OT...It isn't so simple...cut and dried...as putting all "destructive" (by your viewpoint) behaviors into the box of "suicide". Too judgmental (as usual?). Genetics is a big driver in all this, and actually, those who smoke very rarely suffer from ulcerative colitis...thus nicotine protects against that very debilitating disease...some people could be self-medicating and not consciously aware...better if they could be prescribed nicotine, but that's not usually available.
I myself don't smoke and don't do drugs, but I see any addiction as an extremely complex phenomenon where genetics, thus biological response, plus availability, plus peer pressure, plus life stresses, plus culture, all come into play. From today's AAAS abstracts:
Brain Molecules Behind Nicotine Addiction:
Researchers have identified a group of brain
receptors in mice that appear to be
responsible for the addictive effects of
nicotine. These findings may help scientists
find targets for drugs aimed to help smokers
kick their habit. "Nicotinic acetylcholine"
receptors are expressed in the brain
structures thought to be involved in the
addiction to smoking. These receptors, which
are embedded in the surfaces of neurons, can
be composed of different combinations of
subunits. Andrew Tapper and colleagues now
report that mice with a mutation in the
"alpha4" subunit were unusually sensitive to
the effects of nicotine. Compared to normal
neurons, the mutant neurons responded to
lower concentrations of nicotine and, after
this exposure, they also responded more
robustly to larger doses. Behavioral tests
indicated that mutant mice experienced the
basic components of addiction -- reward,
tolerance and sensitization -- at lower doses
than normal mice did. A related "Perspective"
raises the question of whether variations in
humans' nicotinic receptor genes might
determine our susceptibility to addiction.
ARTICLE #14: "Nicotine Activation of a4*
Receptors: Sufficient for Reward, Tolerance,
and Sensitization," by A.R. Tapper, S.L.
McKinney, R. Nashmi, J. Schwarz, P.
Deshpande, C. Labarca and H.A. Lester at
California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena, CA; J. Schwarz also at U. of
Leipzig, in Leipzig, Germany; P. Whiteaker,
M.J. Marks and A.C. Collins at U. of Colorado
in Boulder, CO |
