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Path: utzoo!aesat!rwh
From: rwh@aesat.UUCP (Russ Herman)
Newsgroups: net.med
Subject: Re: Smoking, Starting
Message-ID: <464@aesat.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 18-Sep-85 08:41:49 EDT
Article-I.D.: aesat.464
Posted: Wed Sep 18 08:41:49 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 18-Sep-85 09:35:09 EDT
References: <274@mot.UUCP>
Organization: AES Data Inc., Mississauga, Ont., CANADA L5N 3C9
Lines: 23

Either nicotine is not addictive (in the strict sense), or not all cigarette
smokers are nicotine addicts. I offer my own behavior in evidence, as follows.

20 years ago I was a cigarette smoker, 1-1/2 packs a day. I quit after six
months; just stopped enjoying them. Now I smoke a pipe in two kinds of
situations: at work (5 days a week), and if I'm at my in-laws (about once a
month, on a weekend). Now since I only smoke a pipe, and regularly go 48
hours at a stretch without it, I don't believe I can be classified as
nicotine addicted. Now, here's the kicker. Once or twice a year, I forget
to bring my pipe to my in-laws. When that happens, I will bum a cigarette
off of my brother-in-law. I will smoke it, with inhaling. Yet I have no
craving whatsoever to return to regular cigarette smoking as a result.

Except for opiates and perhaps alcohol, it seems as though the term "addiction"
is used far too loosely. I lean toward toward the "addictive personalty"
notions more than toward the addictive substances/behaviors.
-- 
  ______			Russ Herman
 /      \			{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!aesat!rwh
@( ?  ? )@			
 (  ||  )			The opinions above are strictly personal, and 
 ( \__/ )			do not reflect those of my employer (or even
  \____/			possibly myself an hour from now.)


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