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Is
Nicotine Really Addictive?
Nicotine
is a substance that is important to the economy of the planet.
Yet it is a substance that even most of its users know very
little about. For many years nicotine and smoking were pretty
much the same thing, but now you can get nicotine on its own
in the form of gums, patches, and inhalers. This is a substance
that has high toxicity and is lethal in small doses - so why
is it able to provide significant revenue for an industry,
and for those governments that place high duty on the purchase
of cigarettes. The reason is that nicotine is believed to
be highly addictive. But it is believed to be highly addictive
by only some experts, while other experts are convinced it
is nothing of the sort.
There
is a world of difference between being addicted, in the clinical
sense, to something and to really liking it or liking how
it makes you feel. Sex isn't addictive, yet most people like
it, enjoy it, and engage in it over a period of many decades.
Those same people, if it isn't available, may find themselves
wishing for a suitable partner and thinking about it a lot.
That's not an addiction. That's a desire. But as soon as you
get engrossed in something that captivates your attention
and interest, then thoughts of sex disappear.
I
see a lot of smokers who come to me for help in stopping smoking.
Around half of them believe they are addicted to nicotine;
around a quarter believe it is part addiction part habit;
and the rest see it as purely a habit. The interesting thing
is that there is no correlation between the number of cigarettes
a smoker smokes per day and their beliefs about it being a
habit or an addiction.
No
one doubts that heroine is an addictive substance. There is
also no doubt that some heroine addicts commit crimes to fund
their habit. Now it may be that cigarettes are so readily
available, and smokers organise their smokes so carefully
that a smoker never runs out of cigarettes - but still it's
difficult to imagine a normally law-abiding smoker who has
run out of cigarettes breaking into the local tobacconist
to pick up a packet of twenty because they'll be insane with
craving by morning if they don't get a cigarette RIGHT NOW.
That
must surely cast a shadow of doubt on the addictiveness of
tobacco smoking.
One
of the factors of significance in addiction is habituation.
Habituation is what happens when the body gets used to, or
tolerates, a drug that is taken on a regular basis. It means
that the same dose, over time, gives less and less effect.
So one of the characteristics of addiction is that the dose
slowly increases. Those of you who have taken drugs like valium
(diazepam), or other benzodiazepenes, will be familiar with
this effect. The first few days of taking them put your world
back to normal, but by the time you visit the doctor a week
later you are suffering again and so he ups the dose. Then
a month or two later the dose is increased again or the drug
changed to one with a stronger effect.
Cigarette
smokers have invariably smoked the same number of cigarettes
per day for ten, twenty, thirty, forty years or more.
That
alone must surely cast a shadow of doubt on the addictiveness
of tobacco smoking.
When
there's a myth that's so pervasive within the culture that
it has become a Belief, I look to see who benefits. Clearly
in my own country (the UK) four powerful groups benefit: the
tobacco industry, the government, the pharmaceutical industry,
and the National Health Service.
·
the tobacco industry makes enormous profits for itself.
·
the Government raises Revenue from every tobacco product sold.
·
the Pharmaceutical Industry sells nicotine delivery systems
and 'anti-smoking' drugs.
·
the National Health Service attracts massive funding to treat
smoking-related disease.
Just
to give an idea of the huge size of the smoking 'pie'; in
2004 Gallaher, third largest UK tobacco company, paid Duty
of £5,500,000,000 and claimed a pre-tax profit
of £429,000,000.
In
the same year, Imperial Tobacco, the largest UK tobacco company
paid £8,000,000,000 Duty, and claimed a pre-tax
profit of £688,000,000.
In
comparison to that the treatment of smoking related disease
means the National Health Service can attract £1,500,000,000
per year from the Government - a drop in the ocean compared
to the duty that tobacco sales raise. So from the Government's
point of view it makes more economic sense to keep smokers
smoking and simply invest a small portion of the Revenue that
they pour into Government coffers to pay for medical professionals
to look after them when they get sick.
Could
this have anything to do with the reason that when smoker's
seek medical help to quit smoking, they are offered nicotine
replacement therapy, or Zyban (actually an anti-depressant)?
These treatments don't have a very good track record, but
they do keep the Pharmaceutical Industry happy.
Now
I'm not suggesting conspiracy here. Just economics. We all
know, just like when governments decide that wars are to be
fought and individual lives and suffering become meaningless,
that with economics money is all that matters, people don't
(except when we need your vote). Just like wars, the economics
of smoking is filled with propaganda.
If
somebody tells you something enough times, then you may begin
to believe it.
The
main propaganda that is promoted in relation to smoking is
that nicotine is physiologically addictive.
I
have treated plenty of 20 a day smokers who happily sit on
a 10-12 hour transatlantic flight, enjoying the book, movie,
view, conversation… and only 'crave' a cigarette the
minute they get off the plane and into an area where smoking
is allowed. I have never met a smoker who gets up in the middle
of the night for a cigarette. Even after they get up they
shower, enjoy breakfast, and it isn't until they sit down
to enjoy the mug of tea or coffee that they light up - at
last! Yet they can be lighting up at the rate of one an hour
throughout the day.
This
isn't addiction - it's a habit.
Hypnosis
could well be the very best treatment to break a habit, because
a habit is purely a mind thing.
Hypnosis
makes it very easy to just change your mind.
You
will agree that tobacco is big business. The Tobacco Barons,
the Pharmacy Kings, and the Men from the Ministry are not
going to allow Billions to slip through their fingers. If
smokers believe that they are addicted to something that isn't
an addictive substance, then the only people who are going
to suffer are the smokers. Misinformation means Revenue. Setting
the record straight is only of benefit to smokers. Setting
the record straight is detrimental to vested interests. So
you have a choice if you smoke. You can choose to use hypnosis
break the habit and then spend your hard-earned cash on something
enjoyable.
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