(p. 338).
This study brought the effects of tobacco use into the public eye. With this information, one would think that a large number of tobacco users would just quit. Although it makes perfect sense, it is not that easy. Tobacco contains a highly addictive substance, nicotine. Over the years, tobacco companies have found ways to genetically alter the substance to make it even more addictive. This raises the question-is tobacco a drug? If the answer is yes, one must also ask - should it be regulated?.
By the early 1960's, Brown and Williamson, one of the nation's largest manufacturers of tobacco products had a great understanding of nicotine pharmacology and knew that the substance was highly addictive. However, several years passed before this information was published in a Surgeon General's report. In 1964, the Surgeon General published its first report on the correlation between smoking and health. "Cigarette smoking is a significant factor in the causation of cancer of the larynx and an association exists between cigarette smoking and the cancer of the urinary bladder in males." (Glantz, Barnes, Bero, Hanauer, Slade, 1995). .
Shortly thereafter, tobacco regulation rose to the forefront of a national debate and seven years later, in 1971, cigarette advertising was banned from radio and television and warning labels were required on all cigarette packages. As time evolved, regulations became more stringent. In 1987, the US Congress banned smoking on all airline flights less than two hours. Many individual states followed suit and elected to comply with the federal government in banning smoking in public places (e.g. restaurants, bar, and stadiums).
In 1988, the Surgeon General published a report that stated, cigarettes and other forms of tobacco are addictive and nicotine is the substance that causes that addiction. Although, this was the first time such a statement had been released to the public, this was a fact that Brown and Williamson Tobacco Corp.
