Nicotine addiction creates a built-in incentive to buy more tobacco products. Internal documents from the tobacco industry have revealed that the companies did extensive research on, and have long known about, the addictive properties of tobacco and its effects on the brain. The industry experimented with blends of tobacco for higher and lower nicotine content, devices that reduce a cigarette's tar level without affecting its nicotine level, and the addition of ammonia compounds that increase the delivery of nicotine to the smoker by raising the pH or alkalinity of the smoke. The industry has also experimented with food additives to make their product more addicting. Recent studies have concluded that from 77 percent to 92 percent of smokers are addicted to nicotine, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimates that 75 percent of young regular users of smokeless tobacco are addicted as well.
Tobacco use is a pediatric problem worldwide.
The average age for first smoking or dipping is 12, and 3,000 new children try smoking every day in the United States alone. Half of all adolescent smokers will still be smoking 20 years from now. Unfortunately, most people start smoking when they are adolescents and very inexperienced with making decisions that can profoundly affect them the rest of their lives. Most new tobacco users seriously underestimate the risk of becoming addicted to nicotine, despite the fact that the probability of trying tobacco, becoming addicted, and dying prematurely is higher than for any other drug. Nicotine addiction can occur within three months of daily use, and half of daily smokers will die from a tobacco-related illness.