When middle school students think about serious drugs, what comes to their minds? Cocaine, crack, heroin...maybe alcohol. Most students don’t think of nicotine, the highly addictive and poisonous drug found in all forms of tobacco.

In Nicotine is a Drug, students will learn about the hidden dangers of addiction. They will see that habitual nicotine use is not a casual, harmless “habit,” but a serious addiction with deadly consequences.

They will know that the healthy choice is to avoid “trying it” in the first place. In Nicotine is a Drug, high school students give middle school students the facts: if you smoke a cigarette, you introduce yourself to drugs; if you use nicotine, a “gateway drug,” chances are that your “experiment” could lead to the use of other dangerous smoking drugs, and it will be very tough to quit once you’ve started.

Many former drug users claim that nicotine is the hardest drug of all to quit. The high school students stress that most kids who innocently tried smoking were quickly hooked...and now want to quit. Yet, when they try to quit, they are shocked to discover that quitting is not nearly as easy as starting was. They envy those who never tried nicotine at all.

Family practitioner Dr. Tracey Wallace shares hard facts about the physical dangers that young nicotine users face. He describes the dynamics of addiction, tolerance, and withdrawal, explaining that nicotine use actually changes one’s brain chemistry.

Dr. Wallace tells about treating young patients with lung cancer and reinforces the good advice that the best thing to do is not start in the first place! After viewing this video, students will know the truth. Nicotine is a highly addictive drug that hooks you, while the chemicals contained in tobacco kill you.

This video is a “must see” for middle school students who should know that using tobacco in any form means being addicted, living under the influence of a drug, and forming habits that can affect them for the rest of their lives.

Grades 5-9.