Cigarette smoking is the leading preventable cause of death and disease in the United States. Understanding the genetic and pharmacological factors surrounding nicotine and other substances of abuse will lead to insight into ways to prevent psychological dependence and addiction A special web focus, presented by Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics, is a compilation of some key articles from Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics, Nature Medicine, Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, Neuropsychopharmacology and The Pharmacogenomics Journal on smoking, nicotine and addiction; many of them free to access online. Examples of featured articles include:

Development of Procedures for Early Human Screening of Smoking Cessation Medications

KA Perkins, C Lerman, ML Stitzer, CA Fonte, JL Briski, JA Scott & KNR Chengappa.

Contingency Management: Utility in the Treatment of Drug Abuse Disorders

ML Stitzer & R Vandrey.

Smoked Marijuana as Medicine: Not Much Future

H Kalant.

Clinical Pharmacology of Nicotine: Implications for Understanding, Preventing, and Treating Tobacco Addiction

NL Benowitz.

By Now, “Harm Reduction” Harms Both Science and the Public Health

AI Leshner.