Adolescence is a crucial developmental stage for the acquisition of tobacco smoking (1–4). Most adult smokers who are addicted to cigarettes started smoking during adolescence (5). However, most adolescents who experiment with tobacco do not become addicted to nicotine (6, 7). It is likely that a combination of physiologic and social factors underlie why some teens are more susceptible to nicotine addiction than others following exposure. One physiological factor that may play a role in the transition from smoking initiation to addiction is the rate of nicotine metabolism (8, 9).
