Over the past two decades, studies demonstrated that brief exposure to modest alcohol concentrations triggers generation of nitric oxide (NO) in the airway epithelial cells. This NO production stimulates a signaling pathway that involves the enzyme guanylyl cyclase, which produces a compound called cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP). CGMP, in .

Stephens (1991) uses examples from a number of ethnographic studies to show how people can be as taken by the excitement of the drug culture as they are by the drug itself. Media portrayals, along with singer or music group autobiographies, that glamorize the drug lifestyle may increase its lure .