HELping Englander To QuiT

over8million people in England are smokers. byhelping people to quit smoking for good, we can significantly improve public health and reduce health inequalities. byquitting, tobacco users can improve their own and their family’s health and wellbeing, and also reduce the likelihood that their children will become smokers.

England is seen as a global leader in helping smokers to quit and evidence shows that local stop smoking services provide the most effective type of support. We want to increase levels of motivation among tobacco users to quit, increase the referral of smokers to local stop smoking services and extend the support options available to tobacco users who want to quit.We will also developa new approach to encourage tobacco users who cannot quit to substitute tobacco for safer sources of nicotine.

Despite over6in 10 smokers saying that they want to quit, less than half make a quit attempt in any given year.We want to encourage smokers to try to quit more often until they succeed, and for smokers to quit using an effective approach such as local stop smoking services, rather than quitting “cold turkey” without any help.

Smoking star

The precautionary principle

So, one of the key arguments in moving cannabis from class C to B was the concern that skunk would cause more psychosis. What is very regularly invoked in this debate is the precautionary principle, which is that, if you’re not sure about a drug harm, rank it high, make all drugs class A and get rid of the problem. To repeat what the former Home Secretary said, ‘We must err on the side of caution and protect the public.’ As this is protection from the known unknowns, at fi rst sight it might seem the obvious decision – why wouldn’t you take the precautionary principle? We know that drugs are harmful and that you can never evaluate a drug over the lifetime of a whole population, so we can never know whether, at some point in the future, a drug might lead to or cause more harm than it did early in its use. The precautionary principle is also an act of faith in deterrence, and this is one of the key issues for lawyers. However, it may end up doing more harm than one might assume.

Does deterrence impact on drug use? We don’t know. In fact, the outcome may be the opposite of that predicted. It may be that if you move a drug up a class it has a greater cachet. People think, ‘Oh, it’s interesting, maybe we should be trying it because it’s a class B or a class A rather than a class C.’ We don’t know. We also don’t know what drives the use of drugs in relation to classifi cation. More important, I think, the precautionary principle misleads. It starts to distort the value of evidence and therefore I think it could, and probably does, devalue evidence. This leads us to a position where people really don’t know what the evidence is. They see the classifi cation, they hear about evidence and they get mixed messages.

There’s quite a lot of anecdotal evidence that public confi dence in the scientifi c probity of government has been undermined in this kind of way. I will use MMR as an example of this process and the precautionary principle. People were concerned, on the basis of false science, that the triple vaccine might cause brain damage. This led to a reduction in vaccination uptake and now children are getting lung and brain damage from measles. In some circumstances, people accessed single vaccinations, which was more expensive, probably no safer, and in effect reduced the breadth of health protection across the community.

The precautionary principle with MMR has been clearly shown to be wrong – it has harmed more people than it has helped. So we need to be very cautious about simply invoking the precautionary principle in relation to drugs. Another very sad example is that of a young woman from the Shetland Islands who died of a heroin overdose. Why was she taking heroin? The problem according to her friends was that she wanted, like her friends and other teenagers to try cannabis. In this isolated community it was, however, much easier to get heroin, presumably because it has a higher unit price and is easier and more profi table to import than cannabis. This is something we should bear in mind. We don’t know how many deaths are caused by a failure of people to access drugs that are relatively less dangerous because more dangerous drugs are being made available. Making all drugs class A would be a logical conclusion of the precautionary principle, but would be a supreme mistake.

Just think about something else

Our natural instinct is to tell ourselves that we need to try and ignore or suppress “junkie thinking” when it tries to take root and play inside our mind, that we need to try and think about something else. Research shows that attempts at thought suppression may actually have the reverse effect of causing the thought the to-be-suppressed to intrude into our consciousness with greater frequency.386 Trying to think about something else will likely only make things worse. As Joel notes, at the core of each internal debate you'll probably find fixation on the thought of having “just one”, "one puff," "one cigarette" or "one fix." As Joel notes, "It's hard to think about something else because one puff seems like such a wonderful concept.

