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=From [https://www.clivebates.com/vaping-tobacco-harm-reduction-nicotine-science-and-policy-q-a/ Nicotine science and policy Q & A] by [[Clive Bates]]= | <br> | ||
==From [https://www.clivebates.com/vaping-tobacco-harm-reduction-nicotine-science-and-policy-q-a/ Nicotine science and policy Q & A] by [[Clive Bates]]== | |||
*No, this is a scare story and the claims do not bear scrutiny. Some public figures, including the US Surgeon General, have suggested that nicotine damages the adolescent brain. The evidence for this hypothesis comes only from a few rodent studies. These are an unreliable guide to human risk because the rodent brain does not offer a reliable proxy for the human brain and it is difficult to design experiments that are controlled to give a mouse equivalent exposure to a human. | *No, this is a scare story and the claims do not bear scrutiny. Some public figures, including the US Surgeon General, have suggested that nicotine damages the adolescent brain. The evidence for this hypothesis comes only from a few rodent studies. These are an unreliable guide to human risk because the rodent brain does not offer a reliable proxy for the human brain and it is difficult to design experiments that are controlled to give a mouse equivalent exposure to a human. | ||
*But this is not the main reason for doubt. Over the last 60 years, millions of adolescent nicotine users have grown up as smokers and either continue to use nicotine or have quit. The problem for the Surgeon General and others is that there is no sign of any cognitive impairment in the population of former teenage smokers and many of today’s finest adult minds were once young smokers. If a detrimental cognitive effect of nicotine existed in the human population, it is inconceivable that we would not already have seen extensive evidence of it from the study of smokers, non-smokers and ex-smokers over several decades." | *But this is not the main reason for doubt. Over the last 60 years, millions of adolescent nicotine users have grown up as smokers and either continue to use nicotine or have quit. The problem for the Surgeon General and others is that there is no sign of any cognitive impairment in the population of former teenage smokers and many of today’s finest adult minds were once young smokers. If a detrimental cognitive effect of nicotine existed in the human population, it is inconceivable that we would not already have seen extensive evidence of it from the study of smokers, non-smokers and ex-smokers over several decades." | ||
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==2018 Nora Volkow MD (NIDA) comparing youth nicotine use with marijuana use== | |||
[[File:Nora_Volkow_Youth_Nicotine_Marijuana_Brain_Development.jpeg|Youth Nicotine Developing Brain]] | |||
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= | ==2014 Nora Volkow MD (NIDA) comparing youth nicotine use with marijuana use== | ||
=2014 Nora Volkow MD (NIDA) comparing youth nicotine use with marijuana use= | |||
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20140701113948/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ruth-marcus-national-institute-on-drug-abuse-chief-attacks-myths-of-pot-smoking/2014/06/24/12010d84-fbd9-11e3-8176-f2c941cf35f1_story.html Archived Link: Quote Source] / [https://nida.nih.gov/about-nida/directors-page Photo Source] | *[https://web.archive.org/web/20140701113948/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ruth-marcus-national-institute-on-drug-abuse-chief-attacks-myths-of-pot-smoking/2014/06/24/12010d84-fbd9-11e3-8176-f2c941cf35f1_story.html Archived Link: Quote Source] / [https://nida.nih.gov/about-nida/directors-page Photo Source] | ||
*Adolescents are a chief focus of Volkow’s worry, to the extent that when I observe that tobacco use is clearly worse for teens, she challenges that easy assumption. “Wait a second. . . . Nicotine does not interfere with cognitive ability. So if you are an adolescent and you are smoking marijuana and going to school, it’s going to interfere with your capacity to learn. So what is worse, as an adolescent right now? To have basically something that is jeopardizing your development educationally or to smoke a cigarette that, when you are 60 years of age, is going to lead to impaired pulmonary function and perhaps cancer? . . . I would argue that you do not want to mess with your cognitive capacity, that that is a very large price to pay.” | |||
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[[file:Volkow nicotine youth cognitive ability.png|center]] | |||
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=If nicotine causes brain damage, how do we explain the accomplishments of these people?= | ==If nicotine causes brain damage, how do we explain the accomplishments of these people?== | ||
[[file:Famous People Smoking2.png|center]] | [[file:Famous People Smoking2.png|center]] | ||
=Further Reading= | ==Further Reading== | ||
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