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From: gsa@proper.UUCP (George Acton)
Newsgroups: net.med
Subject: Smoking
Message-ID: <1349@proper.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 12-Jun-84 23:11:29 EDT
Article-I.D.: proper.1349
Posted: Tue Jun 12 23:11:29 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 16-Jun-84 00:43:13 EDT
Organization: Proper UNIX, San Leandro, CA
Lines: 27


This is in reply to the request for information about smoking.
It is known that nicotine stimulates receptors for the neuro-
transmitter on nerve cells in the CNS.  Besides the direct effect
of mimicing acetylcholine (including effects on memory and thinking),
other neurotransmitters are released by the downstream neurons.
These include norepinephrine, which among many effects may 
diminish anxiety, anger and dampen response to 'stress', and
dopamine, which decreases appetite and appears to produce
subjective sensations of pleasure--at least it is positively
reinforcing in animals.  Another inportant element of smoking
is the fact that positive feedback is so rapid--all the animal
conditioning models say that the briefer the time from response
to positive reinforcement, the stronger the conditioning.

    These facts provide some explanation for why people persist
in a habit with such detrimental aspects.  They do not explain
why people *don't* smoke.  It seems to me that a reasonable
guess is that there are constitutional, plausibly genetic,
differences between individua which explain different
susceptibilities to drug dependencies.  It comes down to a
conflict between the objective drawbacks of smoking and the
subjective benefitGiven our ignorance of much of the
biology, and the impossibility of experiencing another person's
internal chemical milieu, let alone their life experiences,
a little toloration and mutual accommodation seems called for.