Could Cigarettes and Booze Be the Real "Gateway Drugs"?

Using these legal substances preps the brain for cocaine addiction, new research suggests.

 

 

Alcohol reshapes the brain in ways that make rats more likely to become cocaine addicts

The idea of a "gateway drug" may sound like a throwback to the "Just say no" era. But new research offers fresh evidence that alcohol and nicotine — two psychoactive agents that are legal, ubiquitous and widely used during adolescence — ease the path that leads from casual cocaine use to outright addiction.

 

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