On stopping smoking...

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Given that I speak and write much about my anger over the government’s obsession with smoking – were it not for booze to the exclusion of every other public health consideration – I guess many of you think I smoke. To help you understand my position, I thought I’d tell you about giving up smoking.

I stopped smoking nearly five years ago. It’s a simple as that really. I stopped smoking – it just took me a little while to realise that this is all there is to stopping. All the semi-medical mumbo-jumbo, the hypnotism, the psychotherapy, the patches, the gum – let alone bans and restrictions – are of no consequence. If you want to stop smoking, you just stop smoking. Yet a massive industry – a billion dollar industry – has sprung up around smoking cession:

In 2009, total sales of smoking-cessation products surpassed $1.6bn (Rx products).

At drug company profit margins that’s a big business and it’s expected to grow!

The report predicts that the launch of new smoking-cessation aids early this decade will answer some unmet needs currently limiting that pharma market segment. Besides extensive coverage of currently-marketed drugs, this report examines the most exciting products currently in development. The report also includes external opinions on the sector, gained thorough original unique surveys. The report analyses current leading markets in North America, Europe and Asia in detail. A major contribution to the market during the next 15 years will come from emerging economies, led by India and China. Almost half of the world’s smokers live in those countries, with almost a third in China alone, reports suggest. At present, those national markets yield relatively low smoking-cessation revenues. However, the report predicts that the emerging economies have a large potential for sales growth of smoking-cessation products. This report reveals how their sales revenues and market shares will expand during the forecast period.

A brilliant strategy – medicalise the delivery of nicotine! Let me tell you something, these products don’t work. People stop smoking because they want to stop smoking – and whether they use patches, gum or specialist smoking cessation drugs makes not one jot of difference. But it does keep a pretty huge and very profitable industry going!

"At the annual meeting of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco conference held in San Diego, CA, Scott Leischow, PhD., Associate Professor of Public Health for the University of Arizona, presented research findings indicating that over-the-counter (OTC) nicotine patches resulted in low quit rates of 4-5% at one year, which is in the range of naturally occurring smoking cessation. Published in the January/February 1999 issue of the American Journal of Health Behavior, the study also found that brief physician intervention did not improve on these rates." "New Smoking Study Questions the Effectiveness of the Nicotine Patch," PR Newswire, Mar. 24, 1999.

And some smoking cessation drugs have questionable side effect:

"It is very unusual to get 300-plus adverse drug-reaction reports in the first year of marketing a drug. The question is whether the benefit of the drug justifies the risk…and the answer is no." Rick Hudson, a medical consultant to British Columbia's Pharmacare program, quoted in Krista Foss, "The hidden cost of kicking the habit," Toronto Globe and Mail, Aug. 31, 1999.

And, of course, they don’t work. People stop because they want to stop – drugs make no difference.

When I decided to give up, like we’re advised to do, I went to see the GP – although I ended up seeing a very pleasant nurse (she spent a lot of time asking me how much I drink – which seemed unrelated to the reason I was there) who arranged a prescription for nicotine patches. Let me tell you, if you want that nicotine high, get those patches. I wandered around for a week in a zombie-like state, high as a kite on nicotine! Returning to see the nurse, she suggested using only half a patch to reduce the dose. No difference – still high as a kite, unable to function properly in my work and now with an uncomfortable rash. So I dumped the patches and went cold-turkey.

I haven’t smoked since – although a year sitting with Graham in the Fleece (before the stupid and unwarranted smoking ban) allowed some high quality Cuban passive smoking! I stopped because I ceased to enjoy smoking and without the pleasure there was no point any more in resisting the nagging!

All the millions spent of these products are, at best, having a marginal impact on people trying to stop smoking. But boy is it making the drugs companies some cash!

Update: An Anonymous comment brings this to our attention - reinforcing my point that the "anti-smoking" campaigns are, in truth, mostly ramps for drugs companies:

The heads of Pharmacia & Upjohn and Glaxo Wellcome both expressed their appreciation for the joint partnership.

"I'm delighted that Pharmacia & Upjohn is a leader in this ground-breaking action partnership with WHO to combat tobacco dependence," Fred Hassan, Pharmacia & Upjohn's President and Chief Executive Officer says. "Public health threats of this magnitude and urgency require the collaborative efforts of both the public and private sectors if we are to significantly reduce harm in a timely fashion. We hope that this initiative will serve as a model for other such partnerships."

"This partnership with the World Health Organization offers great promise in the effort to reduce tobacco dependence and thus reduce the significant health costs and burden of tobacco-related illnesses and deaths," said Sir Richard Sykes, Chairman, Glaxo Wellcome plc. "As a company, our commitment is to fighting disease. Tobacco dependence is in every sense of the word a disease with major but reversible health implications. Together, we can defeat this disease."

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