Dope use hooks potheads on nicotine

Fairfax

NIC FIT: Pot smokers can become addicted to nicotine if they mix marijuana with tobacco to make it cheaper to get high.

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Sydney's North Coast is the smoking capital of NSW, with researchers saying that widespread cannabis use could be causing more than half of young men in the area to become addicted to nicotine.

Three in five male residents aged between 25 and 34 smoked, research conducted by the North Coast Area Health Service and the University of Sydney has found.

The smoking rate in the north of the state was significantly higher than that of NSW in general, which is one in three young men.

While other regional areas recorded higher smoking rates than the state average - with 39 per cent of young men in western NSW and 34 per cent in southern NSW smokers - they did not come close to the North Coast figures.

Researchers proposed that young men living in "alternative lifestyle" communities of the north had developed a nicotine dependence resulting from "mulling", or mixing cannabis with tobacco.

Dr Megan Passey, from the university's department of rural health, said researchers had been "surprised to see the very high prevalence rates" provided by NSW Health's annual health telephone survey and decided to investigate further.

A widely accepted view was that cigarette smoking preceded marijuana use.

The North Coast was the state's most socio-economically disadvantaged area and has the second highest proportion of Aborigines. Evidence has suggested Aborigines have a higher smoking rate than non-Aborigines.

Paul McGeown, from Lismore's Riverlands Drug and Alcohol Centre, said the link between cannabis use and nicotine addiction was well known.

"We see lots of people come in here for cannabis detox and they are treated as well for nicotine detox, even though they are not smokers," Dr McGeown said.

"We know that nicotine is one of the most addictive substances. Any regular use of tobacco will lead to addiction, and we certainly see that in the clients we see regularly."

He said he was not surprised to learn that the North Coast had the state's highest smoking rates and warned that young people were starting to abuse those drugs earlier.

Discussion over whether nicotine or cannabis was the "gateway drug" - one that leads to dependence on another drug - was controversial, he said.

"That is chicken-and-egg stuff and no one really knows that," he said.

The founder of the Nimbin Museum and Hemp Embassy, Michael Balderstone, said that the culture of touching up cannabis with "spin" - a slang term for tobacco - was "huge".

"At $20 a gram, kids will make cannabis go twice as far," he said. "After doing that for a week, kids wake up in the morning and say, 'I want a bong, I want a bong.'

"We have been saying this for decades. The researchers took a lot of time to catch up to what is common sense."

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