Conard and her husband, Ron, have spent five years trying to quit smoking cigarettes. Every time we quit, we learned something about it. Last time we quit, it lasted four months. Now we know that truly you cannot have even one cigarette. Through brain imaging, scientists are beginning to understand the neurochemistry of addiction, said Dr. Michael Fiore, director of the UW-Madison Medical School's Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention.
Genes play a role.
For tobacco, I really wonder if that heritability isn't much higher. But not all tobacco users are addicts. It's a term associated with the study of non-addicted heroin users. Timothy Baker, associate director of the Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention, said researchers do not yet know why chippers don't become addicted. When the addicted smoker stops smoking, he or she feels some negative effect or distress after an hour or two of not smoking.