title: The regulation of nicotine in the United Kingdom: how nicotine gum came to be a medicine, but not a drug.
abstract: This article explores the utility of actor-network theory (ANT) as a tool for socio-legal research. ANT is deployed in a study of the evolution of divided regulatory responsibility for tobacco and medicinal nicotine (MN) products in the United Kingdom, with a particular focus on how the latter came to be regulated as a medicine. We examine the regulatory decisions taken in the United Kingdom in respect of the first MN product: a nicotine-containing gum developed in Sweden, which became available in the United Kingdom in 1980 as a prescription-only medicine under the Medicines Act 1968. We propose that utilizing ANT to explore the development of nicotine gum and the regulatory decisions taken about it places these decisions into the wider context of ideas about tobacco control and addiction, and helps us to understand better how different material actors acted in different networks, leading to very different systems of regulation.
authors.affiliation: University of Edinburgh.
authors.forename: Catriona
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Rooke
authors.forename: Emilie
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Cloatre
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dingwall
mesh_terms: D004345:Drug Industry / Q000191:economics / Q000193:education / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D004335:Drug and Narcotic Control / Q000191:economics / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D049673:History, 20th Century; D007878:Legislation as Topic / Q000191:economics / Q000266:history; D009538:Nicotine / Q000191:economics / Q000266:history; D055553:Prescription Drugs / Q000191:economics / Q000266:history; D012907:Smoking / Q000191:economics / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000191:economics / Q000208:ethnology / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000523:psychology; D019460:Tobacco Industry / Q000191:economics / Q000193:education / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D061485:Tobacco Use Cessation Devices / Q000191:economics / Q000266:history; D006113:United Kingdom / Q000208:ethnology
chemical_list: D055553:Prescription Drugs; D009538:Nicotine