Drug addiction website Treatment4Addiction.com has recently posted a series of graphics that calculates that smoking just one cigarette can do enough damage to decrease a person's life by almost 14 minutes. 

"The initial inspiration for this project was from hearing a statement many of us have come across in passing," said website project manager Jake Tri. "Something like 'smoking one cigarette takes away 10 minutes of your life.' We then wondered about other drugs and applied the same methodology using statistics from several reputable sources."

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Cigarette smoking is only one substance abuse issue investigated by the organization's research. Using statistics amassed from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Tri and his team also focused on cocaine, alcohol, crystal mephamphetamine, methadone, and heroin. 

Each drug is profiled on its own graphic. Another shows how Treatment4Addiction came to its results using simple math.

Tri acknowledges the figures are estimates based on average doses reported by addicts, but even general numbers paint a grim picture, particularly when viewed over the long term.

The 13.8 minutes of lifetime lost from a single cigarette may not sound like a lot to some, but over a course of twenty years, at 20 cigarettes a day (the number found in a single pack), the number balloons to 10 years lost, or 13 percent of an average life span.

Alcoholics lose 23 years; cocaine users cut their lives by 34 years. Most destructive are crystal meth and heroin; addicts of those controlled substances, even high-functioning ones, slice off 41.9 and 41.2 years of their life respectively.

Using average life span statistics, the figures mean an average meth or heroin addict can expect to live 38 years.

After coming to their conclusions, Tri and his team compared the figures to those tallied buy the University of Bristol in England, finding the statistics were similar.

"This methodology does provide a good estimate for those that are chronic users of a certain substance," said Tri, "as it is based on average usage and life expectancy data."

Treatment4Addiction.com is a "resource for people looking for help and support in regards to drug and alcohol addiction," the site developers said.

Tagsaddict, addiction, heroin, Cigarettes, methadone, crystal meth, life span, drug treatment