Surgeon General C. Everett Koop's 1988 report on the health consequences of smoking compared nicotine addiction to a heroin habit.
Tobacco use is a disorder which can be remedied through medical attention.
There are good reasons to call smoking an addiction. Many smokers have a strong desire for nicotine, develop tolerance for its effects, and suffer withdrawal symptoms without it. In several surveys, addicts and alcoholics in treatment have said that cigarettes were tougher to give up than crack, cocaine hydrochloride, or alcohol. But the evidence does not support the idea that smoking is a disease with a medical cure. Not only is that approach misleading, stressing nicotine's addictive power and the need for expert assistance undermines efforts to quit.