They are often reminiscing about one of the best cigarettes, or more accurately, about the sensation around one of the best fixes they ever had. It may be one they smoked 20 years earlier but that is the one they are focused on." "So what about thinking about something else? Well, it's hard to think of something else that can deliver such pleasure as this magic memory," writes Joel. "Even if they successfully think of something else and overcome that urge, they walk away from the moment with a sense of longing or sadness with what they have just been deprived of again."

So, what is an ex-user to do? “Change the tactic," advises Joel. "Instead of trying (often unsuccessfully) to think of something else, acknowledge the desire. Don't tell yourself you don't want one, you do and you know it. But remember there is a catch. To take the one you have to have all the others with it. And with the others, you have to take all the problems that go with ‘them.’ The smell, the expense, the embarrassment, social ostracization, the total loss of control, and the health implications." Joel encourages us to see "just one" for the falsehood it reflects. By thinking about the entire spectrum of dependency that comes with "just one" we can walk away from the encounter feeling good about no longer using. We won't feel deprived but grateful. The more vividly we recall full-blown dependency the less we'll think about it. "In a sense forcing yourself to remember will help you forget,” he notes. “Not forget using, but the fantasy, the appeal of a nicotine fix."387 Instead of trying to run or hide from use rationalizations that enter your mind, grab hold of each. Don’t let go until you’ve turned it inside out. Think about the enslaved mind that created it.

How much did any of us know about nicotine dependency back then? Examine each use rationalization that enters your mind. Do you recall where it came from? Is that how you felt the very first time you used nicotine? Does tobacco industry store marketing play to it? Would relapse somehow make the rationalization permanently go away or only guarantee its survival? Can you say with certainty that it’s true and honest, or was it invented by a mind that needed justification for answering nicotine’s next dinner bell? Whether you choose to attempt to destroy rationalizations or wait for new memories to bury the old, the day is approaching when you'll awaken to an expectation of going your entire day without once wanting to use nicotine. Oh, you'll still have thoughts now and then but with decreasing frequency, shorter duration and declining intensity. They'll become the exception, not the rule. They say that "truth shall set us free" but we have an even better guarantee. It is impossible to lose our freedom so long as we refuse to allow nicotine back into our body. The next few minutes are all that matter and each is entirely do-able. Thoughts or no thoughts, there was always only one rule ... no nicotine today ...never use nicotine again! More Lies

Locations

The only use cues we encourage delay in encountering are associated with using alcohol or other inhibition diminishing chemicals. Unless we have co-dependency issues, these are non-mandatory activities that can be delayed for a few days, at least until though the most challenging portion of recovery.

Even then, there can be multiple cues related to alcohol use, including the location, people present, the presence of cigarettes or other users, and celebration. It may be best to break them down into smaller challenges.

Locations -

Think about the locations you frequented that may have become conditioned use cues. Entering the house, bathroom, work area, your smoking room, garage, backyard, the garden, outdoors, a vehicle, bus stop, bicycle, walkway, workplace, bar, pub or restaurant, or entering or leaving a store. We used nicotine in some locations more than others. How often did we use in association with a place of worship, a doctor’s office, a hospital, movie theater or concert? If we established cues, when might they next be encountered?

Chest tightness

Rarely mentioned in symptom studies, it isn’t unusual to hear chest tightness complaints from quitters. Whether arising from tension, stress, depression or somehow related to coughing, lung healing, or lung disease, be careful as chest tightness can also be a sign of more serious health problems, including serious heart conditions. If at all concerned, pick up the phone and contact your doctor.

If related to anxiety or tension, it may benefit from relaxation exercises, a warm shower, slow deliberate breathing or moderate exercise.

Recovery Timetable

Most but not all benefits listed below are related to smoking. Why? Here in the U.S. there are ten times as many smokers as oral tobacco users.239 By far, smoking reflects the greatest health risks of any form of nicotine delivery. Understandably, until now the vast majority of research has focused on smoking. But just because science cannot yet tell us when most oral tobacco and NRT recovery benefits occur doesn’t mean they are not happening.

Chemical to Friend

Imagine the illness inside a mind that looks upon its nicotine delivery device as a “good friend.” Always there, never lets us down, calms us during crisis, gives us no arguments, it is our life’s companion, more dependable than a dog. Is it any wonder that we addicts refer to recovery as “quitting”?

