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A Look At Tobacco Additives

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A Look at Tobacco Additives

Southeast Missouri University

Drugs, Society, and Human Behavior UI300

Submitted by Hannah Wiggins

September 24, 2014

In an article published in 1999 entitled Tobacco Additives: Cigarette Engineering and Nicotine Addiction, C. Bates, M. Jarvis, and G. Connolly explore the ins and outs of the tobacco industry. They discuss the regulations placed on the tobacco industry, and discuss various studies that give information about the effects of the additives included in cigarettes and tobacco products. This 25 page document gives a detailed explanation of the tobacco industry and the way they manipulate their customers, as well as what the government is doing about it. The article begins by listing some …show more content…

The authors then inform the reader of the way tobacco companies work. Tobacco companies make their money by ensuring that the public will continue to buy their products. The primary reason people smoke is for nicotine. The authors quote Philip Morris, a major manufacturer of tobacco products, as saying that cigarettes should be thought of as the package by which the smoker is supplied their daily dose of nicotine. R.J. Reynolds, another giant tobacco company, is quoted saying that the producers of cigarettes and other tobacco products should be thought of as a pharmaceutical representatives. These companies made no effort to deny that nicotine is a drug and that it is addictive. What makes cigarettes so desirable? So addictive? It has already been established that nicotine is the reason that people smoke. Nicotine is ultimately what people are addicted to. The article details the act of smoking. The user lights their cigarette and inhales. There are a mixture of particles and gases released by which nicotine is dispersed, and then readily absorbed into the lungs. The nicotine reaches the brain within ten seconds and then binds with receptors. These receptors are stimulated to produce and release catecholamines, or neurotransmitters, specifically dopamine. While nicotine is a central nervous system stimulant, it also causes users a sense of relaxation. Ultimately, the brain develops a tolerance to nicotine, so it requires

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