Cigarette company's witness says tobacco not truly addictive
Jump to full article: Toronto (Ont) Star (ca), 2000-11-28
Author: Peter Small / STAFF REPORTER
Intro: A U.S. expert on substance abuse testifying for Imperial Tobacco Canada says cigarettes are not truly addictive and anyone can quit if they're motivated.
The word addiction is no longer employed in a medical context because it's overused and applied in society to such behaviour as eating chocolates and watching bad movies, testified Dr. Harvey Hammer, chair of the department of psychiatry at Morristown Memorial Hospital in New Jersey.
``The implication is the person has no choice, that a person has no free will,'' Hammer told a North York small claims court yesterday. . .
Quitting smoking more like giving up caffeine than drugs, expert testifies
Hammer, who confirmed he is being paid his usual rate of $7,500 (U.S.) a day over two days for attending and testifying, said the term substance dependency is preferable to addiction.
People too often say ``I am addicted and I can't do anything about it and I find that frankly alarming. We are somehow suggesting that to people when we call it addiction,'' he said. . .
Hammer testified all the patients he treats who are genuinely motivated to quit have been successful.
He said people who want to recover from a substance dependency must start by saying, `` `I am responsible for my own behaviour.' That's a basic psychological concept.''
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