Tobacco companies and freedom of expression

I was reading Dave Melson's blog entry which described his concerns over limits to free expression in the light of the current court case in which tobacco companies are attempting to have loosened recently imposed advertising and packaging restrictions.

I share his concerns, but feel this might be a special case...

This was Allen Carr north America's response...

"I totally understand the almost visceral reaction to any potential threat to freedom of expression, but with their guiding principles of fairness and equality, if the Founding Fathers had seen the way that First Amendment rights had been so egregiously abused by certain people, institutions, industries and companies, they wouldn't have hesitated for a second to legislate against them.

The tobacco industry is surely one such case: Smoking has a truly catastrophic human, financial and societal cost. An estimated 400,000 Americans die from smoking-related diseases every year (part of the nearly 6m worldwide) to say nothing of the 8m Americans living with smoking-related health problems, the millions of loved ones left behind or the estimated $100bn spent every year on caring for smokers.

The links between smoking and cancer and heart disease were established in the early 'sixties. For FORTY YEARS the tobacco industry publicly and energetically denied, while privately acknowledging, these and hundreds of other scientific findings. Big Tobacco have used their First Amendment rights to deceive, distort, deny and lie with stunning effect.

We have a right to bear arms, but if you are convicted of a gun crime, then you are likely going to be prohibited from owning a gun in the future. I think most people would agree that this makes sense.

Likewise, if someone has been found to continually and cynically use their First Amendment rights over a forty-year period to promote an addictive product they know to cause death and disease, why wouldn't it be equally correct that their right to free expression be limited and subject to oversight in the specific areas they have been found guilty of lying in?

Don't get me wrong, this is not a sanction I would take lightly, but I feel that special cases sometimes need extraordinary actions, and in this case I sense the punishment very much fits the crime, so to speak.

Incidentally, all this bill really does is to bring the US a little closer to where every other developed nation is on tobacco control already. The Australians, Canadian and Europeans have had these warnings and this type of advertising restrictions for years.

By the tobacco industry's deeds shall ye know them. Sometimes you know the right side of an argument just by seeing who is on the other side..."

Quit smoking success rates: Nicotine patch

Every day we get visitors to our site asking about the success rate for other quit smoking methods, so today I would like to focus on one of the most popular (and least effective!) quit smoking aids: the nicotine patch.

The nicotine patch is an adhesive patch that releases nicotine into the bloodstream. It is marketed as a quit smoking aid, and for years manufacturers have claimed that the patch "double your chances of quitting" (this claim appears on the US Surgeon General's office, Health Canada, Cancer Society and Heart Assocation websites) but double it from what to what? From 50% to 100% or from 1% to 2%?

Believe it or not, it is actually much harder than you think to find out even something this straightforward. The reason for this is that researchers rarely quote an actual success rate. Instead they compare the success of a treatment to placebo or to no treatment and quote the difference as an Odds Ratio (OR). So if a treatment is twice as effective as placebo, it has an OR of 2. If it's half as effective the OR would be 0.5.

There have been hundreds of studies looking into the effectiveness of the nicotine patch. Cochrane's Review, an independent body examining evidence-based treatments, identified 111 trials covering over 40,000 smokers and concluded that the nicotine patch has an OR of 1.66 vs. placebo.

So, if you slap a nicotine patch on, then you have a 66% better chance of quitting than if you wore a patch with no nicotine. This is interesting to me. If nicotine replacement really worked, you would expect it to be two, three or even five times higher than placebo or using nothing at all.

Clive Bates, Director of Action on Smoking and Health in the UK and one of the most vocal supporters of nicotine replacement therapy sheds some light on this issue. In a post on a discussion thread in April 2002, Mr. Bates wrote: "The unaided quit rate is about 3% success per attempt. NRT doubles that to 6%."

So, according to one of its biggest supporters, nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) has a success rate of 6% or, put another way, a 94% failure rate.

Allen Carr was dismissive of NRT from the beginning. He said "Telling a nicotine addict to stop using nicotine by taking nicotine is a bit like telling an alcoholic to drink beer instead of wine."

Ellen DeGeneres said it best: "The nicotine patch only works when you put one over each eye so you can't find your cigarettes!"

For a simple, no-BS, drug-free approach to quitting, visit us at www.TheEasywayToStopSmoking.com

Leopards never change their spots

Today I would like to thank the tobacco industry for reminding everyone how 'moral' they really are as their court case against the FDA kicks off in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

According to the tobacco companies who are the plaintiffs in the case, President Obama's Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act intrudes on their first amendment rights.

