Interrupting the disease of tobacco addiction.

Tobacco is the only legal consumer product that kills at least 1 out of 2 of its regular users when used as intended by the manufacturer.1 There are approximately 1.1 billion smokers worldwide, and it is predicted that the use of tobacco could kill 1 billion people during the 21st century. Cigarettes contain tobacco, and tobacco contains nicotine, delivered rapidly to the brain when smoking tobacco. Nicotine is a single psychoactive substance that affects the brain and the central nervous system, among others. The disease of tobacco addiction (nicotine dependence, tobacco use disorder) is recognized as a chronic disease by most authorities including the United States Department of Health and Human Services (USDHHS), Health Canada, many countries’ medical associations, and the World Health Organization; it is identified as such in major disease classification systems.2,3 However, not every person who uses tobacco is addicted to nicotine.