Personifying our addiction comes easily, at least until honesty arrives. Life’s constant interruption, chemical dependency upon nicotine is an endless exercise in avoiding letdown, letdown clearly visible during crisis, as acidic fluids induce withdrawal. Like table salt, nicotine can’t talk, not one word. Unlike a dog, it never, ever demonstrates affection or is happy to see us. The only thing dependable about nicotine is its ability to keep us dependent upon it. “My Cigarette, My Friend” is clearly the most widely read “friend” rationalization buster ever.

Written by Joel, in it he asks, “How do you feel about a friend who has to go everywhere with you? Not only does he tag along all the time, but since he is so offensive and vulgar, you become unwelcome when with him. He has a peculiar odor that sticks to you wherever you go. Others think both of you stink.” As Joel notes, nicotine addiction is about surrendering control. It’s about putting life on pause come replenishment time. It compels smokers to find an acceptable place to feed, even during bad weather. It’s about being forced to go buy more, spending thousands during our years as users.

Addiction Not News to the Tobacco Industry

Nearly 50 million pages of once secret tobacco industry documents are today freely available and fully searchable online. Collectively they paint a disturbing picture of an industry fully aware that its business is drug addiction.

The industry cannot ignore that historically, roughly 27% of new smokers have been age 13 or younger, 60% age 15 or under, 80% age 17 or younger and 92% under the age of 19.47 Contrary to “corporate responsibility” image campaigns, with nearly five million annual tobacco related deaths worldwide,48 the industry knows it must entice each new generation of youth to experiment and get hooked on nicotine or face financial ruin.

As a Lorillard executive wrote in 1978, “The base of our business is the high-school student.” Philip Morris USA (PM) is America’s largest tobacco company, holding a 51% share of the 70 billion dollar U.S. cigarette market in 2007. Based in Richmond, Virginia and founded in 1854, PM brands include Alpine, Basic, Benson & Hedges, Bristol, Cambridge, Chesterfield, Commander, Dave’s, English Ovals, L&M, Lark, Merit, Parliament, Players, Saratoga and Virginia Slims.

Value the indirect costs associated with smokingalue the indirect costs associated with smoking

Using productivity loss to value the indirect costs associated with smoking is also challenged by many researchers. Applying this method implies that the value of a person is reflected by his or her earnings, with the life value for that person equal to the discounted stream of the future earning. Many researchers believe that the lost earning is a poor measure for the value people place on their health or on their lives. The willingness-to-pay approach should be a theoretically correct approach to value both morbidity and mortality. Estimating the net cost a smoker imposes on non-smokers has been a difficult task both conceptually and empirically.

The identification of costs to be considered as external or internal, and of what should be considered as transfers, have been controversial. In addition, empirical evidence on the number of diseases and the extent to which each disease can be attributable to smoking varies with different epidemiological studies. Using different assumptions can lead to different conclusions. The estimation of the net cost is also dependent on the system of health care and social security in a country.

For example, in the United States, some studies suggest that, by dying early, smokers subsidize nonsmokers’ social security payment. In the United Kingdom, by contrast, research indicates that sickness benefits paid to smokers and pensions paid to their dependents compensated for the lower direct pension benefits paid to smokers as a consequence of their earlier average age of death. In developing countries in which old-age expenses are largely a private matter, the social benefits of dying early would not exist and hence would not offset any negative externalities of smoking.

Tobacco production in Zimbabwe

Large sized farms have dominated tobacco production in Zimbabwe. Average farm size was about 200 ha, of which an average of 40 ha were allocated to tobacco production. Most of these farms are organized and run as commercial enterprises.

The managers of the large commercial farms are well trained and skilful in strategic planning, marketing and managing. They understand the market, know their own comparative advantages in the markets and what are the opportunities. The major adjustment cost for these large tobacco growers in diversifying away from tobacco to other crops would be the fixed investment they have in constructions used for curing tobacco leaves.

Other capital, such as trucks and tractors, can easily be used for other purposes. Compared with these large tobacco growers, smallholders would have more difficulties in adjusting away from tobacco production, as they are more dependent on tobacco for their cash income.

Youth smoking reduction plan

The government and the intervenors bring a cross-appeal challenging the district court’s denial of additional remedies they sought against Defendants. Specifically, they appeal from the district court’s refusal of their proposed counter-marketing campaign, national smoking cessation program, youth smoking reduction plan, and monitoring scheme. They also appeal from the denial of their request for disgorgement, which we affirm as the law of the case.

