Re: Is nicotine addictive? was: gluten-free vs. grain-free: smoking and cancer

[Guest guest]

Here is an interesting excerpt from, In Defense of Smokers:

" Much of the rhetoric of the anti-smoking movement seeks to demonize

tobacco

smokers as " nicotine addicts " . In the past, of course, the term " addict "

has been generally applied only to mind-altering drugs, e.g., heroin and

cocaine. Even alcohol, which is mind-altering, is not generally referred

to as " addictive " . So, the argument is one of semantics. If nicotine is

addictive, so are chocolate candies, pies and cakes, etc. Indeed, if

" addiction " is defined as dependence upon some chemical, everyone is

addicted, to air!

I am not going to engage in a philosophical debate over the definition of

" addiction " .

There is a question in my mind, however, as to whether nicotine is

really the active ingredient in tobacco smoke..

Nicotine is a chemical, C10H 14N 2, which is found in the tobacco plant.

Anti-smokers are quick to point out that pure nicotine is a poison, used

as a pesticide. And it's true that pure nicotine (a colorless, odorous

liquid), is poisonous. According to the mens that to kill a 180 lb man,

he'd have to drink about 80 mg of the stuff. Many other common

substances, however, also have minimum lethal doses. According to the

same source, ingesting a gram of caffeine is fatal.

In fact, many substances which are beneficial in small quantities are toxic

in large quantities. My mother suffered a stroke some years ago. Her

life was saved, and she recovered, by taking a blood thinner, so he

doubled it. My mother began hemorrhaging, and almost died from loss of

blood. The blood thinner, which is life saving in small quantities,

proved toxic in large quantities.

Of course, most of the nicotine in tobacco is lost in the process of

smoking. Only a little finds its way into the smoker's bloodstream. That

small quantity may account for some of the beneficial effects of smoking,

e.g., improved mental concentration. Strangely, fine Havana cigars, when

they were available, contained only 2% nicotine. If, in fact, nicotine

is the reason why people smoke, it seems strange that people would pay

enormous amounts of money for Havana cigars, which contain so little

nicotine.

I question, however, whether nicotine is the active ingredient in tobacco.

If it were, nicotine patches should satisfy a smoker's craving for

tobacco; they don't! In prisons, where, as a part of the punishment,

smoking is sometimes forbidden, the inmates take to smoking corn silk,

paper, string, etc., none of which contain any nicotine.

When I was a young man, there was a chain of tobacco stores which sold

cheap cigars. They were made almost entirely from brown paper, with only

one outside wrapper made from tobacco. I doubt they contained any

significant amount of nicotine. Yet, they were a satisfying smoke.

Recently, anti-smoking forces have suggested taking the nicotine out of

cigarettes, to discourage smoking. This assumes, of course, that smokers

smoke to get nicotine. In their book, " Life Extension " , health writers

Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw, take a different approach. Believing that

smoke is bad for health but that nicotine is not, Pearson and Shaw

suggest that cigarettes be spiked with extra nicotine, so that smokers

will consume fewer cigarettes.

It is not universally accepted, however, that nicotine is the active ingredient

in tobacco smoke. The authors of the widely respected " Merck Manual " say

only that it is " probably " the active ingredient. If, in fact, the

anti-smokers finally succeed in getting the tobacco companies to remove

the nicotine from cigarettes, we will finally find out the truth. My own

bet is that a cigarette without nicotine will probably be almost as

satisfying as one with nicotine. The active ingredient in smoke is smoke.

Recent studies, reported by the National Institute on Drug Addiction (NIDA),

seem to bear out my hunch. These studies suggest that tobacco contains a

monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI). MAOI's are anti-depressants, which

work by increasing serotonin levels in the brain. They are used in

medicine to treat Parkinson's disease, which may explain why a number of

studies have shown that smokers have a far lower rate of Parkinson's

than non-smokers. In any event, the MAOI in tobacco smoke may play as

great a role in smoking as nicotine. "

War, the God That Failed

http://tinyurl.com/2npch

" They told just the same,

That just because a tyrant has the might

By force of arms to murder men downright

And burn down house and home and leave all flat

They call the man a captain, just for that.

But since an outlaw with his little band

Cannot bring half such mischief on the land

Or be the cause of so much harm and grief,

He only earns the title of a thief. "

--Geoffrey Chaucer, The Manciple's Tale