Donate unused cigarettes to science

For smokers trying to quit their habit, that "last" cigarette is usually the final one in the pack.

To an addict, cigarettes are so valued that not finishing the pack would be downright wasteful, said Oklahoma State University researcher Jared Dempsey.

Even those who have quit but relapse and buy a pack are likely to smoke the entire thing, further derailing their cessation.

His solution? Donate those unused cigarettes to science.

Dempsey and his research team will use the cigarettes to help others stop smoking and to help understand the impact of visual cues on an addict's brain.

Dempsey will use some of the cigarettes in photographs of smokers and smoking that scientists across that world can use when testing brain reaction to positive and negative stimuli.

For example, a smoker's brain registers pleasure when seeing a cigarette being lit, but aversion to an image of a cigarette being finished.

The cessation treatment Dempsey advocates is called brand fading. Smokers are weaned off cigarettes by lowering nicotine levels, by only smoking brands they don't like and with nicotine patches.

"Smokers love their brand and their brand only," said Dempsey, a psychology professor. "They do not like it when they smoke another brand."

Jean Gay Potts, a financial assistant at OSU, quit smoking in 1991 after a 20-year habit. She tried cigars, which she disliked, as she slowly weaned herself off her beloved Marlboro Lights.

"I was tired of smoking and looking for an easy way to quit," Potts said. "There aren't any.

"One day, I realized early in the afternoon that I had two cigarettes left in my last pack. I smoked the last cigarette just before I went to bed, vowing that I would not buy any more. And I didn't."

For others, cessation means breaking more than one habit because smoking often is associated with a specific behavior.

"Smokers often use smoking during bonding events like partying with friends and also during the most painful moments in life," Dempsey said.

"The smoker is not only fighting a pure chemical addiction, but is simultaneously losing a pleasurable activity with friends and also a support technique during emotionally difficult times."