Reducing the urge for nicotine

Phil was quietly reviewing the mail that had accumulated on his desk when he came across a report that stunned him. He reached for the phone and pushed three buttons fast.

“Yes, boss?” Morris said, his head thrusting into the corner office where his friend and co-worker held forth.

“Take a look at this,” Phil said, pushing a couple of pieces of paper across the desk.

Morris picked up the top sheet and sat down. His mouth moved but no sound came out as his eyes traced back and forth on the text in front of him. “Well, I’ll be smoked,” he said. “If that doesn’t beat all! They’re going to go inside the brain to stop people from craving nicotine.”

“Not for a while,” Phil said. “They’re just doing research on mice right now.”

“Mice don’t smoke.”

“No, but they can get themselves addicted to nicotine.”

“With help from the lab guys.”

“Granted, but addicted in any case. What they’ve done is they’ve found a neuropeptide receptor in the brain that makes it possible for a chain reaction to take place that makes mice crave nicotine.”

Morris leaned back. “Phil,” he said, “I’ve told you a thousand times. Smoking is an intellectual activity. Starts right here in the brain.” He tapped his forehead.

“Maybe so, but remember we’re talking about nicotine, not tobacco.”

“So?”

“Well, scientists now have a way of blocking those receptors so that mice that were addicted to nicotine lose their craving. They don’t want nicotine any more.”

“Hmm. That could be bad for us.”

“Not for a while, Morris. It takes a while for these things to surface. But still, we need to think of our future and what we can do to keep a receptor blocker from ruining it.”

“Won’t happen, pal. People love to smoke. They crave nicotine, but they really like the experience of smoking. The smoke, the breathing in, the good feelings. It’s fun to smoke.”

“Thanks, Morris,” Phil said as he put the papers into a folder. “Thanks a lot.”

Source: Molecular Switch in Brain May End Smokers’ Cravings

Presented without cost or obligation or advertising by Griffith Publishing

Crack Nicotine

“Phil, you promised you’d explain exactly how this freebase nicotine helps our business,” Morris said to his friend and business partner Phil after lunch in the company’s huge cafeteria.

“That I did,” Phil said. “That I did.” He carefully stacked all of the paper plates and cups and stepped over to the nearest trash disposal. Then he pulled a fountain pen out of his shirt pocket and began to draw boxes and circles on a paper napkin. “Pay close attention, okay?”

“Sure, boss.” Morris leaned over to see what Phil was drawing.

“Look,” Phil said, stabbing his pen towards a small circle on the napkin. “Let’s say this is nicotine.” Then he drew a much larger circle around the first one. “This is freebase nicotine.”

“It makes nicotine bigger?”

“Sort of. We don’t have to use as much nicotine when it’s freebase.”

“Why?”

“Because the hit from nicotine is more direct, faster, when it’s freebase.”

“How do we make it freebase?” Morris leaned back. “Wait a minute,” he said. “I know how we make freebase nicotine. I saw it on a company tour last month. We mix ammonia with the nicotine.”

“You’re close,” Phil said, “and nobody can stop us because we use ammonia in so many ways.  It’s one of the most common household chemicals.”

“How does it work?”

“Well, Morris. Ammonia acts like a little speed performance machine. When it reacts with nicotine, the two chemicals combine in the smoke of cigarettes, and it zooms into the lungs at breakneck speeds. Faster delivery, faster results, faster return to get more.”

“Oh. That’s what we did with Marlboro cigarettes, wasn’t it?”

“Yes. And we were able to deliver nicotine in a much more healthful way.”

“How is that?”

“Well, the freebase version of nicotine gives a bigger hit fast, so you don’t have to deliver as much tobacco to satisfy the addiction. Can I trust you with a little secret?”

“Sure, boss! You trust me with everything, remember?”

“The secret is that a person who has never smoked a single cigarette, never, can be hooked on our cigarettes after just one cigarette. Even after just one puff.”

“Wow!” Morris said, rubbing his hands on his face. “Just think. We were the first ones to do it.”

“Almost. We’ve been using freebase nicotine since the 1960s and are still adapting new technology so we can adjust the process to our advantage. But most tobacco companies have caught on by now.”

“And it’s still legal?” Morris asked, his eyes widening.

“No way they can stop it, really,” Phil said. “I think they’re starting to measure it and who knows what legislation will come up.”

“Give me some numbers. I want to nail this down,” Morris said.

“Okay. We were able to load 10 to 20 times as much freebase in our cigarettes as our competition. Our sales took off. Marlboro became a world leader in tobacco sales.”

“Wait a minute,” Morris said. “Don’t tell me any more. I want to know what we’ve got that’s new, that will sweep the market the way our freebase nicotine did when we started using it. We have to keep ahead of the competition, you know.”

“Here’s one little toy we’ll be selling soon,” Phil said. He pulled a printed folder out of his pocket and smoothed it open on the table. This is the Accord. No second-hand smoke. Quite the device.”

