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From the desk of John Dicey, Worldwide Director, Allen Carr’s Easyway:
This is complex but extremely important news about the UK Government’s official approach to helping smokers quit – please do engage with it (even if you are not a UK resident). Your views count.
The organisation which informs the official UK approach to helping smokers quit smoking has just published a report regarding the promotion of nicotine replacement products including the long-term use of “medical nicotine” as “harm reduction”.
In short, in spite of their claims to the contrary, they are moving towards a policy of keeping smokers addicted to nicotine products rather than curing them. Allen Carr’s Easyway predicts that within a few short years the commercial exploitation of these products will result in not only current smokers staying addicted to nicotine but to a generation of youngsters becoming addicted to fruit flavoured nicotine chewing gum, drinks, and sweeties/candy…If you think this is far fetched then you are forgetting that these are the people who think they can cure nictotine addiction by giving the addict nicotine and overseen a smoking cessation policy which has failed, cost hundreds of millions of pounds, and hundreds of thousands of lives!
The public has been invited to comment on the report.
Please, please take a look at the summary of the report and our notes that follow it.
Summary of the Report –
From Action on Smoking and Health in the UK:
The Citizens Council of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) in the UK, which provides public input into the Institute’s work, has published a report on its meeting to discuss smoking and harm reduction. The public is now invited to comment on the Council members’ views on the theoretical strategy of harm reduction with regard to smoking – an approach not currently used in the UK. This includes the pros and cons of promoting the switch to alternative products such as medicinal nicotine, alongside supporting smokers to quit. NICE has not been asked to produce guidance on harm reduction in smoking. However, should guidance be requested on this topic, the views of the Citizens Council on issues which should be taken into account will be helpful to inform NICE’s independent committees.
Whereas smoking cessation strategies are familiar – helping smokers to quit both smoking and their reliance on nicotine completely – the concept of harm reduction in smoking has a different focus. Instead, it aims to reduce the harm associated with smoking cigarettes for people who cannot quit. This may include replacing cigarettes with a clean form of nicotine, or with cigarettes which intend to deliver lower levels of toxins. In this scenario, nicotine continues to be provided through a less harmful method than by standard smoking.
The Citizens Council voted overwhelmingly in favour of the position that harm reduction in smoking is a valid strategy. In particular, using harm reduction as a way to quit smoking and break addiction was supported. However the notion of considering harm reduction as a way to provide a less harmful alternative to smoking – while accepting that nicotine addiction continues – proved relatively unpopular.
Sir Michael Rawlins, Chair of NICE, said: “The Citizens Council makes an important contribution to the work of NICE by enabling it to take the views of the general public into account when undertaking its work. The Citizens Council’s comments on harm reduction in smoking – a difficult social values issue that may be seen as contentious in some fields – is therefore particularly helpful.
*“The concept of harm reduction conflicts with traditional smoking cessation as it does not necessarily seek to help people stop smoking altogether, nor does it treat nicotine addiction.* What would this approach mean for the goal of having a smoke free society? The Citizens Council’s view will help guide our independent advisory committees, should they be required in the future to make recommendations about harm reduction in smoking. But first, we are very keen to hear what the general public thinks about the conclusions the Citizen’s Council reached, before the report is presented to the NICE Board.
“Importantly, the Citizens Council discussion also revealed that there seems to be general public misunderstanding about nicotine, namely that many people may think that it is the nicotine in a cigarette that kills you. Many members of the public are also unaware of the smoking cessation services already available. The Citizens Council’s view was that there was a need for better public information about these services. I’d like, once again, to thank the Council for its consideration of this issue.”
Well…I don’t really know where to start on this issue.
In short the above indicates that the medical and scientific establishment (as predicted years ago by Allen Carr’s Easyway) seem intent on using nicotine to maintain addiction rather than cure it (most intelligent people will understand that this is what happens when an addictive drug is taken regardless of in what form it is taken).
The tragedy is that their policy of using NRT for the last decade or more has failed – yet the same people, using the same weird non-logic are set to pursue an equally crazy course of action. How mad are these people? The penultimate sentence is a clue “Many members of the public are also unaware of the smoking cessation services already available. The Citizens Council’s view was that there was a need for better public information about these services” This claim is made in the context of tens of millions of pounds being spent on advertising and marketing the NHS Stop Smoking Services every single year!!!
Can you imagine how happy the pharmaceutical industry will be at this news. They no longer have to fake studies that seem to prove nicotine patches and gum cure smoking – the medical and scientific establishment are on the verge of having nicotine addicts permanently prescribed nicotine…. for their life.
Please, please take a look at the report and provide your feedback to the Citizens Council.
Here is the link to the NICE Press Release which summarises the report and requests public comment –
www.nice.org.uk – press release
Here is the link to the comments form (plus the full 39 page NICE report). Please note the comments form appears to be only for those in the medical/scientific establishment (asking for your “organisation name” and “job title”) but please complete the form indicating that you are a member of the public) –
www.nice.org.uk – comments form
Here is the link to a copy of our own feedback in full (just to provide you with our full views on the issues). Please do not copy and paste our views/feedback but feel free to use any points mentioned in it which coincide with your own (in your own words) as well of course as your additional views…–
www.allencarr.com – example feedback
Please do this now or at least in the next 7-10 days rather than leave it until the deadline at the end of March. If you can get a further two or three people you know to do the same we can assure that the Citizens Council hears the views of “citizens”.