Risk was greater for smokers than for nonsmokers who drank similar amounts.
Cigarette smoking and alcohol use commonly co-occur. Both typically begin in adolescence and are associated with heightened risk for other substance use. Smoking strongly predicts future alcohol use and dependence. To determine whether the link between smoking and alcohol abuse or dependence (alcohol-use disorders; AUDs) is attributable to heavier drinking in smokers or to greater vulnerability to development of AUDs in adolescent drinkers who also smoke, regardless of their levels of drinking, researchers analyzed 2002–2004 data on 74,836 adolescents and young adults (age range, 12–20) from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health.
There were 44,009 respondents who had never smoked, 19,442 “experimenters” who had smoked 100 or fewer cigar…