205 



24 



Source: Health Consequences of Smoking: Nicotine Addiciion . A Repon 

 of the Surgeon General, 1988. pp. 12-13. 



Petitioners have attached as an exhibit the Executive Summary of the report. 



What follows are some of the numerous significant fmdings and conclusions of the 



report The conclusions of the report are based upon the concepts of drug 



dependence (addiction) developed by expert committees of the World Health 



Organization (WHO), as well as publication of the National Institute on Drug 



Abuse (NIDA) and the American Psychiatric Association. As the report notes. 



"These concepts were used to develop a set of criteria to determine whether 



tobacco-delivered nicotine is addictive. The criteria for drug dependence 



(addiction) includes primary and additional indices and are summarized below: 



Criteria for Drug E)ependence 



Primary Cnteria 



o Highly controlled or compulsive use 



o Psychoactive effects 



o Drug- reinforced behavior 



A<j<Jiti9n^ Criwna 



Addictive behavior often involves: 

 o stereotypic patterns of use 

 o use despite harmful effects 

 o relapse following abstinence 

 o recurrent drug cravings 



Dependence-producing drugs often produce: 



o tolerance 



o physical dependence 



o pleasant (euphoriant) effects, (p. 7) 



What follows are conclusions of the report. Petitioners recommend that 



additional discussion, details, and fmdings of the report be made by consulting the 



appropriate chapter of the report. 



1. Nicotine: Fharmacokinetics, Metabolism, and Pharmacodynamics 



1 . All tobacco products contain substantial amounts of nicotine and 

 other alkaloids. Tobaccos from low-yield and high-yield cigarenes 

 contam similar amounts of nicotine. 



2. Nicotine is absortjed readily from tobacco smoke in the lungs and 

 from smokeless tobacco in the mouth or nose. Levels of mcotmc in 

 the blood are similar m magnitude in people using different forms of 

 tobacco. With regular use. levels of nicotine accumulate in the body 



