kandel, PhD, professor of sociomedical sciences (in psychiatry), Department of Psychiatry and Mailman School of Public Health, at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC), said that while e-cigarettes eliminated some of the health effects associated with combustible tobacco, they were pure nicotine-delivery devices.

Dr. Eric Kandel said that their findings provided a biologic basis for the sequence of drug use observed in people and one drug altered the brain's circuitry in a way that enhanced the effects of a subsequent drug.

Kandel continued that e-cigarettes had the same physiological effects on the brain and may pose the same risk of addiction to other drugs as regular cigarettes, especially in adolescence during a critical period of brain development and nicotine clearly acted as a gateway drug on the brain, and this effect was likely to occur whether the exposure comes from smoking cigarettes, passive tobacco smoke, or e-cigarettes.

The study is published in the online edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Marijuana use shrinks teenagers brains

Frequent marijuana use among teenagers can lead to cognitive decline, poor attention and memory and decreased intelligence quotient (IQ), psychologists warn.

Abnormalities in the brain's grey matter, which is associated with intelligence, have been found in 16- to 19-year-olds who increased their marijuana use.

"It needs to be emphasised that regular cannabis use is not safe and may result in addiction and neurocognitive damage, especially in youth," said Krista Lisdahl, director of the brain imaging and neuropsychology lab at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Brain imaging studies of regular marijuana users have shown significant changes in their brain structure, particularly among adolescents, Lisdahl added.

People who have become addicted to marijuana can lose an average of six IQ points by adulthood.

Countries must consider regulating levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) - the major psychoactive chemical in marijuana - in order to reduce potential neurocognitive effects, researchers emphasised.

THC is responsible for most of marijuana's psychological effects.

Previous research has shown that frequent use of high potency THC can increase risk of acute and future problems with depression, anxiety and psychosis.

"This relationship between marijuana and mental illness may be moderated by how often marijuana is used and potency of the substance," claimed Alan Budney from Dartmouth College in the US.