Tocacco And Its Effects

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66% in the last 5 years.
Given the overwhelming evidence against tobacco, why would anyone today begin using it? How does it exercise its hold over users? What can smokers and nonsmokers do to help achieve a tobacco-free society? In this report, we explore answers to these and other questions.
WHY PEOPLE USE TOBACCO
If the United States is to become a tobacco-free society, tobacco use must be prevented. This subsection examines the personal and societal forces that induce people to start smoking, as well as the force that encourage them to continue.

Nicotine Addiction

The primary reason people continue to use tobacco despite the health risks is that they have become addicted to a powerful psychoactive drug: nicotine. Although the tobacco industry long maintained that there was insufficient evidence about the addictiveness of nicotine, scientific evidence overwhelmingly supports the conclusion that nicotine is highly addictive. In fact, many researchers consider nicotine ...

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All tobacco products contain nicotine, and the use of any of them can lead to addiction. Nicotine addiction fulfills the criteria for substance dependence described in Chapter 9, including loss of control, tolerance, and withdrawal.

Loss of Control
Three out of four smokers want to quit but find they cannot. Of the 60-80% of people who kick cigarettes at stop-smoking clinics, 75% start smoking again within a year- a relapse rate similar to rates for alcoholics and heroin addicts. Some evidence suggest quitting is even harder for smokeless users: in one study, only 1 of 14 smokeless tobacco users who participated in a tobacco-cessation clinic was able to stop for more than 4 ...

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