Do the government really want you to stop?

Smokers who want to give up their habit have been getting a really raw deal over the last ten years. Successive Governments have wanted to be seen as doing the right thing and helping them to do so. So what have they been doing

Well they have set up NHS stop smoking clinics and they subsidise nicotine replacement therapy or NRT (patches, Gums, inhalers) and Zyban. They run horrible TV ads which frighten the living daylights out of smokers. They spend around 71 million pounds of tax payer’s money to be seen to be doing something. But let’s get all this into perspective.

According to government statistics if 7 % of smokers trying to stop smoking using willpower alone will succeed. Around 16% of smokers trying to stop using NRT will succeed. What that really means is that at least 84% of smokers trying to stop with these methods will fail? Which means NRT doesn’t work. The ‘stop smoking‘, drug Zyban has already been linked with many deaths.
So do the Government really want to help? Well we’re not so convinced! Their target for the year 2010 is a reduction in people smoking of 5%! If they got their priorities right they could easily do something. They have graphically demonstrated how effective they can be in the last few months.

Double Standards
Last year a man went into his corner shop for his weekly groceries. The man asked the shopkeeper for his usual Chinese chicken wings , the shop keeper said, "sorry I had to take them off the shelves....Sudan 1 additive cancer risk". The man said "oh well, I’ll just have the cottage pie then," …"sorry cancer risk", the shop keeper replied, "What about burger relish", the man asked ....again the shopkeeper said "sorry cancer scare " so the man said "never mind, what about Brown sauce?".. "Cancer scare".... was the answer. The man said "OK then I’ll have a nice healthy lasagna". The shopkeeper replied "I'm afraid it's got Worcester sauce in, had to take it off the shelves Government orders... cancer risk". The man said "in that case I’ll just have a pint of milk and twenty of my usual cigarettes" the shopkeeper replied fine that will be £5.40 please and handed them over!

Would you eat Cottage pie with brown sauce or some Lasagna containing cancer forming Sudan 1? Well the Sudan 1 potential cancer risk is 1:200000...that means one person out of every two hundred thousand eating food containing Sudan 1 could develop cancer as a result. The proven cancer risk from Cigarettes is 1:5 ! In fact 1:2 that’s right one out of every two smokers will eventually die as a result of their habit.

Licenced Bandits
So why don’t the Government just take cigarettes off the shelves? For the answer to that question you only have to look at the Maths. The Government Receive £8,055 million pounds revenue from tobacco .That’s over 8 Billion pounds. They spend 71 million ‘trying’ to help smokers stop. It costs the NHS I.5 billion treating smokers for diseases caused by smoking. This leaves them with a profit of around 6.4 Billion from smokers. Call me Cynical, I don’t care. You can’t argue with the figures.

What else could they do to help?
Taking cigarettes off the shelves would be a very brave move and would be a massive help in preventing 114.000 deaths every year and would massively reduce the costs to the NHS. Increasing the age when you can buy them from 16 to 21 would also help. Most smokers start smoking in their teenage years. There are also far more effective treatments to help a smoker who wants to stop than tobacco sponsored NRT. Many different psychological interventions have far higher chances of success.

It's all about perception and how you see your problem. For example look at the picture on the right.The tobacco monsters going keep on chasing you, his alter ego, until you have another? What about if you decide to turn around and chase him away? Or is he too powerful....look at the picture, what if I told you that he is not as big or powerful as you think he is? Now get a ruler and measure him on the screen...... not so scary now!

Visit http://www.12free.org/ for cost effective psychological assistance