I was more sickened than surprised when I read that several state health departments are offering free nicotine replacement therapy kits to help people stop smoking.
The first thing that came to mind after reading this was the last line spoken on The Bridge on the River Kwai … “Maddness! Maddness!”
These “free” kits are available for six to eight weeks or while supplies last.
Now here comes the best part …
The kits are paid for by funding from the federal stimulus program and the Master Settlement Agreement. Under this agreement, 46 states receive payments from the tobacco industry to offset smoking-related medical costs and to help reduce the use of tobacco products.
Let’s look at some simple facts;
- Smoking is an addiction to nicotine.
- Nicotine is one of the most addictive drugs known to man.
- People can become addicted to nicotine in as few as two cigarettes.
The success rate of NRT (Nicotine Reduction Therapy) is a running joke.
The actual number of subjects who achieved one-year continuous abstinence with the nicotine patch was 5, or only 0.8% of the sample.
Consider this; You are a heroin addict. While strung out on heroin one day you slip on a flight of stairs and break your arm. You manage to get yourself to emergency, and while you’re being treated your doctor asks about the needle marks up and down your arm. After you reluctantly admit that you’re an addict your doctor gives you a prescription to treat your addiction. On the way out you ask him what the prescription is and he replies; “Oh it’s heroin, but it’s much better for you in this fashion. You see, it’s in tablet form so you won’t have to inject it into your arm any longer. Besides, it’s not going to cost you anything … at least not for a while, because it’s subsidized by the drug companies and the government.”
“Oh,” you say, “this isn’t going to help the tobacco companies, it’s going to help the pharmaceutical companies.” Whether it’s the tobacco companies selling nicotine in cigarettes or in pill form or it’s the pharmaceutical companies selling nicotine in gum, sprays, pills or patches, the entire fiasco is nothing other than a giant cluster #@%& at the never ending expense of the public.
In reality this is a classic relay swindle between two industry heavy weights – pharmacy and tobacco. First tobacco gets people hooked on nicotine through the use of cigarettes. Then when the addicted soul tries to quit, the pharmaceuticals step in and keep them hooked through the “smoke and mirrors” of ineffective but expensive nicotine patches, gums and pills. When the nicotine addict has had enough of the NRT products he’ll go back to cigarettes and everybody’s laughing all the way to the bank.
Cigarette Maker Buys Quit-Smoking Company Reynolds (Camel Cigarettes) pays $44 mill for Niconovum (nicotine replacement products) The most improbable part of this article is that some people still can’t figure out why the tobacco companies would voluntarily put themselves out of business. Pleeeese!
This diabolical “nicotine replacement” boondoggle is the exact plot line used by Kananga in the James Bond film Live and Let Die. Dr. Kananga – or Mr. Big – is the dictator of a small Caribbean island called San Monique. As the villain in the movie, Kananga is producing two tons of heroin which he plans to distribute free of charge at his Fillet of Soul restaurants. The purpose … to get new people hooked on heroin in order to increase the number of addicts. Kananga also believes that other drug dealers, namely the Mafia, cannot compete with his giveaway so they will soon abandon the heroin trade and go after more lucrative pursuits. As soon as the competition is wiped out, Kananga – who would now enjoy the benefits of a monopoly, can charge whatever he desires.
If the above plot line doesn’t mirror the benevolence of the big tobacco companies I can’t imagine what does. The tobacco companies continue to mock the governments and the public but what’s even worse, they’ve now figured out how to make money from it with the well-meaning health boards playing right into their hands.
The only reason that Kananga never got to successfully pull his heroin stunt off in the Bond film is because it would have been considered too far fetched!
Only in America you say … eh!
