Roughly 80-90% of all new quitters attempt to quit cold turkey (abrupt nicotine cessation). If you are one of them then you need to know that many highly respected websites contain advertisements, quitting instructions and articles created by the pharmaceutical industry for the purpose of getting you to purchase nicotine (which they have renamed medicine) and use it (which they have renamed therapy). Their super slick marketing is designed to make you quickly believe that you have very little chance of succeeding unless you rush-out and purchase nicotine weaning products such as the nicotine patch, nicotine gum or nicotine lozenge and immediately put nicotine back into your bloodstream. They do not want you to believe in "you." They do not want you to reach for education, understanding, new skills and support, as honest tools that make dreams come true at rates that make those achieved by their weaning products laughable.
Sadly, very few sites are sharing useful, recent and honest NRT data with quitters. Those with a financial stake must keep secret the fact that a
March 2003 NRT study review by paid pharmaceutical industry consultants combined and averaged all seven over-the-counter nicotine patch and gum studies and found that
93% of those who "believed" and "trusted" in the nicotine weaning message failed and relapsed to smoking nicotine within six months (
link to full text of March, 2003 study ). Nor will those receiving donations or profits for allowing nicotine to be marketed at their websites warn you that
too many among the 7% who do quit smoking for six months have instead become permanent chemical captives to the very product they purchased to help them break nicotine's grip upon their mind. Nor will they tell you that if you have previously tried and failed while using nicotine weaning products that,
according to two nicotine patch recycling studies, your odds of relapse during a second attempt may be as high as
100%.
But most importantly, these sites continue to refuse to caution the 80-90% of new quitters who arrive having quit cold turkey, that if they have remained 100% nicotine free for 72 hours that their blood is now 100% nicotine-clean, 90% of nicotine's metabolites have passed through their urine, and that for them chemical withdrawal has peaked in intensity and is now beginning to gradually subside. Any nicotine use at this point constitutes chemical relapse that will require them to repeat nicotine detox all over again. This is the "
Law of Addiction."
But take heart if you are quitting cold turkey. According to the American Cancer Society's
Cancer Facts & Figures 2003 report, 91.2% of all successful long-term quitters are today quitting entirely on their own without using Zyban, Wellbutrin, hypnosis, acupuncture, magic herbs, and without toying with any gradual nicotine weaning products like the patch, gum, lozenge, spray, or inhaler.
You'd think that government researchers would be heavily engaged in studying "their" method of quitting and "their" secrets. You'd think that they'd be developing websites to service the cessation needs of the 80-90% of all new quitters who they know are today engaged in a cold turkey quitting experience. You'd think that their sites would have warnings to protect cold turkey quitters from pharmaceutical grade nicotine relapse. You'd think that government and major health non-profits would have lots of articles on how to take the mystery and cold out of quitting cold.
Sadly, it simply isn't happening. The pharmaceutical industry is making billions selling nicotine to nicotine addicts, their sphere of influence extends beyond your wildest imagination and they know that the only way to continue to increase market share and profits is by continuing their campaign to destroy the credibility of earth's most productive means of quitting - abrupt nicotine cessation.
John R. Polito, Nicotine Cessation Educator
You always have some sexual comment about women LOL.
