Is Nicotine the Most Addictive Drug?

Writing in The Washington Times, Brad Rodu and Jeff Stier mark the Great American Smokeout by suggesting smokeless tobacco as a safer alternative to cigarettes. Although they are certainly correct to note that different forms of tobacco pose different health risks (a point the government tends to deny or obscure), they are too quick to accept the anti-smoking movement's article of faith that (as ABC medical correspondent Tim Johnson puts it) "there is no more addictive substance than nicotine."

I am automatically skeptical of assertions like that because addictiveness depends not just on the drug but on the user and the context. If you don't like the effects of nicotine, you will find that it is not at all addictive. Even if you like nicotine, you may like another drug more. While anti-smoking activists make much of people who say cigarettes are harder to give up than heroin, for example, most heroin addicts report the opposite. And while it's true that the typical cigarette smoker, who consumes about a pack a day, can reasonably be viewed as a heavy user or addict, the same is not true of the typical cigar or pipe smoker. Although the drug is the same, the patterns of use are quite different, with occasional use more common than daily use.

The "addictiveness" of cigarettes--as measured by the share of experimenters who become regular users or the share of current smokers who light up every day--is largely a function of nicotine's compatibility with everyday activities (in contrast to, say, alcohol or heroin) and the cigarette's (now vanishing) convenience and social acceptability. People tend to smoke cigarettes all day, every day (as opposed to drinking whiskey all day, every day) partly because they can do so without compromising their ability to meet their responsibilities at work and at home. In recent years, as it has become increasingly difficult to find places to smoke, occasional cigarette smoking has become more common. Does that mean nicotine has become less addictive?

The point is not that pharmacology doesn't matter at all. But it's not very meaningful to compare the addictiveness of different substances without regard to set and setting.