Is nicotine addictive?

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This page was last updated on June 25, 2003.

I and all other ex-smokers know from personal experience that cigarette smoking is a strong addiction, but non-smokers have a hard time understanding just how addictive smoking is, and so it is worth a few sentences to document this fact.

Nicotine, first isolated from leaves of tobacco in 1828, was identified as the active agent responsible for the pleasant sensations experienced by the smoker in a landmark report by Lennox Johnston MD of Glasgow, Scotland 55 years ago (Lancet, Dec 19, 1942 page 742). Johnston proposed that smoking tobacco is essentially a means of administering nicotine, just as smoking opium is a means of administering morphine. In 35 volunteers he found that nicotine injections not only simulated cigarette smoke inhalation but were actually preferred to a cigarette. Following are some quotes from this remarkable article.

"Smokers almost invariably thought the sensation pleasant and, given an adequate dose, were disinclined to smoke for some time thereafter."

"A considerable tolerance to nicotine is therefore acquired as a result of smoking...."

"that satisfaction is caused by the stimulation of sensory cells in the brain and that craving is the subjective manifestation of the depression which follows; for this depression the specific cure is further stimulation..."

"The strength of an addiction is measured by the difficulty in giving up the drug and it is difficult indeed for the inhaler or pipe smoker of many years standing to give up smoking permanently. Strength of addiction is reinforced by habit formation and by mass suggestion from other smokers..."

"Smokers show the same attitude to tobacco as addicts to their drug, and their judgment is therefore biased in giving an opinion of its effect on them; yet abstinence is generally followed by improved health."

Surely, the industry must have been aware of Johnston's findings and could have responded then by developing nicotine preparations free of the unnecessary burden of thousands of toxicants and carcinogens contained in ordinary cigarettes. Fifty years ago, the tobacco industry might even have had a chance to obtain FDA approval, since the addictive nature of nicotine, though alluded to by Johnston, was far from being generally recognized or experimentally confirmed. The fact that the industry failed to do what modern medicinal research in other areas had been doing all along reveals that addiction liability and FDA regulation must have raised a red flag even then. (This information was provided by K.H. Ginzel, MD, Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology Emeritus University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences> e-mail: jdunaway@nmsu.edu )

Readings from the Brown and Williamson papers indicates that the cigarette companies have understood that smoking is an addiction at the very least since the 1950s, and that they have deliberately kept this information from the general public.

Don't take my word for this. Read this report discovered by Anne Landman of the Colorado American Lung Association. Brown and Williamson document

Victor DeNoble, a researcher for Philip Morris was successful in causing addiction to nicotine in laboratory rats in 1983. This information was suppressed by the company. They are also trying hard to suppress current evidence that suggests that the tobacco companies actively manipulate the amount of nicotine in cigarettes so as to make them more addictive. Seven tobacco industry executives are currently under grand jury investigation for possible charges of perjury to Congress in connection with denials that they knew that nicotine is addictive.

Researchers in 1995 conclusively showed exactly how nicotine acts on receptors on nerve cells to cause addiction.

Nature

In simple terms, once a human being has had enough nicotine in his blood stream, his body becomes accustomed to it. He developes a craving for cigarettes, which he satisfies by inhaling smoke containing aerosolized nicotine. He gets a mild high when he smokes them, as the nicotine is rapidly absorbed from the lung into the blood stream. Cigarettes have been accurately described as the "crack cocaine" form of nicotine. He becomes uncomfortable and develops withdrawal symptoms when the nicotine level in his blood decreases below what he is accustomed to, and has a very powerful urge that is only quieted when smoking a cigarette again raises the blood level of nicotine.

It is very hard for him to quit. Only 2% of smokers who's doctors advise them to quit will actually be able to do so, long term. If a smoker determines that he wants to quit, only 7% are successful long term.

Many smokers who had previously been addicted to alcohol or heroin feel that it was harder to stop smoking than it was to kick those other habits.

Eric has posted this irreverent quiz to help teens determine whether they have become addicted at Grip Magazine

Scott Goold, Ph.D. of Albuquerque, http://www.infoimagination.org Has written a very clear description of just why nicotine is addictive and how it behaves just like cocaine in our brains. It helps to have some organic chemistry to read this article, but it is so well written that it gets the information accross to persons without a chemistry background. Tobacco Users Are Smokin' Crack.

Many smokers also have problems with habituation or addiction to alcohol and other substances that make smoking cessation more difficult. This web page has many useful links on addiction to many different substances including nicotine. Top Health Addictions