188 



This study did not address or provide any information or Insights concerning 

 whether or not nicotine causes addiction. 



The Fate of Nicotine in the Body proposed to examine the physical 

 properties of nicotine in regard to absorption, distribution, action, breakdown and 

 elimination. The study's subjects were rats, rabbits and human volunteers. 



The study measured the uptake, breakdown and excretion of nicotine. No 

 behavioral measurements were attempted. At the end of the report a question 

 was raised about a possible correlation between nicotine tolerance and the 

 development of nicotine addiction. The authors express the personal opinions that: 

 "We believe that both tolerance and addiction are intimately connected, and that it 

 would be most useful to investigate the two phenomena with regard to cellular 

 adaptation, especially in target organs of the central nervous system." 

 Importantly, the authors acknowledged that this is a personal point of view and. not 

 a scientific one when they state "In anv case, the present results offer no 

 conclusive evidence for anv mechanism involved in tolerance to nicotine, nor do 

 thev Indicate a lead to the phenomenon of addiction. ' (emphasis added) 



The Tentative Hypothesis on Nicotine Addiction is not a report of a scientific 

 study but rather a proposal for further investigation. The "tentative hypothesis" 

 states: "... a tentative hypothesis for the explanation of nicotine addiction would 

 be that of an unconscious desire to restore the normal physiological equilibrium of 

 the corticotropin releasing system in a body in which the normal functioning of the 

 system has been weakened by chronic intake of nicotine." The results of the 

 Hippo I study provided data contrary to this "tentative hypothesis." In particular 

 Hippo I found no effects of nicotine on the hypothalamus - a critical element in the 

 mechanism proposed in this paper. 



Furthermore the "tentative hypothesis" assumes that nicotine is known to be 

 addicting when, in fact, it is not addicting for the reasons set forth in the 1964 

 Surgeon General's Report which are still true today. Finally, cigarette smoking is 

 not driven by an "unconscious desire' for nicotine. The presumption that the label 

 of addiction carries this component is factually wrong. Heroin addicts, alcoholics, 



