Trust Us We're The Tobacco Industry - Tobacco Control Supersite

2. Addiction
For more than 40 years
the tobacco industry
has known that
the nicotine in
cigarettes is addictive.
Internally, the companies have long
recognized that nicotine addiction is
the prime reason that people continue
to smoke. Publicly the companies have
denied this, or, more recently, tried to
fudge the definition of addiction. The
industry maintains, however, that it
has never been deceitful on the issue
of nicotine and addiction: “We have
not concealed, we do not conceal, and
we will never conceal….[W]e have no
internal research which proves that
smoking…is addictive.” 2
5
(BAT, 1996)
Company documents suggest
otherwise:
“We have, then, as our first
premise, that the primary motivation
for smoking is to obtain the pharmacological
effect of nicotine.” 3
(Philip Morris, 1969)
“Different people smoke for
different reasons. But the primary
reason is to deliver nicotine into their
bodies. Nicotine is an alkaloid derived
from the tobacco plant. It is a physiologically
active, nitrogen-containing
substance. Similar organic chemicals
include nicotine, quinine, cocaine,
atropine and morphine.” 4
(Philip Morris, undated)
“Let’s face facts: Cigarette smoke
is biologically active. Nicotine is a
potent pharmacological agent. Every
toxicologist, physiologist, medical
doctor and most chemists know that.
It’s not a secret.” 5
(Philip Morris, 1982)
Rather than being involved in
the selling of cigarettes, the tobacco
industry has very much seen itself,
privately at least, as being in the business
of selling nicotine in the most
appealing way possible:
“Nicotine is addictive. We are,
then, in the business of selling nicotine—an
addictive drug effective in
the release of stress mechanisms.” 6
(Brown & Williamson, 1963)
“In a sense, the tobacco industry
may be thought of as being a specialized,
highly ritualized, and stylized segment
of the pharmaceutical industry.
Tobacco products uniquely contain
and deliver nicotine, a potent drug
with a variety of physiological effects.” 7
(R.J. Reynolds, 1972)
“It may be useful, therefore, to
look at the tobacco industry as if for a
large part its business is the administration
of nicotine (in the clinical sense).” 8
(BAT, 1967)
“…BAT should learn to look at
itself as a drug company rather than
as a tobacco company.” 9
(BAT, 1980)
Although the tobacco industry has
fought government efforts to
regulate cigarettes as drug-delivery
devices, in private that is exactly how
they see their product:
“The cigarette should be conceived
not as a product but as a package.
The product is nicotine….Think of the
cigarette pack as a storage container
for a day’s supply of nicotine….Think
of a cigarette as a dispenser for a