Tobacco and alcohol: why these two addictions reinforce each other and complicate quitting
Why do you smoke more when drinking? Tobacco and alcohol share a brain circuit. Understand it to quit better — especially at parties and aperitifs.
You know the script: you have not lit up all day. You go out with friends, have a drink, and bam — you are smoking again. The cause is in your brain, and it is not weak willpower. Tobacco and alcohol share a common circuit, and they feed each other.
A massive correlation, not a coincidence
Several studies converge: tobacco and alcohol consumption are closely linked. The more you drink, the more you smoke — and vice versa. The link holds even when controlling for age, social background, etc.
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (US)
Why: a common brain circuit
A recent Nature Communications study by a CNRS team has clarified the mechanism. Tobacco and alcohol activate the same dopaminergic neurons in a region called the ventral tegmental area (VTA) — the heart of the reward circuit.
Even more striking: those neurons project to the amygdala, the anxiety zone. The same circuit codes both pleasure and emotional unease — which explains why tobacco and alcohol can both relax you and make you anxious, sometimes at once.
The same networks that code reward can, in certain conditions, generate negative emotional states. This dynamic sheds light on the frequent co-consumption of tobacco and alcohol.
Faure / Reynolds team, CNRS Sorbonne University
Nature Communications study, 2025
Four mechanisms that make it self-reinforcing
Alcohol, the number-one relapse trigger
Every relapse study points to alcohol as trigger number one in ex-smokers. It comes down to several things:
The brain has paired drinking and smoking for years — the link does not vanish in weeks.
Alcohol weakens judgement ('just one, no big deal').
The social context (bar, party, terrace) multiplies visual and olfactory triggers.
Alcohol's euphoric effect makes you want to amplify the buzz with a cigarette.
Myth vs reality
Concrete strategies for parties
Cutting both at the same time: a good idea?
Recent addiction research suggests that treating both addictions simultaneously often gives better results than treating one then the other. Why?
The brain circuits being shared, easing one eases the other.
Cutting alcohol drops cigarette triggers (and vice versa).
The 'everything starts feeling better' effect feeds motivation.
And coffee?
Coffee activates a different circuit (adenosine), but it too is strongly associated with cigarettes through conditioning (morning ritual). See our dedicated article.
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Your questions
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If I drink less, will I smoke less automatically?
Often yes. Studies show cutting one lowers the other in cascade. Not guaranteed — some maintain smoking independently. -
Do I have to fully stop alcohol when I quit smoking?
Not necessarily, but strongly reducing the first weeks works. You ramp back gradually, in a controlled frame. -
Why do I smoke at least one cigarette per drink, even if I 'quit'?
Because your brain has learnt for years that drink + cigarette = combo. As long as the link holds, alcohol wakes the cigarette. Break one of them. -
Does alcohol-free really help?
Yes. Non-alcoholic beers and aperitifs keep the social ritual without firing the dopaminergic circuit. Many ex-smokers find a useful middle ground. -
And cannabis smoked with tobacco?
More complex: you stack three mechanisms (THC, alcohol, nicotine). See our article on joints and cannabis.
sources
Reynolds LM, Faure P et al., A common neural circuit for reward and anxiety induced by nicotine and alcohol, Nature Communications, 2025.
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Alcohol and Tobacco, Alcohol Alert No. 71.
Kalman D, Kim S, DiGirolamo G, Smelson D, Ziedonis D, Addressing tobacco use disorder in smokers in early remission from alcohol dependence, Clinical Psychology Review, 2010.
Action on Smoking and Health (ASH UK), Smoking and substance misuse — key data, 2024 edition.
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