TR’s show in Sao Paulo Brazil scheduled for October 14-16 is to be moved to Rio de Janeiro.

Provisionally it wil now be held at the Intercontinental Hotel Rio de Janeiro October 15-17.

The format has also been changed and it is proposed to be now more of an industry discussion / forum event.

Of course there will be plenty of opportunties for networking as well over the three days.

The Intercontinental is located in Sao Conrado (beach) and is a little outside the grand bustle of Rio.

Now that Swedish Match joined USSTC in supporting the Philip Morris push for FDA Regulation, followed then by North Atlantic Trading and Dosal, the odds of approval in the Senate, after almost certain approval in the House, appear to have gone up, especially since NACS, with its 50 State set of supporters, has also joined the bandwagon by not opposing the bill. Swedish has argued that an Obama-Clinton-McCain world might even lead to including cigars and other tobacco products so it is better to grab the best that can be had especially given Waxman’s concession on allowing a smokeless sampling amendment.

Yet the harm reduction elements of the bill, making it difficult if not impossible to deliver such products, coupled with compelling smokeless to adopt the same warnings as cigarettes, when everyone now knows that smokeless is less harmful, has caused a rift in the tobacco control community with those seeking less harmful products, less supportive, than those who represent the California extremist wing who support it.

Politics sure does make “strange bedfellows.” On which side of the fence do you stand?

In the future, it may be a harder to purchase cigarettes as more retailers drop them and as officials in a few states look to ban the sale of all tobacco products in drugstores. For instance, the city of San Francisco has a proposal being reviewed by the city board that many believe will be put in place that will ban the sale of all tobacco products in October 2008. There are also bills like this  pending in New Hampshire, Illinois, Tennessee and New York.

What do you think about this?

Is is the beginning of a new movement that will affect the industry?

Do you buy tobacco products at the drug store? Supermarket?

Or is this a good idea that’s time has been long overdue?

How will this affect you?  

Smoking may be declining in the US but there are still around 60 million smokers here and in terms of harm reduction they are increasingly sidelined. This assumes that they choose not to migrate to smokeless - and not everyone will.

That leaves the cigarette business in a bit of a quandry - and the public health community too - strange bed fellows to say the least.

I don’t buy it that smokers will migrate en-masse to smokeless. It may have worked in Sweden but I content it won’t work (completely) here.

This leaves US cigarette smokers without harm reduction choices at present. Is this the way to treat your customers?

There’s real progress to be had for harm reduction in getting this news out to the general public.

There are advantages in harm reduction by smokers migrating to smokeless products. However, it would also be helpful if the relative harm for the various type of smokeless tobacco were made public. They are not all equal - but it seems quite clear that snus is the least harmful. If this is correct - we should say so.

The TMA conference in Williamsburg VA wound up today. It was a big success.

A constructive diaglogue has really begun and can only improve.

We welcome the opportunity to engage with the public health community in a constructive conference.

Well done TMA for putting together this successful forum.   

By CARLA K. JOHNSON,

CHICAGO (May — The federal government’s new advice to doctors for helping smokers quit recommends the drug Chantix, which has recently been linked with depression and suicidal behavior. The new guidelines mention the psychiatric risks but also say the popular Pfizer Inc. drug is the most effective at helping people get off cigarettes.

The guidelines mention other options, too, and highly recommend combining counseling and medication. But doctors are encouraged to talk to all smokers who want to quit about trying medication.

Consumer advocates cautioned that the safety picture on Chantix is incomplete because it’s a relatively new drug, on the market just since 2006.

“It is somewhat better than other therapies; on the other hand, it appears to have more risk,” said Dr. Sidney Wolfe of the watchdog group Public Citizen. “That part of the risk-benefit equation is missing, and it’s changing rapidly.”

Another issue with the quit-smoking guidelines, released this week by the U.S. Public Health Service, is the lead author’s past connections with Pfizer. Dr. Michael Fiore, an expert on smoking and health issues, was a consultant to the maker of Chantix. But he said he cut those ties in 2005.

Fiore’s views are shaped by his past ties to the drug industry, and those ties still pose a conflict, at least one consumer advocate said. John Polito, a smoking cessation educator who runs the WhyQuit.com site advocating quitting “cold turkey,” called the revised guidelines “a sales pitch” for the drug industry.

The task force overlooked research showing that quitting cold turkey works, Polito said, and studies showing Chantix is superior don’t reflect how it’s used “in the real world.”

“People are quitting smoking to save their lives,” Polito said. If Chantix’s risks outweigh its benefits, “then it’s insane for people to risk their lives” by using it, he said.

So what do you think is the risk worth it?

Do you know of anyone that has either a positive or negative experience with this drug?

Recently at a speaking engagement in Chicago, I met a user that quit smoking using the drug but refused to proceed to the fourth step as he feared the side affects  that he was experiencing.

Whose side are you on that of Fiore? or Polito?

Share your thoughts!

Let others know your opinion!