has helped a million people stop smoking since becoming available without prescription in 1996, according to company spokeswoman Nancy Lovre.

But it also has helped a small percentage of people trade an addiction to cigarettes for what they feel is a dependence on the nicotine in Nicorette.

Hess is extreme even in that group.

"I was addicted to Nicorette," she said. "It's easy to get out of control with them."

For some former smokers, the gum has become so essential - and so expensive, at about $50 for a "starter kit" containing 108 small pieces - that it is a popular shoplifting target in drugstores nationwide.

"The gum is not cheap," said Bruce Sigman, president of the Montgomery County Pharmacists' Association, adding that theft of Nicorette had been a problem where he works, Weldon Pharmacy in Glenside. "Anything that's a high-ticket item and small enough to conceal," he said, is a shoplifting target in supermarkets and pharmacies.