Warburton, David M. Dr.
(Psychopharmacologist, University of Reading, UK) Director of Human Psychopharmacology group at University of Reading in the United Kingdom, Dr. Warburton published a paper "The Functions of Pleasure" which grouped tobacco with chocolate, coffee and food as substances which "give us pleasure and enhance the quality of our lives." He founded the tobacco-industry funded group ARISE (Associates for Research in Substance Enjoyment, later changed to the "Science of Enjoyment"). ARISE was also funded by breweries, distilleries and a food company.David Warburton is one of the few experts on nicotine arguing that it isn't addictive. Although he hasn't testified in the U.S. his work is often cited - and has been funded - by the tobacco industry. Dr. Warburton, an editor of the Academic Monthly Psychopharmacology Journal, argues that nicotine isn't addictive because its effects are different from those of drugs or alcohol. For example, it doesn't give a "strong, pleasurable thrill," he wrote in a 1989 bulletin of the British Psychological Society. In 1988, he presented his views to New Zealand's Dept. of Health, which concluded that nicotine is addictive. Dr. Warburton participated in the 1988 Surgeon General's Report that deemed nicotine addictive, submitting a paper on tobacco's effect on human performance, his research specialty. He espouses nicotine's mood-elevating effects. He found in a London group called Associates for Research into the Science of Enjoyment, or ARISE, which recently published a poll on stress that emphasized not feeling guilty about eating chocolate or smoking. The group is funded mainly by tobacco companies, breweries, distillers, a food companies. (Tobacco Dream Team: Experts Who Insists Nicotine Isn't Addictive, WSJ 3/23/95)