Lauren A. Colby

In the following viewpoint, Lauren A. Colby questions whether smokers are addicted to nicotine. According to Colby, the assumption that smokers smoke to obtain nicotine is false. If nicotine were really the active ingredient in tobacco products, then nicotine patches would make it possible for all smokers to quit. Colby is the author of In Defense of Smokers, from which the following selection is excerpted.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. According to Colby, how much nicotine do Havana cigars contain?
2. What evidence does Colby provide to support his claim that nicotine is not the active ingredient in tobacco products"

Much of the rhetoric of the anti-smoking movement seeks to demonize tobacco smokers as “nicotine addicts.” In the past, of course, the term “addict” has been generally...