Establishing a Nicotine Threshold for Addiction -- The Implications for Tobacco Regulation

On February 25, 1994, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a letter to the Coalition on Smoking or Health announcing its intention to consider regulating cigarettes. The agency's premises were that the vast majority of tobacco users self-administer the product for the drug effects of nicotine and to sustain addiction and that cigarette manufacturers control the levels of nicotine in cigarettes to maintain this addiction. The FDA further raised the possibility of regulating cigarettes on the basis of their nicotine content to prevent addiction.On February 28, 1994, the ABC news program Day One presented evidence that tobacco manufacturers . . .