The resulting damage to users and others is very large. Taxation, regulation, and public information are all justified means to the end of reducing that damage. Nicotine, as commonly used, is not an intoxicant. But its addictive potential is great, and chronic cigarette smoking carries severe health risks. The wide prevalence of tobacco use under current policies makes cigarette smoking the leading cause of preventable early death.
More stringent regulation is needed to protect the public health.
Treatment episodes that reduce drug use and damage to self and others but do not produce immediate, complete, and lasting abstinence ought to be regarded as incomplete successes rather than as unredeemed failures. Developing and implementing effective drug abuse prevention strategies, especially for minors, is an essential means of drug abuse control. Prevention messages should accurately reflect what is known about the effects and risks of the substances they discuss. Policy changes that can be introduced incrementally and evaluated step by step are to be preferred over sweeping changes with less predictable consequences. Civility and honesty about facts, proposals, and motives can serve both to improve drug policies and to advance the broader public interest in healthy political discourse.