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I appear before you today in order to address two parts of this bill, the proposition that 

 cigarette smoking is addictive (indeed, as addictive as heroin and cocaine), and the proposed label 

 warning that once a person has started smoking he or she may not be able to quit. From a practical, 

 clinical and scientific perspective, cigarette smoking behavior is not the same as seen in actual hard 

 drug addiction. In order to include smoking as an addiction, one must redefme that term, water 

 down its meaning, and ignore critical differences involving every aspect of these behaviors. This 

 is precisely what the Surgeon General did in his 1988 report to Congress. Smoking became an 

 addiction because the Surgeon General changed its definition, not because of new scientific 

 discoveries. The finding, therefore, rests solely on semantics. Further, the salient features of this 

 new definition of addiaion are shared by many other well-liked and common habits, such as eating, 

 coffee drinking, exercise and even interpersonal relationships. 



But more than semantics and labels are involved here. Presenting smoking as a hard drug 

 addiction and warning that a person may not be able to quit has unintended negative ramifications. 

 It viaimizes smokers and makes the process of stopping seem more difficult than it really is. It also 

 sends the wrong message to young people about the true dangers of hard drug usage by equating the 

 effects of heroin and cocaine with the behavioral effects of cigarettes. 



I do not appear here as an apologist or promoter of cigarette smoking. Fundamentally, I 

 believe it is a risk factor in the development of some diseases. For that reason, within the context 

 of therapy, I help my patients examine their motives for smoking and, if they wish, help them to 

 stop. This process is like that involved in losing weight or changing one's exercise pattern. It is 

 a far cry from treating hard drug addiction. 



