Nicotine Causes Epigenetic Changes in Mice that Spur Cocaine Addiction

Many have wondered if smoking can lead to the use of other drugs. Trying to prove this statement, epidemiologists have done an experiment using mice. They began by giving mice nicotine to later on determine the effects of exposing them to cocaine. They then noticed that mice who had been given nicotine for more than a day would come back to where they had received cocaine. On the other hand the mice that had only received nicotine for one day did not do this as frequent. This demonstrated the addiction habits that nicotine can cause, therefore being a gateway to other drugs.