Is There a Threshold Level of Nicotine Intake Associated with Addiction?
We define addiction according to the Surgeon General’s 1988 Report on Nicotine Addiction: it is the compulsive use of a drug that has psychoactivity and that may be associated with tolerance and physical dependence (i.e., may be associated with withdrawal symptoms after the cessation of drug use)4. For smokers, addiction is assumed to involve daily smoking of cigarettes, difficulty in not smoking every day, and a high likelihood of withdrawal symptoms after cessation of smoking. Most American smokers are believed to be addicted according to these criteria8. However, approximately 10 percent of current smokers (a group sometimes called tobacco “chippers”) regularly smoke five or fewer cigarettes per day and appear not to be addicted9. Most do not have withdrawal symptoms when they stop. Typically, such people smoke in specific situations, can skip smoking for one or more days, and can quit smoking without great personal distress. The daily intake of nicotine from tobacco can be estimate
