Jump to full article: PR Insider (at), 2008-04-02
Author: Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) [http://ash.org/] Americ's First Antismoking Organization
Intro: "These studies provide even stronger proof that nicotine is a drug which causes physiological addiction in the same way as heroin or cocaine, and that the addiction can be even stronger than with these and other illegal drugs.
The fact that some 60% of the population has at least one copy of this double whammy gene is consistent with the view that nicotine in addictive to over 60% of the population, but not to everyone," says Professor John Banzhaf of ASH.
These studies may one day open the door to more effective smoking cessation programs, which today have an abysmal success rate.
On the other hand, since quitting involves overcoming both a physiological addiction to nicotine and a psychological habituation to using cigarettes in many every-day stressful-and-otherwise situations, even major improvements in the addictive component will have only a limited impact, says Banzhaf, noting that smokers who are given nicotine replacement therapy in the form of gums and pills still have major problems giving up smoking.
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