people who suffer from addiction often have one or more accompanying medical issues, which may include lung or cardiovascular disease,
stroke, cancer, and mental disorders. Imaging scans, chest X-rays, and blood tests show the damaging effects of long-term drug
abuse throughout the body. For example, research has shown that tobacco smoke causes cancer of the mouth, throat, larynx, blood,
lungs, stomach, pancreas, kidney, bladder, and cervix.
19 In addition, some drugs of abuse, such as inhalants, are toxic to nerve cells and may
damage or destroy them either in the brain or the peripheral nervous system.