>>> Part 2 of 3...
How Experts Rate Problem Substances
Dr. Jack E. Henningfield of the National Institute on Drug Abuse and
Dr. Neal L. Benowitz of the University of California at San Francisco
ranked six substances based on five problem areas.
1 = Most serious           6 = Least serious
Henningfield Ratings
Substance  Withdrawal Reinforcement Tolerance Dependence Intoxication
Nicotine       3           4            2         1           5
Heroin         2           2            1         2           2
Cocaine        4           1            4         3           3
Alcohol        1           3            3         4           1
Caffeine       5           6            5         5           6
Marijuana      6           5            6         6           4
Benowitz Ratings
Substance   Withdrawal Reinforcement Tolerance Dependence Intoxication
Nicotine        3*          4            4         1           6
Heroin          2           2            2         2           2
Cocaine         3*          1            1         3           3
Alcohol         1           3            4         4           1
Caffeine        4           5            3         5           5
Marijuana       5           6            5         6           4
* Equal ratings
Withdrawal -  Presence and severity of characteristic withdrawal
              symptoms.
Reinforcement - A measure of the substance's ability, in human and
                animal tests, to get users to take it again and again,
                and in preference to other substances.
Tolerance - How much of the substance is needed to satisfy increasing
            cravings for it, and the level of stable need that is
            eventually reached.
Dependence - How difficult it is for the user to quit, the relapse
             rate, the percentage of people who eventually become
             dependent, the rating users give their own need for the
             substance and the degree to which the substance will be
             used in the face of evidence that it causes harm.
Intoxication - Though not usually counted as a measure of addiction
               in itself, the level of intoxication is associated with
               addiction and increases the personal and social damage
               a substance may do.
Before applying a test of the nine criteria, the expert first
determines if the symptoms have persisted for at least a month or
have occurred repeatedly over a longer period of time.
Asked about the tobacco executives' testimony on addiction, Dr.
Kozlowski said:  "In a way, I can see how they could say that. It
has to do with a mistaken image of what addiction is, and I have
many well-educated, intelligent people say something like that to me.
People often think of a person taking one injection of heroin and
becoming hopelessly addicted for the rest of their lives. That
is wrong."
In addition, he said, when people tend to think of the high that
heroin produces, one that is about as intense as cocaine and alcohol,
they cannot believe cigarettes are in the same category. And they are
not. Even though in large doses nicotine can cause a strong high and
hallucinations, the doses used in cigarettes produce only a very
mild high.
But researchers now know, says Dr. Jack Henningfield, chief of
clinical pharmacology at the Addiction Research Center of the
Government's National Institute on Drug Abuse, that many qualities
are related to a drug's addictiveness, and the level of intoxication
it produces may be one of the least important.
If one merely asks how much pleasure the drugs produce, as
researchers used to do and tobacco companies still do, then heroin
or cocaine and nicotine do not seem to be in the same category. Dr.
Kozlowski said, "It's not that cigarettes are without pleasure, but
the pleasure is not in the same ball park with heroin."
But now, he said, there are more questions to ask. "If the question
is, How hard is it to stop? then nicotine is a very impressive drug,"
he said. "Its urges are very similar to heroin."
Among the properties of a psychoactive drug - how much craving it can
cause, how severe is the withdrawal, how intense a high it brings -
 >>> Continued to next message...
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