Tobacco
Other names for tobacco
Cigarettes, cigars, smokes, snus, rollies, straights.
What is tobacco?
Tobacco is one of the drugs that pep you up.
- Tobacco is made from the dried leaves of the tobacco plant.
- The leaves are processed into cigarettes or rolling tobacco, snus, pipe tobacco and cigars.
Effects of tobacco
- Improved concentration
- Lack of appetite.
- Dizziness.
- Relaxation (actually this is because you are smoking away the withdrawal effects).
- When tobacco burns, it releases nicotine, tar and carbon monoxide.
- It increases your heartbeat and constricts your blood vessels.
- When the nicotine in your body decreases , you get restless. You want another smoke.
- The tar in tobacco can cause the mucous membranes in your respiratory system to become inflamed.
- Carbon monoxide displaces the oxygen in your blood. Organs like your heart and muscles are deprived of oxygen.
Risks of tobacco
What are the risks of smoking tobacco?
- Smoking damages your skin and your teeth. It gives you bad breath.
- Your physical condition deteriorates.
- Smoking damages your lungs. It makes you more susceptible to bronchitis and lung cancer.
- Bronchitis gives you a chronic cough. Tar can also cause abnormal cell growth: cancer.
- Smoking damages your blood vessels. It causes hardening of the arteries, which can eventually lead to heart attacks and strokes.
- Nicotine is addictive. Your body soon needs more and more nicotine to keep feeling the effects.
- As the nicotine level in your body declines, you get restless. You light up another smoke.
- You don’t notice you’re addicted until you try to stop smoking or you’re someplace where you’re not allowed to smoke.
Versie: april 2021