The effects of Dipping

In high school, many people, myself included, dip tobacco. This blog is about the dangers and fun things about dip. Unfortunately, the dangers still heavily outweigh the pros, but its a fun little thing to do. The obvious and most important dangers of dipping are all out on the tin. For example, on my tin of Copenhagen Black Long Cut, it clearly states "WARNING: SMOKELESS TOBACCO IS ADDICTIVE". But not only is it addictive, it also can cause cancer. On other tins of dip I have, it will say things like "WARNING: THIS PRODUCT CAN CAUSE MOUTH AND GUM DISEASE AS WELL AS CANCER CAUSING AGENTS". So, the question is, why do people dip? THis is where the science part comes in. The main reason people dip is to get a "buzz" and because they get addicted to nicotine. That begs the question, what is nicotine? Nicotine is an alkaloid, and usually makes up about 1% of dry tobacco, although is can be as low as .5% and as high as 3%. Nicotine primarily affects the central nervous system, by increasing the amounts of dopamine, which are responsible for the"buzz" experienced. It also causes an addiction, which can make using any products with nicotine in them very dangerous. Also, interestingly enough, nictotine has a much higher toxicity level than other harder drugs such as cocaine.



A pyramid of used dip cans. THe user is probably addicted.