Re: Nicotine addiction

General

Nicotine addiction

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Anonymous 10-09-2008, 8:12 AM
it is accepted both ST and smoking are addictive because of nicotine. However, I've heard it said that ST is even more addictive because of the amount of nicotine in popular snuffs. It seems to me that this could be wrong. For example, if you compare cocaine ingestion by snorting or smoking (crack), it is accepted that smoking cocaine is many times more addictive. It seems this same idea would hold true for nicotine consumption. Smoking seem to be the quickest and most efficient way to deliver a drug to the brain making its addictive potential even greater. Any studies or info would be appreciated.

Re: Nicotine addiction

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admin 10-10-2008, 7:43 AM
Better to be more addicted to something relatively harmless than less addicted to something worse but that being said you don't have to make that kind of choice when it comes to tobacco.  There is not that much good research on the addictiveness of using smokeless tobacco when you compare it to the volumes on smoking however what there is seems to indicate that smoking is the more addictive method. 

For a good summary see the Royal College of Physicians Report here.  You can download if for free.  Look at chapter 4: page 65 titled Mechanisms of tobacco addiction in humans.

Its worth taking any chemical explanations of addiction with a grain of salt.  Different people react differently to the same doses of drugs; some people are obviously more addicted to cigarettes than others.  You can form ties with not only the drug, nicotine, but also with the associated chains of behaviors, the circumstances in which you smoke, the company, etc..  Addiction is quite complicated and not that well defined or understood.