Payback time

Many of those fighting smoking restrictions around the World have speculated for years that the pharmaceutical industry has been the driving force behind these restrictions.

Links have been made between certain companies and the so-called 'charities' in several countries.

The thinking is that the charities receive funding to agitate for restrictions which they achieve through expensive lobbyists. Having got the ear of the politicians, they then push for the funding of 'Quitlines', which they themselves offer to run. Once this is in place and unsuspecting smokers call them, the charities recommend cessation products from their benevolent funding pharmaceutical company. The belief is that the charities, bloated with funds from both government and big pharma, can buy a lot of influence in the media and in the corridors of power.

Indeed in some countries the charities have actually convinced their governments to buy vast quantities of these cessation products from their chosen pharmaceutical friend at full market value. These then are offered free to smokers at chemists’ shops. Last year, one of our home grown zealots said on radio that they would be talking to Dr Reilly about introducing such a scheme in Ireland in 2012. It's payback time maybe?

So it was with great interest that I read this little piece of breaking news. The University of San Diego carried out a research project into the effectiveness of the aforementioned cessation products and concluded that they didn't work. Their damning verdict ends with, "There is an urgent need to revisit public policy on smoking cessation".

I couldn't have put it better myself.