University of Minnesota tobacco researchers know a lot about nicotine addiction, but they also admit to not knowing enough.

Now the researchers are turning to a theory that they once thought unthinkable — maybe some hard-core smokers can't quit.

The game plan has shifted to getting those smokers to satisfy their nicotine craving using alternative products without eliminating their use of tobacco.

Faced with a smoking rate that hasn't budged for more than a decade, the university's tobacco research center is using a $9 million federal grant to find out whether there is a less harmful way to smoke.

"I have become discouraged that we can't improve our success rates beyond a certain point," said Harry Lando, a University of Minnesota epidemiologist who has long studied nicotine addiction.

"It's critical to look for alternatives for people who simply are not quitting."

Some public health researchers fear the idea might encourage some people to start smoking and might stop others from quitting. But pressure to find answers is building, researchers said.

The pressure is building because some tobacco companies already are offering nicotine alternatives for smokers.

"It's critically important that research be conducted to answer these questions because the tobacco companies are already moving there," said Scott Leischow, a tobacco control researcher with the National Cancer Institute.

The new, unregulated nicotine products include Omni and Eclipse cigarettes, which promise fewer carcinogens, and mint-flavored Ariva tobacco lozenges.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration last month warned three Internet pharmacies not to sell nicotine-laced lollipops and lip balm as ways to quit or reduce smoking.

The FDA said the products were being sold without a prescription and contained a form of nicotine not tested for safety and effectiveness in smoking cessation.

Researchers don't know whether any of the products will be less harmful than cigarettes, or whether reducing tobacco use lowers health risks. But scientists at the university's Transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Center are conducting more than a dozen studies to address those and other questions.

One study is being led by researcher Dorothy Hatsukami, a university psychologist and nicotine addiction specialist. She wants to know if the 150 people in the study can use a nicotine patch to reduce smoking by at least 75 percent and if that translates into less tobacco toxins in their bodies.

The research won't be published for a year or two, and so far the results appear mixed, Hatsukami said. There has been a drop in cigarette toxins in some people who cut down, but not in others, she said.

Underlying this research is a question that is the subject of an upcoming NCI report — are hard-core smokers somehow different than people who have stopped?

About half of adults who ever smoked have quit, experts said. Dr. Richard Hurt, director of Mayo Clinic's Nicotine Dependence Center, is among those who believe that genes play a role, at least in susceptibility to nicotine.

"Some experimented with cigarettes and did not become smokers," he said. "They are genetically different compared to those who smoke a few cigarettes and are hooked right away."

That makes some experts believe it's harder for them to quit, yet there is no clear evidence one way or the other, said Dr. David Burns, a tobacco researcher at the University of California in San Diego.

In any case, he said, "We will have a large population smoking for an extended period of time."

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