Cigarette smoking has been identified as an independent risk factor for many human diseases. However, the association between cigarette smoking and illegal drug use has not been thoroughly investigated. We have analyzed the 1994 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse to clarify whether cigarette smoking has any effect on the initiation of illegal drug use. Data from 17,809 respondents completing the 1994 "new" (1994-B) questionnaire were analyzed. Logistic regression analyses were performed with the use of statistical package SUDAAN, taking into consideration the multistage sampling design. The results show that those who had smoked cigarettes were far more likely to use cocaine (OR = 7.5; 95% CI: 5.7-9.9), heroin (OR = 16.0; 95% CI: 6.8-37.9), crack (OR = 13.9; 95% CI: 7.9-24.5) and marijuana (OR = 7.3; 95% CI: 6.2-8.7). The associations are consistent across age-strata and remain after adjusting for race and gender. This study suggests that cigarette smoking may be a gateway drug to illegal drug use.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 15. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 09 September 2025.
All research outputs
#3,306,461
of 34,620,809 outputs
Outputs from Journal of Addictive Diseases
#89
of 701 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#11,295
of 146,955 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Journal of Addictive Diseases
#4
of 53 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 34,620,809 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 90th percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 701 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 10.9. This one has done well, scoring higher than 87% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 146,955 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 92% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 53 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 92% of its contemporaries.