The Act, which was signed into law on June 22nd 2009, brings the US into line with the rest of the developed world in curtailing tobacco advertising and introducing graphic health warnings on pack.

There are three aspects of this case I find interesting: firstly, Philip Morris - America's biggest tobacco company, is not involved. Why not? Well, believe it or not, they actually want the legislation to be enacted. Why? Because they are the market leader by far and if advertising is banned, then that's the way it'll stay.

Secondly, the industry has chosen a Kentucky jurisdiction because as a key tobacco state, they feel it more likely that they'll get a sympathetic hearing.

Thirdly, the industry insists that it only markets to adults, and that all communication are aimed at adult smokers, trying to encourage them to switch brands. But this is clearly nonsense. Why spend billions of dollars every year competing for a sector only worth a few hundred million?

The tobacco industry has targeted kids for decades. In their own words...

"…the lower age limit for the profile of young smokers is to remain at 14."

"If you are really and truly not going to sell to children, you are going to be out of business in 30 years."

"[Brown & Williamson] will not support a youth smoking program which discourages young people from smoking."

"We have been asked by our client to come up with a package design... a design that’s attractive to kids.

"We reserve that right [to smoke] for the poor, the young, the black and the stupid."

R.J. Reynolds was once asked if they were targeting junior high school kids or younger. The reply? "They got lips? We want them."

Richard Daynard, a professor at the Northeastern School of Law in Boston and chairman of its Tobacco Products Liability Project, said: ''They want this stuff stopped in its tracks so they can keep pitching cigarettes to kids."

Business as usual then...

How Ashton Kutcher quit smoking...

Ashton Kutcher: actor, director, prankster and now...non-smoker!

Listen to Ashton talk about how he quit smoking using Allen Carr's unique Easyway method. You can see him talk about it on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno by clicking here. You will also find testimonials from Sir Anthony Hopkins, Sir Richard Branson, Ellen DeGeneres, Jason Mraz, Lou Reed, Stewart Copeland and David Blaine.

We want to thank Ashton - and all our other celebrity fans - for going public with this and for spreading the word.

To find out more about this simple, drug-free approach to quitting, please visit us at www.TheEasywayToStopSmoking.com

More quit smoking scammers

I recently contacted a company called I Quit Smoking, who claim an 80-90% success rate using laser 'therapy'.

Out of interest I asked what evidence they had to support this astonishing claim - particularly in the light of Cochrane's independent, evidence-based review into acupuncture, auricular and laser therapies, which concluded that "There is no consistent evidence that acupuncture, acupressure, laser therapy or electrostimulation are effective for smoking cessation" and "The review did not find consistent evidence that active acupuncture or related techniques increased the number of people who could successfully quit smoking vs. using placebo or sham acupuncture."

When I asked them to comment on this apparent inconsistency, I didn't hear from them again.

I was also a little suspicious of their testimonials. They quote a testimonial from a Canadian smoker who apparently quit in 2001, despite the company not coming to Canada until 2008. They quote testimonials from Italy and Austria, despite having no operations there. Smells a bit fishy to me!

For a simple, honest, BS-free approach to quitting smoking, please visit us at www.TheEasywayToStopSmoking.com

Allen Carr's Easyway featured on Forbes.com

Back in July I was interviewed by Kym McNicholas at Forbes for her Personal Best feature.

Here's the link...http://video.forbes.com/fvn/personalbest/why-people-still-smoke-allen-carr-easyway-stop-smoking

I'm so happy that the mainstream media is catching on to Allen Carr's unique Easyway method.

Thanks Kym, for a terrific piece...

To find out more about quitting smoking using this simple, drug-free approach, please visit us at www.TheEasywayToStopSmoking.com

Jason Mraz quits with Allen Carr's Easyway

Pop star Jason Mraz, most famous for his beautiful song I'm Yours, is the most recent celebrity to quit using Allen Carr's simple, drug-free Easyway method. He joins others such as Sir Anthony Hopkins, Anjelica Huston, Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore, Goldie Hawn and many, many more...

Mr. Mraz says of Easyway: "It worked for me and about twenty of my friends. Seriously." You can read his relevant MySpace blog entry here.

Thank you Jason for sharing your Easyway experience with the rest of the world.

To find out more about how to quit smoking using Allen Carr's Easyway please visit us at www.TheEasywayToStopSmoking.com