The best way to stop smoking is to stop smoking, says Scottish Doctor Lennox Johnston. The procedure, he insists, is neither as simple nor as simple-minded as it sounds. The craving for tobacco must be understood and the dangers of nicotine appreciated before mere will power can separate a man from his pipe or his cigarettes. But it can be done. In the latest issue of the British medical journal Lancet, Johnston, a reformed smoker, tells all.
The original urge, says the doctor, is purely psychological, closely connected with the desire to be grown-up or sophisticated. This psychological "infection" is then spread...