As with every Great American Smokeout of the past quarter-century, a population of tobacco lovers will split into two groups today: those who struggle through a day without lighting up and those who blow smoke rings in the face of heart and lung disease.

Dale Horst can relate. Horst is leading a unique medical research study in Wichita that seeks to enhance the chances of people actually kicking their tobacco addictions. ClearChoice, the research study, is the only program of its kind in America in the way it addresses the physical and psychological demands of a drug that science shows clings as tenaciously as cocaine and heroin. "What we have is a product that 25 percent of the population needs and none of them wants," said Horst, a researcher for Via Christi Regional Medical Center. Beating the smoking addiction is difficult. The most successful treatments -- nicotine patches and gum and inhalers, and the pills such as Zyban --only succeed about three out of 10 times, studies show. Horst and his research team say they can improve those odds by measuring the ways individuals react to nicotine. ClearChoice, the patent-pending trademark for the program, allows doctors to adjust treatments to fit the patient's nicotine metabolic rate. "They may need half a patch or three patches," Horst said. "What we want to do is give them the optimum opportunity to succeed." Some of Wichita's largest employers, including Boeing Co., are encouraging their workers to try the program, which begins with a cigarette. A few puffs and a spit later, laboratory workers analyze a sample of the smoker's saliva. Whether it comes from a cigarette, a pipe or a chaw of chewing tobacco, nicotine passes through the kidneys, where an enzyme turns it into a chemical called cotinine. While cotinine causes no known harm -- it's the 4,000 other chemicals in tobacco, including carbon monoxide that contribute to deadly heart and lung diseases -- it measures the body's absorption of nicotine. The test compares the nicotine and cotinine in the saliva. More nicotine means slower metabolism; more cotinine means faster metabolism. The person with a slow nicotine metabolism can overdose on the patch and become sick. They may need to cut the patch in half. A person with a fast nicotine metabolism may need more than one patch. "By adjusting their treatment, they can go through the program without feeling like they're going crazy," said Denise Williams, who guides the education part of the ClearChoice programs. Through classes and a Web site, www.cyberquit.com, Williams helps people understand how giving up nicotine affects their emotions. "Nicotine is really a remarkable drug in that it works as an anti-depressant, an appetite suppressant and a number of other things," Williams said. "Well, if people stop this medication, of course they might feel depressed or hungry. They've been taking a drug that dealt with all that." So strong is nicotine's grip that many attempted fixes fail, like banning smoking from restaurants and offices, printing pictures of rotting lungs and counting the billions of dollars taxpayers spend on health care for smokers. Still, people shiver in the cold and soak in the rain for a smoke, and they'll even press a cigarette between their lips with an oxygen tube in their nose. The Via Christi researchers are hoping their double-barrel attack will help more people finally win the battle. "Some people have been smoking for 30, 40 years," Williams said. "Most of us haven't been doing one thing that long, except breathing."

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