1988: C. Everett Koop, surgeon general of the United States, publishes a report declaring nicotine as addictive as either heroin or cocaine.

Nicotine serves as the tobacco plant’s natural defense against insects and, in its pure form, is more poisonous than either strychnine or arsenic. Its chemical structure is similar to acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter, giving it easy access to the brain’s reward and pleasure pathways. Click here for a fuller description of nicotine addiction.

Koop, something of an idiosyncratic figure despite serving in the conservative Reagan administration, went after the tobacco companies hard, something no one in his position had done before.

Koop, a pediatric surgeon, valued hard science over political expediency and was not afraid of staking out positions contrary to either the administration’s views or popular opinion.

He was much tougher on big tobacco than the Reagan administration would have liked and when AIDS came along, Koop was criticized both by gay rights advocates (for bluntly stating the health risks inherent in gay sex practices) and by conservatives (for advocating sex education as early as the third grade).

Besides his damning report on nicotine’s addictive characteristics, Koop was instrumental in making warning labels mandatory on cigarette packs.

(Source: Various)

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