Another week goes by and another new study is published that casts doubt on just how safe e-cigarettes are. The latest one comes from New England and makes the claim that e-cigarettes, like conventional cigarettes can be a “gateway drug.”

Now the usual claim by critics is that e-cigarette use can lead to smoking tobacco cigarettes in the future. But this study,-published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine, claims that using e-cigarettes can prime the brain to be more receptive to harder drugs such as cocaine.





Surely no one can seriously believe that using e-cigarettes can lead to users trying cocaine sometime in the future. Using hard drugs is more likely to be the result of the company people keep and the type of person they know.

Co-author of the ‘findings’ is Dr. Eric Kandel of Columbia University who says: “With e-cigarettes, we get rid of the danger to the lungs and to the heart, but no one has mentioned the brain.”





Hopefully critics who pounce on this study to further their claims against the use of e-cigarettes will remember to quote the first half of that sentence. Surely anything which gets rid of danger to lungs and hearts should be greatly appreciated and not subject to heavy criticism?





Apparently it’s down to nicotine again after tests on mice and rats showed that once they are given nicotine, they are more addicted to cocaine after being introduced to that drug. That’s the view of Dr. Aruni Bhatnagar from the University of Louisville who chaired a 10-member American Heart Association panel on the impact of e-cigarettes.





This theory on nicotine is nothing new and was first reported 39 years ago by Denise Kandel, a Columbia University researcher and wife of Dr. Kandel. The pair’s view on e-cigarettes is that they “have 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.” Note how they write “may pose”.

They admit it’s not yet clear whether using e-cigarettes will lead to using conventional cigarettes and illegal drugs, they say “that’s certainly a possibility.” Or in other words, they’re not actually sure if it will.





Also getting in on the act is Professor Jeffrey Lieberman, chair of psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center. He says: "The emergence in our society of new recreational pharmaceuticals such as e-cigarettes and legalized marijuana, while justifiable on one level, may have adverse consequences of which we are not fully aware.

Why on earth are e-cigarettes finding themselves being tagged with legalized marijuana ? E-cigarettes are a healthier alternative to conventional dangerous cigarettes. They can also be used as an aid to helping people stop smoking.





Lieberman’s view on the Kandel research is that it “demonstrates such grave potential consequences.” That’s despite the fact their report is full of if’s and maybe’s and has no concrete evidence of what might actually happen.





It’s easy to create a report that has controversial views that don’t actually include many instances of words such as “will” and “does.” Do they really believe that someone who decides to use e-cigarettes rather than inhaling all the poisons in tobacco cigarettes may be increasing their chances of ending up on cocaine or marijuana?

Their study doesn’t include any examples of people who have done just that, just some poor unfortunate mice and rats (now hopefully in rehab), perhaps they should just wait until that unlikely event happens and then start scaremongering again.







