No reason to believe in gateway effect
The US-based Consumer Advocates for Smoke-free Alternatives Association (CASAA) has dismissed a study released on Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine in which it was reportedly claimed that electronic cigarettes could cause cocaine use.
‘In reality, the study shows no such thing, and the authors and journal are just trying to score political points based on an unimportant technical study of mice with no real-world implications,’ the CASAA said.
‘The study results only suggest that mice dosed with nicotine one day react differently, biologically, to cocaine the next day compared to those who are not.
‘They do not suggest that nicotine use will cause people to seek out or use cocaine.’
Carl V. Phillips, scientific director of CASAA said that the study said little about human biology and nothing at all about real-world behaviour.
“It does not even measure mouse behaviour,” he said.
“The study provides no evidence there is a gateway effect, and there is no reason to believe there is one.
“Even if there were, this would merely be one hypothesis about why it happens, and tell us nothing about the real world.”
