Increasing life span; changing disease patterns; changing life styles: the role of government

Much progress has been achieved over the past twenty years in informing the American people of the hazards of cigarette smoking. Over thirty million Americans have quit smoking cigarettes; many have quit as a result of social pressure--cigarette smoking becoming less socially acceptable. The average cigarette has less than half as much tar and less than half as much nicotine as its predecessor cigarettes a quarter century ago. Moreover, most American cigarettes today are filtered. We still do not know why people begin or why they continue to smoke. I would urge the Committee on Problems of Drug Dependence to add tobacco--as you've added alcohol--to your agenda for research, for cooperative studies, and for an annual update. You should examine and speculate upon the reasons why 53,000,000 Americans' dependence on tobacco has attracted so little attention from scientists with knowledge and expertise such as yours. And when you have the answers, I hope you will utilize those answers to attract more research and appropriate action to our number one public health problem and our number one drug dependence problem.