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American Morning

'Lick' the Habit With Nicotine Lollipops

Aired April 04, 2002 - 08:43   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Looking for a way to quit smoking, now you can "lick" the habit with nicotine lollipops. Nice line. The latest craze for millions of smokers, but now some critics are worried, though, about the safety of the product. Does it appeal to children? Can they get a hold of it? It does not have FDA approval. Some of these "nicopops," as they're called, contain as much as five cigarettes, and they can be bought over the Internet.

Joining us to talk whether or not they're safe and whether they should be more tightly controlled is CNN's medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta who joins us from Atlanta.

What's up, doc?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: How are you doing, Jack? It's exactly as you say. These are actually called "Licotine," these particular lollipops, and they are equal to five cigarettes here, so about the same number of milligrams in one of these lollipops as five cigarettes. And the big advantage, and how people are sort of promoting these, they're saying, listen, it's very similar, if you take one of these out, very similar to mimicking what smoking is like. You get to hold something in your hand. You get to actually put something in your mouth, and it gives you a nicotine hit every time you try one. And so these lollipops have been around a while, and they're selling like gangbusters.

There have been some critics, though, as you say, Jack. Not everyone is jumping on the bandwagon so easily.

CAFFERTY: What about? I mean, you hold up a lollipop, a kid is going to reach for it. I mean, can kids get ahold of these things, and how much damage could that do?

GUPTA: Well, we asked that very question, and there were a couple of answers to that. One is that, first of all, they're pretty expensive. They're $2 to $3 bucks a lollipop, depending how many milligrams of nicotine you get.

The other thing is, and this is sort of a simpler thing, is that it's actually hard to get it out of this bag. You actually need to cut it with a pair of scissors to get it out of this supposedly childproof bag.

And finally, it actually requires a doctor's prescription, even though as you pointed out, Jack, not approved by the FDA as of yet, still does require a doctor's prescription.

But critics have been very outspoken about this. I think Congressman Waxman from California was probably the most outspoken. He said something similar to this, which was, so let me get this straight, you're going to take a known, harmful, addictive substance and literally sugarcoat it? And that's how a lot of people do feel about it, something that people are concerned about especially for the children.

CAFFERTY: Sure, I mean, it looks like one of those Tootsie pop things that we all used to eat when we were kids. How does this lollipop stack up against nicotine patches, there's nicotine gum. Better, worse, about the same?

GUPTA: What the people are saying about the lollipop, is there a couple of advantages. First of all, with the patch, you're going to get a set dose of nicotine over a period of time, so you're not going to be able to regulate that as well. With the gum, the gum is actually supposed to be chewed very slowly. Most people chew the nicotine gum very much like they chew another piece of gum, again, giving themselves high doses of nicotine. Sometimes that can make you sick, nauseated, vomiting.

And as you know, Jack, just having too much nicotine, leave alone the smoking, nicotine in and of itself can be a problem. It can increases your blood pressure. It can block blood vessels. It can decrease your immune system. So those are what some of the critics are charging as well.

CAFFERTY: Have you tasted these things? What do they taste like?

GUPTA: You know, I did. It's sort of taste just like a piece of candy. It's got a little bit of a singe to it, but you don't really taste the nicotine at all.

CAFFERTY: All right, thanks, doc, appreciate the input. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, our CNN medical correspondent, joining us from Atlanta.

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