Although the nicotine in tobacco leads to a powerful addiction, people who want to stop smoking can be helped. Treatment to help people quit smoking is far less expensive than treatment of diseases caused by smoking, which will kill approximately one in two smokers who do not quit.

Examples of diseases that have been strongly linked to smoking include emphysema or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, peptic ulcers, heart disease, and an increased risk of many types of cancer, including cancers of the mouth, pharynx, larynx, esophagus, stomach, pancreas, cervix, kidney, uterus, and bladder.

As early as the late 1890s, people were searching for medications that would help tobacco users quit. None of the products offered to the public between the early 1900s and the late 1970s were effective. As a result of important medical advances in the 1980s and 1990s, nicotine patches and...