“Wow,” Morris said. “Tell me about it.”

“Later, Morris. Later.”

–brought to you by Griffith Publishing

Phil and Morris talk about freebase nicotine

Phil was swaggering across the campus of a giant tobacco company when he heard the huff-huff of his friend and business partner, Morris, behind him. He planted his feet and waited for Morris to catch up.

“Phil,” Morris panted. “We’ve got a breakthrough on our hands!”

“Indeed?” said Phil, always the skeptic. “What is it this time?”

“Phil, we don’t need to sell cigarettes at all. It’s the nicotine that works!” He began leaping into the air and landing first on one foot and then the other, apparently to demonstrate how active this revelation was.

Phil put one hand on Morris’s shoulder and held it there until Morris stopped jumping up and down. “Morris, we’ve been on that kick for years. Do you have something new to tell me about serving the tobacco market?”

“It’s the nicotine market,” Morris sputtered. “Phil, wake up. We don’t have to sell tobacco, just nicotine. That’s the addictive part of smoking. So skip smoking altogether and sell nicotine in candy or chewing gum or something.”

“Let me remind you,” Phil said. “There are already several products that have nicotine in them but not tobacco.”

“Like what?”

“Like nicotine gum. Like a nicotine patch. There are even nasal sprays that deliver nicotine to the system.”

“Well, then?”

“Well, then what? Morris, you’d better come up with something fast.”

“Okay. How’s this for fast? We’re going to hype our nicotine a little more to make it more compelling to use…”

“…You mean, more addictive?”

“That’ll work. Then we’ll package and flavor it so it’s delicious, and it will be a best seller.”

“Morris, you need to go back to Tobacco University and take that class on marketing cigarettes. If you’ll think real hard you’ll remember two things about nicotine without tobacco.”

“Two things, eh? Okay.”

“The first is that we use just enough nicotine to trigger the addiction. Too much nicotine can cause all sorts of horrible health problems like revving up  the body’s flight-or-fight system.  Plus it boosts the heart rate, raises blood pressure, and makes blood vessels smaller while causing the heart to put out more blood.”

“So?”

“On that route you’re headed for heart disease and all kinds of problems.”

“Says who?”

“Says plenty of people. LIke Dr. Robert Millman at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, for one.”

“But no lung cancer.”

“You’re right, there, Morris. If we drown ‘em in nicotine they’ll die from heart disease instead of lung cancer. But there’s another big reason why it won’t work.”

“I’m listening.”

“We lucky people in the tobacco industry are using one of the most incredible delivery systems in the universe. The nicotine in the cigarettes we sell is fast acting because it’s goes straight to the lungs and the blood vessels that form there. That means the smoker gets a high real fast. The feelings go away fast, the the smoker comes back for more.”

“Are you saying that taking nicotine in chewing gum gets to the user slower than the nicotine from smoking tobacco leaves mixed with nicotine in our cigarettes?”

“That’s what I’m saying, Morris. There’s no comparison. Nicotine that is swallowed doesn’t have the same punch.”

“Well, I’ll be smoked.”

“I  do think it would be a good move to start marketing nicotine inhalers. They’ve been on the market for some time. But smoking is such a habit to so many, we have to work with marketing conditions the way they are.”

“With our freebase nicotine, Phil, we can get people hooked with one drag on their first cigarette.”

“Yes, we can. And it’s a whole lot less expensive for us than to start selling pocket-sized nicotine inhalers or nicotine suckers.”

“Good thing we figured out that freebase stuff. Wish I knew how it works.”

“Another time, Morris, another time.”

Broken promises to the American Public

Phil and Morris were walking across the expansive campus of the giant tobacco company where they hold majority stock positions.

“It’s quite a beating they took, isn’t it?” Phil said as he kicked a stone off the sidewalk into the manicured lawn.

“Who? We’re the ones who are losing customers.”

“Yada yada yada. But, Morris, think about this. Exactly ten years ago the Milennium Fund started siphoning money from cigarette sales to the states to help them get people to stop smoking.”

“Oh, yeah. I remember that. Must be quite a sum that the Fund handled since then.”

“Indeed. It’s coming in at about $25 billion for 2008, including tobacco taxes.”

“Wow. Just think what we could do, Phil, with another $25 billion or so to promote our cigarettes.”

“That’s not the point, silly. The point is that this money is supposed to divert profit from our company, but it’s not working.  As far as the anti-smoking folks are concerned, the whole program is useless.”

“Twenty-five billion dollars is useless?” Morris cracked the side of his jaw with his fist. “Twenty-five billion dollars?”

“You’d think the settlement was incentive money to help people smoke more. I find it amusing.”

“Me, too. They must not have put very good hooks into the money that was supposed to help people quit or never start smoking.

“That’s right, buddy. Only three cents of every dollar went to fund programs to help people quit smoking or not start in the first place. Three cents!”

