Many adolescents experiment with cigarette smoking, yet only some become addicted (1). It is likely that a combination of biologic and social factors underlie why some adolescents are more susceptible to addiction than others. The finding that genetic factors account for roughly 70% of the variance in nicotine dependence in adults supports some type of biologic vulnerability (2). One factor that may account for a portion of the variability in vulnerability to nicotine addiction is the rate of nicotine metabolism in the individual.
