SAFE Glen Cove Coalition: Reducing Nicotine to Curb Addiction

According to the Nation World News Desk July 25th, 2022, the U.S. government is seeking to reduce the amount of nicotine in cigarettes. President Joe Biden announced his support of a proposal from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that would require a maximum limit on psychoactive substances in cigarettes and other tobacco products.

The Nicotine, found in the leaves of the tobacco plant and other nightshade plants, is considered a folk medicine. According to the HHS, approximately 480,000 Americans die prematurely unnecessarily each year from smoking-related diseases. Tobacco and nicotine are among the most common causes of these avoidable deaths. Nicotine is a highly addictive substance, making cigarettes and other tobacco products less or no addictive will help save lives. It is especially important that young people minimize their developing brains from unnecessary exposure.

After an investigation in 2014, the United States Inspectorate of Health recommended reducing nicotine levels to quit addiction. Four years later, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a public debate on the issue. A study published in Spring 2018 in The New England Journal of Medicine showed that reducing nicotine levels would prevent approximately 33 million Americans from starting smoking by the year 2100, further, this proposal would help in preventing the Next Generation of “Smokers”.

A recent article in The New York Times discusses the proposal that is set for next May. Many experts hope regulators will champion an immediate 95 percent reduction in nicotine levels — the amount federally funded studies have determined is most effective for helping smokers kick the habit. It could be years before any new policy takes effect, if it survives opposition from the tobacco industry.

The science of nicotine addiction has come a long way since 1964, when a U.S. Surgeon General report first linked smoking to cancer and heart disease, although it would take another two decades for the mechanics of nicotine dependence to be understood and widely accepted. Tobacco contains more than 7,000 chemicals, many of them harmful when burned and inhaled, but it is nicotine that keeps smokers coming back for more. Nicotine stimulates a surge of adrenaline in the brain while indirectly producing a flood of dopamine, the chemical that promotes feelings of contentment and relaxation. The effects, however, are short-lived, which is why heavy smokers do so several times a day. All these everyday behaviors cue your brain that nicotine is coming, basically the Pavlovian dog effect but conditioned here with a highly addictive drug. Over time, the dependency deepens. Regular smoking promotes the formation of additional dopamine receptors — sometimes millions more. When a smoker goes cold turkey, those unrequited receptors prompt the anxiety, irritability and depression that can make nicotine withdrawal so hard to bear. Nicotine patches, gum and vapes can help to satisfy some of the cravings, but they cannot replace the rituals of having a cigarette: the retreat outside with a co-conspirator, the crinkling of cellophane and foil as you open a new pack, the heady buzz of that first drag.

Dr. Eric Donny, a tobacco expert at Wake Forest University School of Medicine who has conducted experiments with low nicotine cigarettes, says many scientists have come to embrace a 95 percent reduction in nicotine levels as ideal for helping study subjects smoke less. Anything higher, he said, can encourage participants to engage in so-called compensatory smoking — inhaling more deeply or smoking more frequently. The studies he and other scientists have run recently used genetically modified tobacco bred to express less nicotine; bringing nicotine down to zero is not an option under the Tobacco Control Act, a 2009 law that gave the F.D.A. the power to regulate the manufacture and marketing of tobacco.

Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, expressed confidence in the studies that backed an immediate cut in nicotine levels versus a gradual tapering. But she said that scientists and regulators still needed to address the welter of unforeseen consequences that could prove disruptive to determined smokers and could fuel the creation of underground markets for full-nicotine cigarettes. Some scientists have urged caution for any plan that would drastically cut nicotine levels in one fell swoop, warning that the existing research on low-nicotine cigarettes is imperfect, given the high number of study participants who cheat. The skeptics, among them tobacco company executives, warn that banning conventional cigarettes would drive determined smokers to seek imports from Mexico and Canada. They also argue that some smokers, including teenagers, could develop a habit that pairs vaping or nicotine gum with low-nicotine cigarettes, which are just as carcinogenic as traditional cigarettes.

A tobacco researcher at the University at Buffalo who has contributed to four Surgeon General reports on smoking since 1981, said nicotine was a highly addictive drug, with a stranglehold on users that could rival cocaine and heroin, and that the F.D.A. needed to consider how a sweeping decrease of nicotine in cigarettes would affect smoker behavior and said he was especially concerned by the agency’s mixed messaging and seemingly conflicted stance on e-cigarettes, which deliver nicotine without the tar and many other toxins that are inhaled when tobacco is ignited. Even if the long-term impacts of vaping remain unknown — though health experts agree that teenagers should be discouraged from trying e-cigarettes — there is mounting consensus that such products are useful for helping adult smokers quit. The F.D.A. has so far approved nearly two dozen vaping products and has denied more than a million others, including those made by Juul Labs. Earlier this summer, the agency ordered Juul off shelves, citing the potential harm from chemicals that could leach out of its e-liquid cartridges. But the F.D.A. has since granted the company further review.

The New York State Smokers’ Quitline assists thousands of New Yorkers every year in their attempts to break free from smoking and other tobacco use by providing information, expert quit coaching, support, and free starter kits of nicotine replacement therapy The service is free and confidential. Call 1-866-NYQUITS (1-866-697-8487), text 716-309-4688, or visit the New York State Smokers’ Quitline at https://www.nysmokefree.com/ for more information or to speak with a Quit Coach.

SAFE, Inc. is the only alcohol and substance abuse prevention, intervention, and education agency in the City of Glen Cove. Its Coalition is concerned about tobacco use and vaping seeking to educate and update the community regarding its negative consequences in collaboration with Carol Meschkow, Manager- Tobacco Action Coalition of Long Island, working together to advance a Tobacco Free City. To learn more about the SAFE Glen Cove Coalition please follow us on ww.facebook.com/safeglencovecoalition or visit the Vaping Facts and Myths Page of SAFE’s website to learn more about how vaping is detrimental to your health www.safeglencove.org.