194 



aerangejnents. " Larson, et al. continue on to conclude that It ia 

 hardly accurate to regard tobacco as a drug of addiction. 



In a concluding paragraph, the researchers not« that, "The present 

 results offer no conclusive evid«nce for any particular mechanism 

 involved in tolerance to nicotin*, nor do they indicate a lead to 

 the phenomenon of addiction." 



Nothing in this report shows that the effects of smoking are 

 similar to those of the addictive drugs. 



The fifth document I reviewed was a short thought paper (with no 

 data and no references) titled "A Tentative Hypothesis" on Nicotine 

 Addiction." The authors, Haselbach and Libert, admit to the highly 

 speculative nature of their proposal by the use of the expression 

 "a tentative hypothesis." Scientifically "A hypothesis typically 

 arises in the form of speculation concerning observed phenomena of 

 nature or man." (Introduction to Statistical Analysis, Dixon and 

 Massey [1969]). Thus, "a tentative hypothesis" is a highly 

 speculative concept that can be best described as speculation upon 

 speculation. This also clearly describes their efforts in 



presenting such a questionable and untestable concept as 

 " unconscious desire " to maintain physiological equilibrium as an 

 explanation for "addiction to nicotine." (Emphasis added.) 



The authors indicate some awareness of the significant differences 

 between the action of nicotine and genuinely addictive substances 

 in their statement "Unlike other dopings such as morphine the 

 demand for increasing levels is relatively slow for nicotine." 



Their hypothesized mechanism of nicotine activity in the secretion 

 of the corticotropin releasing factor from the hypothalamus was not 

 established in their own work on the Hippo II Project and remains 

 controversial even today. 



The authors seem to regard addiction in this note as instigated 

 either by the relief of stress, personal satisfaction, 

 reinforcement, relief of withdrawal symptoms, or an "'unconscious 

 desire" for ACTH activity. None of these hypotheses define 

 addiction. They omit the critical elements of intoxication and 

 personality change and significant disturbance during withdrawal. 



SUMMARY 



A review of the above documents leads me to draw the following 

 conclusions: 



1. The experimental designs and procedures indeed were 

 extremely limited. 



2 . The results of their efforts to establish the 

 biochemical basis for the action of nicotine were 

 in no way conclusive. 



3 . Nothing in these reports supports the concept that 

 smoking is addictive. There ie no evidence offered 

 that nicotine has the basic elements of addiction 

 (e.g., the substance intoxicates the individual; 

 the Individual develops significant withdrawal 

 symptoms that are consistent, and the personality 

 and judgment are disrupted) . 



4 . The authors use of the tern "addictive" varied from 

 report to report and never addressed the 

 traditional definition of addiction which was 

 available to tham in their own literature review. 



5. Many of the proposed ideas presented in these 

 reports have not been supported in the scientific 

 literature and remain in dispute today. 



