Next to caffeine, it is the most commonly used drug in America. Twenty-five percent of American adults smoke cigarettes habitually. It is legal, and a great number of people began smoking before the health hazards of tobacco addiction were known. Roughly 440,000 deaths are attributable each year to nicotine dependence. This is 3 times the number attributable to alcoholism.
Nicotine addiction is the single most preventable cause of death and illness in our society.
Almost all people who smoke are addicted to nicotine whereas the vast majority of people who drink are not addicted to alcohol. Nicotine dependence does not show the same kind of psychological and spiritual deterioration that is seen with other substances. Wherever nicotine dependence and alcohol dependence co-exist, the effect from a disease standpoint tends to be synergistic, i.e., you are more likely to develop cancer of the pharynx from the combination of smoking and drinking than you are from either one alone. Statistically speaking in any individual who is nicotine dependent and also alcohol or drug dependent, the likelihood is greater that they will die from their nicotine dependence than from alcohol or cocaine addiction. Alcohol dependent persons consistently describe quitting cigarettes as more difficult than quitting alcohol.