580 



desire is overpowering and leads to criminality and violence, if necessary, to satisfy the need 

 for the drug. 



In the 1988 Surgeon General's Report, the term "compulsive use" was expanded to 

 include behaviors driven by "strong urges".** There is a world of difference between the 

 irresistible need of the hard drug addict and a "strong urge" to engage in a pleasurable 

 behavior or activity. People have strong urges to eat sweets, drink coffee and watch their 

 favorite soap operas. It is misleading to label these types of "urges" as compulsions. 

 Smokers are frequently in situations where they resist the urge to smoke. They are not in 

 the throes of an overpowering desire to use and obtain cigarettes by any means. They do 

 not remotely resemble cocaine addicts whose very real compulsion to take this highly 

 intoxicating drug totally disrupts their lives, their families and their occupations. 



Smokers are now constantly characterized as addicted and thus unable to quit. 

 Common sense belies that conclusion. Since 1974, more than 40 million people have 

 stopped smoking permanently without any outside intervention or assistance. As one ex- 

 smoker has candidly acknowledged: 'To quit, you have to decide you want to quit. Then 

 you quit."*' 



'* The full definition states: "Highly controlled or compulsive drug use indicates that 

 drug seeking and drug-taking behavior is driven by strong, often irresistible urges". 

 It provides no criteria for determining when a strong urge becomes "irresistible". In 

 fact, no such criteria exist, as admitted by the American Psychiatric Association. 

 "The line between an irresistible impulse and an impulse not resisted is no sharper 

 than that between twilight and dusk. . . ." See "American Psychiatric Association 

 Statement on The Insanity Defense", Am. J. Psychiatry. 140(6), 681-688, 1983. 



" Leonard Larson, Scripp Howard News Service. 



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