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If you smoke marijuana, does that mean that you’re eventually going to start smoking cigarettes? According to one recent study, um, sort of. Apparently, prolonged exposure to THC, which is the main ingredient in marijuana, can make you more vulnerable to the addictive aspects of nicotine, which is found in cigarettes. Basically, new research says that smoking pot can lead to smoking cigarettes down the road, especially for teens.

This sounds a little weird to me. I mean, smoking cigarettes and smoking weed are two entirely different things. How can one lead to another? I was really skeptical about this and hesitant to believe it, but apparently the science is there to back it up. The lead scientist of the study says that in the majority of cases, people start smoking marijuana before they start smoking cigarettes. He adds that teens who smoke weed are even more likely to develop an addiction to cigarettes when they’re older because the longer you smoke marijuana, the greater your risk is for being addicted to tobacco.

To sum things up quickly, a lot of THC in your system makes you more likely to be addicted to tobacco. So if you’ve been smoking pot for a few years, and one day you decide to pick up a cigarette and try it out, you’re more likely to become addicted than someone who has never smoked pot in their life.

Sounds scary, right? Yeah, sort of. Who knew that marijuana could be a gateway drug for cigarettes? As researchers pointed out, cigarettes are usually the ones being called a gateway drug for other drugs… like weed. But I guess that all we knew is wrong. Sigh.

This doesn’t mean that just because you smoke pot you’re going to smoke cigarettes at some point in your life. But if you do smoke marijuana, this is a pretty big warning sign to never consider trying a cigarette. Not only are cigarettes really, really bad for you, but you’re also now even more at risk for getting hooked on nicotine. And as any former smoker can tell you (you can talk to my grandpa about it if you want), nicotine addictions are not fun.

What do you think about this study? Do you smoke cigarettes? Would you ever try? Does this make sense to you? Tell us in the comments.

Which is worse for you: smoking weed or drinking alcohol?

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