We review de novo the district court’s legal conclusion that the government’s proposed counter-marketing, smoking cessation, and youth smoking reduction remedies were beyond its authority to order. Under section 1964(a), the district court may craft only forward-looking remedies aimed at preventing and restraining future RICO violations.

Remedies “focused on remedying the effects of past conduct” or “awarded without respect to whether the defendant will act unlawfully in the future” are beyond the court’s statutory jurisdiction.

Smoking addictions

The district court found that despite their knowledge Defendants made numerous statements trivializing and outrightdenying the dependence cigarettes cause. For example, in 1982TI issued a press release summarizing testimony that smoking caused an “attachment” comparable to that produced by “tennis,jogging, candy, rock music, Coca-cola, members of the oppositesex and hamburgers.”
In1997, Philip Morris’s CEO testified, “If cigarettes arebehaviorally addictive or habit forming, they are much more like. . . Gummi Bears, and I eat Gummi Bears, and I don’t like itwhen I don’t eat my Gummi Bears, but I’m certainly notaddicted to them.”  In a1994 television interview, a TI official claimed that there was“no chemical addiction” to nicotine and stated, “Sometimes we use the word ‘addiction’ in very broad terms. We talk aboutbeing, you know, news junkies. We talk about being chocoholics.”
A 1988 TIpress release declared that “it has been impossible to establishthat the feelings persons have upon giving up smoking are50anything but that which would be expected when one isfrustrated by giving up any desired habit.” Id. at 283 (quotationmarks omitted, emphases added). Most directly, the districtcourt found that Defendants had their representatives testify thatnicotine “did not cause addiction or dependence,” id. at 281(emphasis added), rendering any supposed ambiguities in theword “addiction” beside the point.

Vogue

 

The United States initiative

The United States initiated this civil action under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”), 18 U.S.C. §§ 1961–1968, in 1999. The government alleged that nine cigarette manufacturers and two tobacco-related trade organizations violated section 1962(c) and (d) of the Act. Those subsections make it unlawful for “any person employed by or associated with any enterprise engaged in, or the activities of which affect, interstate or foreign commerce, to conduct or participate, directly or indirectly, in the conduct of such enterprise’s affairs through a pattern of racketeering activity” or to conspire to do so. 18 U.S.C. § 1962.

The eleven Defendants were Philip Morris, Inc., now Philip Morris USA, Inc. (“Philip Morris”); R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, now Reynolds American (“Reynolds”); Brown & Williamson Tobacco Company, now part of Reynolds (“Brown & Williamson”); Lorillard Tobacco Company (“Lorillard”); The Liggett Group, Inc. (“Liggett”); American Tobacco Company, which merged with Brown & Williamson and is now part of Reynolds (“American”); Philip Morris Companies, now Altria (“Altria”); British American Tobacco (Investments) Ltd. (“BATCo”); B.A.T. Industries p.l.c., now part of BATCo (“BAT Industries”); The Council for Tobacco Research–USA, Inc. (“CTR”); and The Tobacco Institute, Inc. (“TI”). The last two entities are trade organizations the cigarette manufacturers created; they do not manufacture or sell tobacco products. The district court dismissed BAT Industries from the case for lack of personal jurisdiction.

MS. VIRGINIA NEEDED A LITTLE HELP

The attractive women who modeled for Virginia Slims weren't always successful in introducing new line extensions. Virginia Slims Ovals were unsuccessfully test marketed in Rochester, Las Vegas, and Birmingham beginning June 1984. Another short lived idea was to package VS in a supposedly convenient ten pack.

In October 1975 Philip Morris was the first manufacturer to extend the 120mm length to a major brand. Virginia Slims 120's were tested in Fresno, California, but withdrawn when sales failed to meet expectations. It wasn't until 1985 that super long Virginia Slims Lights 120's were found acceptable. One VS line extension brought out in the late 1980s was smiled upon by women, but scorned by a competing manufacturer. Philip Morris launched Superslims from Virginia Slims beginning October 1989. The Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation had been selling super thin Capri since January 1987, and frowned when another skinny smoke was introduced. That same year I received a letter from a lawyer with a NYC law firm that was representing Philip Morris. I was asked if there had been any cigarettes made before 1987 that had a very, very small diameter. Did you know that Benson & Hedges marketed Russian No. 3 cigarettes during the 1930's with a smaller diameter than Capri?

