"Crack" or Free-Base Nicotine

A new study released by Oregon Health and Science University, published in the Journal of Chemical Research in Toxicology has generated scores of news articles (see sample news article below). It is highly likely that will read or hear one or more stories on how nicotine is being chemically manipulated into a form of nicotine known as free-base.

What does it mean to us here at Freedom? Not much! It doesn't change the law of addiction or the processes needed to break nicotine's grip upon the mind and body (NTAP).

Although the study raises a number of very interesting questions regarding the rate of initial onset of loss of autonomy (where teens begin to lose the ability to effortlessly turn and walk away), regarding tolerance (the sense of need to increase the daily mg. of nicotine intake over time ), and regarding the intensity of any free-based enhanced chemical conditioning, it does not change the basic fact that being a little bit addicted is like being a little bit pregnant.

We've been there, we've done that, that's why each of us are here! We've also seen nothing to suggest that free-base nicotine alters nicotine's chemical half-life of roughly two hours, or in any way alters the sequencing and recovery timing of chemical withdrawal and psychological recovery.

What we do know is that there is only one way that the mind can possibly begin adjusting to the absence of nicotine and that's when we stop putting it into our bodies.

Don't let stories like this become a source of junkie thinking - "it's too hard" - that eventually consumes your dreams and healing! The next few minutes are entirely doable by each and every one of us, and so are the minutes that will follow.

Only one rule, no nicotine today, Never Take Another Puff!

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'Crack' nicotine in cigarettes
varies widely

15:24 28 July 2003

NewScientist.com news service

http://www.newscientist.c...ws/news.jsp?id=ns99993990

Some cigarettes have a "kick" containing 35 times more "freebase" nicotine - the most addictive form - than others, researchers have found. The findings could help rate the addictiveness of different brands, they say.

"Free-base" nicotine is a particularly potent form of the naturally-occurring tobacco drug because it is in an extremely volatile, uncombined form. This means it can be much more rapidly absorbed by the lungs and brain than nicotine derivatives such as nornicotine or its salts.

The new study is the first into the amount of "free-base" nicotine contained in common brands of cigarettes and found wide-ranging differences. The researchers at Oregon Health and Science University used a laboratory smoking device and a gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer to collect and analyse smoke from 11 brands of cigarettes. The study measured the first three puffs of smoke from each cigarette.

"Measurements ranged from about one per cent free-base nicotine in the first few puffs to 36 per cent for a specialty US brand," says lead researcher James Pankow. "One type of Marlboro, the leading US brand of king-sized filter cigarettes, contained about 10 per cent free-base nicotine."

Crack cocaine

Previous research has shown that a drug's addictiveness is influenced by the speed at which it is delivered to the brain and absorbed into and from the blood stream.

"The study shows that the modern cigarette does to nicotine what crack does to cocaine," says addiction expert Jack Henningfield, at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The notorious addictiveness of smoking crack results from the vapourised cocaine reaching the brain almost immediately.

Ian Jones, a nicotine expert at Bath University, UK, adds: "Free-base nicotine is the most damaging form because it is the optimal configuration for binding to the nicotine receptors in the brain, heart and rest of the body. If the binding efficiency is increased, it means the concentration of nicotine at the receptors is higher and so it is very addictive."

"The first few puffs are the most important in terms of addiction, because nicotine reaches the brain within seconds," Jones told New Scientist

Ammonia and urea

The amount of freebase nicotine in cigarette smoke increases as the alkalinity, or pH, increases. This factor can be influenced by the use of certain additives.

"It is likely that ingredients such as ammonia and urea account for this addiction-enhancing effect. But you can also adjust the chemistry of the smoke by adjusting the blend. Some types of tobacco give a more basic blend," Pankow told New Scientist.

"There was tremendous amount of documentation revealed during litigation in the US of manipulation of the freebase levels and the FDA certainly believed there was manipulation of cigarette chemistry," he adds.

"What is clear is that the modern cigarette is a highly engineered nicotine delivery device and it's not just a matter of tobacco rolled-up in a piece of paper," Pankow says. "Even the so-called 'additive-free' cigarettes are highly engineered."

Journal reference: Journal of Chemical Research in Toxicology (DOI: DOI: 10.1021/tx0340596)

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