Industry News: City Bans Cigarette Vending Machines

Calera has joined a few other Alabama cities in banning cigarette vending machines that distribute tobacco products.

The City Council approved the ban this week. It took effect immediately.

Mayor George Roy said the ban was urged by the Family Connection, a residential home for children.

Safe Home, an arm of Family Connection, is working to have all cigarette and tobacco vending machines removed from Shelby County.

Industry News: Many Factors Play a Role in Cigarette Smoking Addiction

In a study published in September 2000 in the British Medical Association journal Tobacco Control, scientists concluded that several students, aged 12 to 13, had developed symptoms of addiction just a few days after they first smoked a cigarette. This finding raises provocative and complex questions about the entire topic of tobacco and smoking addiction -- and about addictiveness of cigarette smoking relative to that of using other drugs, licit and illicit.

In the Fall 2000 issue of Priorities for Health, the online quarterly of the American Council on Science and Health, Dr. William M. London argued, "Cigarette smoking is the most addictive form of drug taking." Note that he describes cigarette smoking -- not cigarettes or nicotine -- as addictive. London conveys the complexity of what it means to be hooked on cigarettes and sheds light on the pitfalls of attempting to compare the addictiveness of nicotine, an addictive component of cigarettes, with the addictiveness of pharmacological substances, such as cocaine.

He notes that the concept of and definition of addiction should not be limited to the intrinsic addictiveness of a chemical, but should also include consideration of addictive behavior associated with use of the chemical.

With our new, more sophisticated understanding of the nature of this addiction, we see that cigarette smoking has not only the potential to addict physiologically by means of nicotine after just a few smokes, but also the ability to compound that addiction through behavioral and psychological facets associated with the act of smoking a cigarette.

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SURGEON GENERAL'S WARNING: Quitting Smoking Now Greatly Reduces Serious Risks to Your Health

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