Morris moved his fingers and his lips at the same time. “Giving away $25 billion—with a “B”—to cut the use of nicotine and finding out that only $750,000 was actually used for that purpose. Is anyone getting mad about this?”

“Oh, a few people, but you know what, Morris? Money talks. If everybody quit smoking, think of all the jobs that would be lost.”

“People are paid to smoke?”

“No, silly. People like you and me who work for the tobacco industry.”

“Oh. Anything else?”

“Lots more. Think about the tobacco taxes the states wouldn’t get any more. And don’t forget the investors and marketing people who get plenty of money from our trade. And people who sell our cigarettes in stores and other places.”

“Hmmm. Seems to me there’s a lot of money sitting around that’s not being used.”

“Oh, it’s being used,” Philip said.

“For what?”

“You’ve heard of budget shortfalls?”

“Sure.”

“Well, lots of states just transfer the money from the tobacco settlement to their general fund.”

“And that puts them in the black again.”

“For some of them. You know, Morris, here’s what amazes me the most. The US government has the equivalent of a vaccine for lung cancer and other deadly diseases from the use of tobacco. Not only that. They have plenty of money now to pay for all of the programs and services that are effective in reducing tobacco use significantly.”

“Really? How effective?”

“How’s 50-to-1 for effective?”

“Fifty what?”

“For every dollar the State of California spends on anti-smoking programs, they save fifty dollars in health care costs for people with smoking-related diseases.”

Morris shook his head. “I should be rejoicing,” he said. “Instead, I’m bewildered. I mean, I’m glad we have such a popular product and that you and I are doing so well by putting our lives into the industry, but still. Why don’t people screw their heads on and use the resources available to them? They could easily cut the rate of smoking to 12 percent in two years and probably all the way down to 8 or 10 percent. That would save the country billions of dollars every year.”

“That they could,” Philip responded as he pulled a pack of cigarettes from his briefcase. “That they could. But they won’t. I’m betting on it that they won’t.”

“For our sakes, I hope you’re right.”

Source: Ten-Year Report on the MSA (Master Settlement Agreement)

Free from nicotine week after week

Be sure to check out the comments on yesterday’s blog, “Yes, It’s Hard to Quit,” about the Quit and Live smoking cessation program. Quit and Stay Quit Monday sounds like a terrific follow-up program for dealing with the nicotine addiction week after week.

—brought to you by Griffith Publishing

Quit and Live

A free, four-day tobacco-cessation program for adults, teens and pregnant smokers and chewers. The classes are funded by Idaho’s Millennium Fund.

IN NAMPA: Nov. 17-20

IN BOISE: Dec. 8-11

RESERVE A SPACE: Call Quit and Live at 342-0308 or e-mail info@QuitAndLive.net.

Yes, it’s hard to quit

by Nancy Casperson, R.N.

Every year, tobacco users across the nation take part in the American Cancer Society’s Great American Smokeout by smoking less, quitting for the day or quitting for good on the third Thursday of November. Tobacco users in the Treasure Valley have a great opportunity to prepare for the Great American Smokeout on Nov. 20.

As an ex-smoker, I understand how difficult it is to quit smoking. I tried 30 times before I quit. Sure, I knew my health was compromised, and when the doctor said I had early emphysema, I was horrified by the idea of lugging around an oxygen tank. Still, I could not “just quit.” It took me three years to quit for good. And I haven’t smoked for 17 years.

I started smoking in nursing school (of all things) at the age of 21, getting through night shifts with coffee and cigarettes. I never realized that quitting smoking would be the biggest challenge of my life.

I asked myself, “Why is this so hard?” and started looking for the answer. What I found was upsetting and shocking. The tobacco companies have additives in tobacco that amplify getting nicotine to the brain, many say making it as addictive as crystal methamphetamine. The tobacco companies spend billions of dollars a year on “cool” packaging and advertising (90 percent of all smokers start in their teen years).

No good can come of using tobacco. Smokers and chewers have only health problems, a limited lifestyle and a shortened lifespan to look forward to. That means dying 14 years earlier than a non-smoker.

My tobacco-cessation program is not just focused on why people need to quit, but how to quit. I knew I had to quit and yet I couldn’t. The question of how to help others quit took me to the Mayo Clinic Tobacco Addiction Training, where I learned the most current techniques, treatments and medication used to treat tobacco addiction.

Medical experts now classify tobacco use as a life-threatening medical condition called chronic relapsing addictive disorder. Medical treatment is an important component of any successful tobacco-cessation program. So is educating the tobacco user on what tobacco does inside the body, understanding this addiction and learning how tobacco users can be smarter than tobacco.

Make the Great American Smokeout your time to quit.

Nancy Caspersen, R.N., is a tobacco cessation specialist.

Check out these resources:

Nancy’s Quit and Live program.

Mayo Clinic Nicotine Dependence Center