Extracted from the website of American Council on Science & health [By David Krogh, author of the new book Smoking The Artificial Passion published by W.H. Freeman and Company, is a science writer and editor at the University of California] =========================================== Almost everyone has watched someone try to quit smoking. They charge into the effort with optimism because of some new-found belief that hypnotism, nicotine gum or acupuncture will do the trick this time. They quit for a week or two, maybe even a few months, but then suddenly they're...smoking again. And, it's not just one cigarette here and there, their all-consuming habit has returned It's as if the whole effort to stop never took place. Why does this happen? How can someone not choose whether to continue this strange ritual of inhalation and exhalation ? The mystery behind the inability to quit relates to the nature of the drug. Nicotine has almost no effect on a smoker that an onlooker...