One morning, in the near future, 30 million American smokers they will wake up and find that the cigarettes they buy contain so little nicotine that it is not enough to satisfy their addiction. Will they look for enough tobacco in illegal markets? nicotineto prevent withdrawal symptoms, or will they switch to vaping, nicotine gum and any other methods?

Recently, the above question has become extremely relevant. In June US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that it will continue to reduce the nicotine content of tobacco products in order to limit the “harmful effects of tobacco”, which causes 480,000 deaths annually.

According to the schedule, in May next year, the FDA will present its comprehensive proposal on this issue. Many experts hope that the agency will indeed offer an immediate 95% reduction in nicotine content. Of course, the implementation of the new policy will take several years.

Concerned about the prosperity of the illegal market for tobacco products, as well as changes in the behavior of smokers.

Each cigarette contains over 7,000 chemicals that become toxic when burned and inhaled. However, nicotine makes us want to smoke the next cigarette. By triggering the release of adrenaline and dopamine into the brain, nicotine creates a feeling of relaxation and satisfaction. This effect is short-lived, and that is why the brightest candles light up again and again. Drastic reduction of nicotine content in tobacco products by 95% has been experimentally proven to reduce and eventually stop smoking.

Unreliable Research

Dr. Nora Wolkoff, head of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, says scientists and regulators should be on the lookout for the possibility that reduced nicotine consumption could lead to a flourishing parallel illegal full-nicotine tobacco market. “We can’t exactly predict what will happen to a clinical trial because biology isn’t that accurate,” he notes. Many scientists also warn that studies conducted with minimal nicotine cigarettes are highly unreliable, mainly because the volunteers who participated in them lied.

Another thing to consider, notes University of Buffalo researcher Lynn Kozlowski, is how drastically cutting back on nicotine, a highly addictive substance, will affect smokers’ behavior.