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In his February 25 letter. Commissioner Kessler suggested that the cigarette 

 manufacturers "commonly add nicotine to cigarettes to deliver specific amounts of 

 nicotine" and deliberately manipulate the amount of nicotine in cigarettes in order to 

 "produce and sustain addiction." Similar allegations have been aired in the media. 



Mr. Chairman, I am here today to tell you -- unequivocally -- that these 

 suggestions are false. 



• The cigarette manufacturers do not "spike" their cigarettes with nicotine. In 



fact, nicotine is lost in the manufacturing process. There is not a single 

 cigarette on the market in this country today that does not contain less nicotine 

 than is found in the raw tobacco used in its manufacture. 



• Generally, nicotine levels are a function of "tar" levels. When "tar" levels are 

 set, nicotine levels follow. As manufacturers have reduced "tar" levels and 

 yields over the years to satisfy changing consumer tastes, nicotine levels and 

 yields have fallen correspondingly. 



• The nicotine in the average cigarette today is lower than it has ever been. 



Between 1954 and 1993, the average nicotine level in cigarettes fell from 

 2.6 milligrams to 0.89 milligrams -- a two-thirds decline. The suggestion that 

 nicotine is being "added" to cigarettes or "manipulated" to keep smokers 

 "hooked" is absurd. 



• It is irresponsible to equate cigarettes with hard drugs. The suggestion that 

 nicotine is "as addictive as heroin, cocaine and other hard drugs" trivializes the 

 serious narcotic and other hard drug problems faced by our society and under- 

 mines efforts to combat drug abuse. As the Indianapolis Star stated in a 1988 

 editorial, the analogy to hard drugs is "misguided zealotry" that "downgrades, 

 even discredits, the nation's campaign against hard drugs." 



Mr. Chairman, the irony of this latest controversy over nicotine is truly 



striking. The cigarette manufacturers, after reducing the average nicotine levels of 



their cigarettes by two-thirds over the last 40 years, now stand accused - wrongly, as 



I already have stated -- of adding nicotine to their cigarettes in order to keep smokers 



