Is Nicotine Addictive?
~Jack Henslee

The Surgeon General certainly thinks so, but then politicians like Bob Dole say its as safe as milk. I guess people will say anything if they are paid enough by the death merchants that sell and promote tobacco products. There are differing opinions that at one extreme says nicotine is as addictive as heroin, and the other extreme says it’s not the least bit addictive. I think the answer probably lies somewhere in between, and in my opinion it’s a lot closer to the heroin theory than the harmless theory.

What is addiction? The dictionary is not real clear. It say things like "devoted or given to a habit," "being given over or surrendering," "that cessation causes sever trauma." In fact, the definition of habit is very close to that of addiction and is listed as a synonym in most thesaurus’. I think that most people would agree that addiction is a very strong and compelling dependency on something. And that to do without it causes adverse effects to the mind and/or body.

So, is nicotine addictive? Lets look at the facts as I see them. At one point in my life I smoked a minimum of 3 packs of cigarettes a day, and quite often 4 packs. I would not get out of bed in the morning without first smoking a cigarette, and I would not go to sleep at night before I relaxed with one last cigarette. I needed a fix to start my day, and another one to carry me through the night. In addition to that, I frequently woke up during the night and smoked another cigarette. As my lungs got worse I switched from non filtered Camels, to Winston’s, to Doral’s, and finally to Vantage, the weakest cigarette I could find that still satisfied me. Naturally, the weaker the cigarettes got the more I smoked. Do you think that maybe I was addicted?

In 1979, at the age of 34, I was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma of the larynx. Also commonly referred to as THROAT CANCER. I had a partial laryngectomy which preserved my voice (although it was changed) and was assured that I should be fine as long as I stopped smoking. The stopping was easy because I was in the hospital for 3 weeks and couldn’t smoke. However, about 4 months after my release I slowly started again. At first it was just once in awhile. One or two with a drink, one after a meal, then maybe one to calm the nerves under stressful situations. Then it became 3 or 4 with a drink, 1 or 2 after eating anything, 1 or 2 at work breaks, and then, before I realized it, I was back to 1 or 2 packs a day.

In 1988 I was back in the hospital. The Dragon had returned. I had challenged the statistics because of my desire to smoke and I had lost. Just like I was told.

Am I an abnormality because I wouldn’t quit? Maybe I was just stupid. That must be it because the tobacco companies have sworn under oath to Congress that nicotine is not addictive. Surely they wouldn’t lie when over 500,000 people a year are dying from tobacco products.

Well if that’s the case then stupidity runs in my family. My loving wife watched me fight cancer 3 times (I had another recurrence in 1995). She witnessed my struggles to speak again and rehabilitate my life. Through all of this she continued to smoke. Oh, she tried to quit many times. She used the patch and other methods all to no avail. Two years ago she finally succeeded. But it was too late. Today she suffers from congestive heart failure, emphysema, and asthma. She is connected to her oxygen supply 24 hours a day and is very susceptible to respiratory infections.

Then there is the rest of my family. I have a brother and sister-in-law that continue to smoke. I have a sister and brother-in-law that smoke, I have a son and a daughter that smoke and a grandson that smokes. My mother and another daughter finally gave them up recently but my step-father still smokes. These people have all seen what the effects of smoking can do, but yet they continued to challenge the odds. All I know is that if we are stupid, then we have an awful lot of company.

Is nicotine addictive? Don’t bet against it…..

~ Jack Henslee, 1997