The Marlboro clothing

It seems apparent to the author that the clothing ads function in pretty much the same way as many Marlboro ads.* The Marlboro clothing and Marlboro cigarette ads even appear to come from the same ad agencies and implement similar semi-subliminal ad policies, hence the reference to turning the other cheek. Note the illustration of the models face. The textured lines on his right cheek don't require the application of too much imagination to perceive embedded 'letters'. What these 'letters' are I will leave to your 'vivid' imagination.

Camel Filters Cigarette Ad

1987 Camel Filters Cigarette Water Rafting Ad
CAMEL FILTERS Share a new adventure. SURGEON GENERAL’S WARNING: Smoking by pregnant women may result in Fatal Injury. Premature Birth. And Low Birth Weight.

1987 Camel Filters Men Arm Wrestling Ad
CAMEL FILTERS Share a new adventure. SURGEON GENERAL’S WARNING: Smoking by pregnant women may result in Fatal Injury. Premature Birth. And Low Birth Weight.

1987 Camel Filters Men Arm Wrestling Ad - CAMEL FILTERS Share a new adventure. SURGEON GENERAL’S WARNING: Smoking by pregnant women may result in Fatal Injury. Premature Birth. And Low Birth Weight.    

CAMEL FILTERS Share a new adventure. SURGEON GENERAL’S WARNING: Smoking by pregnant women may result in Fatal Injury. Premature Birth. And Low Birth Weight.

1987 Camel Lights Men Sitting on Footbridge Ad - CAMEL FILTERS Share a new adventure. SURGEON GENERAL’S WARNING: Smoking by pregnant women may result in Fatal Injury. Premature Birth. And Low Birth Weight.     1987 Camel Lights Men Sitting on Footbridge Ad

Chesterfield man

 

Budget focus shifts to state worker furloughs, higher cigarette taxes

State employees might have to take unpaid days off, and cigarettes smokers might face more taxes for cigarettes as the Legislature grapples with new ways to balance the state budget.

The budget is set to go before the Senate this morning, and the House is expected to take it up this afternoon, state Rep. Laura Bradford, R-Grand Junction, said Wednesday.

Legislators have to look anew at cuts because Gov. Bill Ritter on Wednesday took the assets of Pinnacol Assurance, the state’s largest carrier of workers’ compensation insurance, off the budget table, citing unanswered questions about the effects on taxpayers and Pinnacol policyholders.

Pinnacol had vowed to fight any effort to take its assets for use in balancing the state budget.

The Joint Budget Committee had sought to take $500 million from Pinnacol and use $300 million to fund colleges and universities.

Without money from the insurance company, new proposals suggested the Legislature could find $354 million by postponing a major water project, increasing tobacco taxes and cutting $187 million in spending, including reductions in medical-provider rates and requiring state employees to take 10 unpaid furlough days.

“Furloughs are a strong possibility,” said Rep. Steve King, R-Grand Junction.

“Nobody wants to cut the budget,” King said Wednesday, “but we need to have the fiscal resolve to step up and shrink government.”

House Republicans have a list of cuts they wish to offer, Bradford said.

“We have a little here and a little there,” she said, including some reductions as small as $100,000. “That’s a lot of work” going through spending plans to find reductions, she said.

Bradford said she worried that one cut to be recommended by the Joint Budget Committee was halving the $5 million tourism budget. “We did not think they would go there,” she said.

Ritter has questioned whether taking Pinnacol’s assets was legal, or whether it was the right thing to do, but didn’t intercede as the plan moved through the Senate and a House committee.

“Finally, in the 11th hour, my Democratic friends realized that the Legislature is going to have to make some tough choices,” said state Sen. Josh Penry, R-Grand Junction. “No one relishes cutting budgets, but it’s what these tough times require.”

The company was established as a state agency and then designed by law to operate as a mutual insurance company. It will undergo a legislative “accountability plan” that includes a full audit and proposed dividends to policy holders.