Surgeon Gen. Declares Nicotine Is Addictive
The surgeon general declared today that nicotine is addictive like heroin and cocaine, a finding that came as no surprise to researchers but which will provide new ammunition for anti-smoking forces.
The significance of the report by C. Everett Koop is not that it unveils new scientific evidence, but that he organized existing research into a systematic presentation lumping nicotine with heroin and cocaine as physiologically addictive substances.
“Careful examination of the data makes it clear that cigarettes and other forms of tobacco are addicting,” Koop wrote in a preface. “An extensive body of research has shown that nicotine is the drug in tobacco that causes addiction.
“Moreover, the processes that determine tobacco addiction are similar to those that determine addiction to drugs such as heroin and cocaine.”
Although his report places nicotine in essentially the same medical category as those two illicit drugs, Koop noted at a news conference that tobacco has a “favored place” in the United States and is not likely to be banned.
“I don’t think we are every going to get to a point in our society where we can bring about prohibition of tobacco,” he said. “I don’t think this would be a practical solution. I think we learned this during the Prohibition on alcohol.”
He said steps should be taken to “protect children” from being exposed to nicotine, noting that 43 states already have laws, albeit “poorly enforced,” against the sale of cigarettes to minors.
“I think we need a license to sell tobacco just they way we require one to sell alcohol,” said Koop.
Asked later where he would set the age on banning sales to young people, the 71-year-old surgeon general quipped, “I would set it at about 75.”
Asked whether his new report might heighten antagonism between smokers and nonsmokers, Koop said: “That would be hard to predict. I think it would mean in general more sympathy for the person who can’t quit. . . .
“You might get annoyed at people who smoke in your presence and make your eyes burn and your sinuses clog up and so forth, but your anger has to be abated by the fact that these people are addicted to a drug, and I think this will make people more tolerant of the problems a smoker faces when he is trying to quit.”
