Quit Smoking Patches Are A Con!

It is my firm belief that quit smoking patches sold by major pharmaceutical companies are a complete con. Not only is there conflicting evidence about quit smoking patch effectiveness, but (being a cynic) I think they are marketed to simply raise cash for the shareholders of the pharmaceutical companies!

Let me explain. Smoking is an expensive habit to maintain. In the UK, a packet of cigarettes has already exceeded $12, largely as a result of taxation and duties raised by the government. (The argument for this is that smokers cost money to treat when they are dying from their smoking related disease. The flaw in that argument is that everyone costs a lot of money to treat when they are dying!)

Because tobacco is so expensive because of tax, quit smoking patches are expensive too - because they can be and because the pharmaceutical companies have set the price point as high as they can. A quit smoking patch costs no more than 20 cents to manufacture but a week's supply costs considerably at least ten times more then a couple of bucks. Why is this?
Well, when I was a smoker and I tried several times (and failed several times) to quit smoking using quit smoking patches. One of the considerations I would make when deciding to try nicotine replacement therapies was that I wouldn't spend more money on trying to quit than I would on not quitting!

I know it is absurd to think that I would rather continue killing myself rather than trying to stop killing myself, if the former option was cheaper. Because pharmaceutical companies know this is how junkie thinking in smokers works, they pitch the price just below the price of tobacco.
Now, to add insult to injury, the government charges 80% tax on cigarettes to fund public expenditure, which while being eye-watering, is at least an honourable ambition. The pharmaceutical companies charge enough to effectively divert the tax element of the price of tobacco products, directly into their profits.

But you might think that's not such a bad thing if quit smoking patches help you quit smoking. Well this is the point that makes me really seethe! According to Perng, Hseih, Chen et al., "Randomized, double blind, placebo controlled study of transdermal nicotine patch for smoking cessation" J Formos Medical Association, 97(8), 547-51, August 1998, " However, there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups of smokers (one group on nicotine patch and one group on placebo patch) after one year of follow-up."

So not only are the pharmaceutical companies profiteering, their product doesn't work either! Nor do they offer a money back guarantee (which could be used to justify a high price).
Now the final point I want to consider is this. You smoke because you are addicted to nicotine. Quit smoking patches are loaded with nicotine and act to keep you addicted to nicotine. If you manage to stay off the smokes, there is a good chance you will just start using the quit smoking patches as your source of nicotine rather than cigarettes - seeing as you're an addict right?

In some respects this might not be a bad thing, because nicotine in therapeutic doses is harmless whereas smoking tobacco is not. However, if you remain addicted to nicotine and use nicotine replacement therapies to supply nicotine, you are just lining the pockets of the pharmaceutical companies.

So there you have it, quit smoking patches are a scam because they don't work, they are over-priced, they have no guarantee and there is a good chance you will just become addicted to them instead of tobacco. You cannot say you have not been warned!

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By Peter Howells

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