Anne Landman's Collection
Why People Smoke memo From Charles to Osdene
Abstract
This internal memo from Jim Charles, then a senior scientist at Philip Morris Tobacco Company (PM) to Thomas Osdene (then Director of Research at PM), inasmuch as admits that nicotine fits the criteria for a dependence-producing drug, as defined by the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Ironically, Charles comes to this conclusion in the course of looking for ways to discredit a paper done by another party that comes to the same conclusion.
Fields
- Quotes
Please find attached Dr. Vic DeNoble's critique of the PHS document "Why People Smoke." The key fallacy of this paper is that nicotine is a drug which produces dependence. If you accept this statement as a fact them all other arguments follow naturally. However, if you can show that the basic assumption of dependence is not true, then the remainder of the arguments are also not true. There is ample evidence in the scientific literature as cited in Vic's critique that nicotine does not produce physiological dependence (no withdrawal upon abrups cessation of nicotine), and this fact should be the basis for discrediting the document as a whole.
There is one caution which should be considered before attacking the document. The third edition of the American Psychiatric Assocaition's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders defines substance dependence as "...requires physiological dependence, evidenced by either tolerance or withdrawal." The key word is either. We can successfully defend the absence of withdrawal under controlled experiments, but we cannot defend tolerance. Tolerance to nicotine is a well established fact....So, we should be careful to not get trapped by "tolerance" if we decide to attack the document...
- Company
- Philip Morris Cos., Inc.
- Author
- Charles, JL
- Recipient
- Osdene, T
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