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From: sdyer@bbncc5.UUCP (Steve Dyer)
Newsgroups: net.med
Subject: Re: Smoking, Starting
Message-ID: <437@bbncc5.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 30-Sep-85 00:38:44 EDT
Article-I.D.: bbncc5.437
Posted: Mon Sep 30 00:38:44 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 2-Oct-85 01:02:53 EDT
References: <274@mot.UUCP> <464@aesat.UUCP> <1768@orca.UUCP>
Organization: Bolt Beranek and Newman, Cambridge, MA
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>> Except for opiates and perhaps alcohol, it seems as though the term
>> "addiction" is used far too loosely. I lean toward toward the "addictive
>> personalty" notions more than toward the addictive substances/behaviors.
> 
> You're kidding yourself.  Yours is a description of a physical
> addiction.  Substituting a pipe for a cigarette doesn't cut off your
> supply of nicotine.

Although Carter Bullard and I have clashed before on these grounds on the
definition of "addictive", there is incontrovertible evidence for
"drug-seeking behavior" in tobacco addiction, much of which can be assuaged
by administration of nicotine, as for example, in the form of chewing gum,
a recently approved aid for quitting smoking.  Now, there is a wide
variation in individual sensitivity and tolerance to nicotine
administration and any cravings (if any) which develop upon its absence.
Pipe smoking without inhaling ordinarily delivers less nicotine than
cigarette smoking, though pipe smoking has its own dangers (cancer of lips,
tongue, etc.) You just sound like someone who has a mild dependence,
stemming from the lower dose of nicotine and your own constitution.
-- 
/Steve Dyer
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