Neal Leon Benowitz

Neal Leon Benowitz, M.D. is a Professor of Medicine at the University of California San Francisco, and is considered an expert in nicotine. Dr. Benowitz is board certified in internal medicine, medical toxicology, and clinical pharmacology. (State of Florida's Proposed Plaintiff's Disclosure of Expert Witnesses, 2/5/97) Dr. Benowitz has testified on behalf of plaintiffs in cases against the tobacco industry.

= Biography =

Neal L. Benowitz is a physician who in 1994 was located at San Francisco General Hospital, in the Department of Medicine, Pharmacy and Psychiatry.(DJ 6/23/94). Dr. Benowitz is an expert on nicotine.(Science 5/6/94) He testified in 1988 for Don Barrett, the attorney for the plaintiff in the wrongful death case of Nathan Henry Horton, who died of cancer after smoking Pall Mall cigarettes for 35 years. Horton's case ended in a hung jury. Benowitz was a paid consultant to nicotine patch manufacturers and a scientific editor of the 1988 Surgeon General's report on smoking.[Reference needed]

In 1990, Dr. Benowitz testified for the Plaintiffs in the Kotler (NY) lawsuit in 1990, according to the Boston Globe, 2/21/90. Benowitz testified that "A smoker's addiction to nicotine resembles some characteristics found in cocaine and heroin users." He further says that virtually all people who smoke a pack-a-day over a period of a year or two, develop a dependency to nicotine. When smokers try to quit, according to Benowtiz, they experience "acute withdrawal symptoms." Benowitz acknowledged that millions of people have quit smoking and the vast majority have stopped on their own. Benowitz has also said that nicotine doesn't impair smokers' cognitive abilities or impair their ability to make decisions. While people insist they smoke because they enjoy it, they wouldn't like it if they weren't dependent on it. Dr. Benowitz says, "You need nicotine to feel normal . . . This is drug-driven behavior." He says, that like heroin and cocaine use, nicotine use prompts psychoactive changes in the brain. It is difficult to stop using nicotine and provokes a high relapse rate among those who try to quit. Benowitz has also said that in its pure form, nicotine is poisonous and has been used as an insecticide. For smokers, nicotine can act either as a stimulant, to help concentration, or as a tranquilizer, to help relieve stress, per Benowitz (Boston Globe 2/21/90).

Dr. Benowitz did a study in the early 1980s published in the New England Journal of Medicine that showed that "some smokers using 'light cigarettes' [low tar and low nicotine] wind up with more nicotine (and nicotine metabolites) in their blood plasma," per David Kessler.(Barron's 5/16/94) Benowitz says reducing the level of nicotine in cigarettes to 0.6 mg apiece, and curtailing total nicotine consumption to four to six milligrams per person per day, would help smokers cut back and stop teenagers from becoming addicted.(DJ 8/2/94)

Dr. Benowitz says "nicotine is what makes people smoke" and its delivery through cigarettes should be regulated by the federal government.(DJ 8/2/94) Dr. Benowitz proposes that the amount of nicotine in cigarettes be decreased gradually over the next 10 to 20 years to reduce the number of Americans who smoke. He admitted that his theory that lower nicotine levels would make cigarettes less addictive hasn't been tested and was based on his research on smoking, nicotine and addiction.(DJ 8/2/94) Benowitz testified before U.S. Food and Drug Administration Drug Abuse Advisory Committee.(DJ 8/2/94).

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