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credible to deny the highly addictive nature of nicotine. 



II. CONTROLLING THE LEVEL OF NICOTINE IN CIGARETTES 



My second point today involves a growing body of information 

 about the control of nicotine levels exercised by the tobacco 

 industry. Mr. Chairman, I do not have all the facts or all the 

 answers today. The picture is still incomplete. But from a 

 number of pieces of information, from a number of sources, a 

 picture of tobacco company practices is beginning to emerge. 



The public thinks of cigarettes as simply blended tobacco 

 rolled in paper. But they are much more than that. Some of 

 today's cigarettes may, in fact, qualify as high technology 

 nicotine delivery systems that deliver nicotine in precisely 

 calculated quantities -- quantities that are more than sufficient 

 to create and to sustain addiction in the vast majority of 

 individuals who smoke regularly. 



But you don't have to take it from me. Consider how people 

 in the tobacco industry itself view cigarettes. 



Just take a moment to look at the excerpts from an internal 



memorandum written by a supervisor of research that circulated in 



the Philip Morris Company in 1972: 



Think of the cigarette pack as a storage container for a 

 day's supply of nicotine. . . . Think of the cigarette as a 

 dispenser for a dose unit of nicotine. . . . Think of a 

 puff of smoke as the vehicle for nicotine. . . . Smoke is 

 beyond question the most optimized vehicle of nicotine and 

 the cigarette the most optimized dispenser of smoke. 



"Dispensers of smoke . . . which is a vehicle for delivering 



