Since the 1960s Philip Morris knew that Nicotine is very addictive and actually used that knowledge to their advantage in designing Sickerettes. In the year 2000 PM became the first tobacco company to publicly state that nicotine is addictive. Hooray for honesty and transparency, right?
Hold your horses!
"From the mid-1990s to at least 2006, at the same time as PM was making public statements reinforcing the idea that smoking addiction is driven principally by nicotine’s pharmacology, the company’s scientists had found that addiction was the result of interconnected determinants, with nicotine as but one component. PM’s internal models of addiction positioned biological, psychological, social, and environmental factors as equally important to nicotine in driving cigarette use; and in 2000 an internal document noted that, consequently, quitting smoking was “not simply a matter of replacing the nicotine”. PM continued to research the causes of addiction through the 2000s in order to create successful new nicotine products."
"The researchers said the papers showed that PM has internally understood since at least 2006 that its actions (for example advertising, lobbying, and litigation) influence addiction by shaping users’ psychology, social milieu, and environment; and that PM’s “public embrace of nicotine’s addictiveness currently works to redirect policy away from proven social and environmental interventions and toward the promotion of the industry’s potentially reduced harm products”."
"The analysis authors said: “As PM’s internal research indicates, positive health outcomes are more likely to be achieved by complementing [nicotine replacement therapy] and behavioural counselling with ever-stronger society-level interventions addressing the psychological, social, and environmental components of addiction.”"
"They concluded: “To help tobacco users quit, policy makers should increase attention on the social and environmental dimensions of addiction alongside traditional cessation efforts.”"
[Source: *Elias J, Hendlin YH, Ling PM. Public versus internal conceptions of addiction: An analysis of internal Philip Morris documents. PLoS Med 2018; 15(5): e1002562. The National Cancer Institute in the US funded (but had no other involvement in) the analysis.
OnMedica - News - Philip Morris knew nicotine is just one part of smoking addiction ]
There's no end to the smoke and mirrors that Big Tobacco won't go to get and keep you, me and our children and grandchildren hooked for Life!
