Every
now and then,
when shes hard against a deadline for some complex grant proposal
involving genes and tobacco, Dr. Caryn Lerman will reach into her
desk drawer and pull out a Chiclet-size piece of gum. Its Nicorette,
a gentle, legal, not particularly swell-tasting form of Nicotine
Replacement Therapy. Like a hanging, it concentrates the mind. But
its potency pales against the ultimate nicotine delivery devicea
cigarette.
Lerman
hasnt smoked for years now, though she can speak first-hand to
tobaccos allure. And as director of the Penn/Georgetown Transdisciplinary
Tobacco Use Research Center (TTURC), she knows better than almost
anyone on the planet what smokers are up against.
The
more I learn, the more I realize that its extremely complicated,
she says quietly, sitting in her office in the TTURC complex, on
the fourth floor of a generic office building at 36th and Market
streets. I realize how hard it will be, and how long it will take,
to really get to the point where we have a very comprehensive understanding
of addictionand a sufficient understanding that we can actually
be designing better prevention and treatment strategies based on
that. Its a long process.
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Photo
by
Bill Cramer
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