May 12th, 2008 — Current Issues, General, Regulations: FDA etc.
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!
May 12th, 2008 — Current Issues, General
|
| New York: Economist Warns That Cigarette Tax Hike Will Worsen Organized Crime |
|
Patrick Fleenor, chief economist of the Tax Foundation and author of “Cigarette Taxes, Black Markets, and Crime: Lessons from New York’s 50-Year Losing Battle,” said in an opinion piece published in the Wall Street Journal that New York State’s politicians of both political parties are ignoring the “blunt fact” that the State’s high cigarette excise tax rate, which will rise another $1.25 to $2.75 per pack on July 1st, has led to a “bloody, decades-long smuggling epidemic.” Fleenor said much of the cigarettes sold in New York State will be trucked up from Virginia or shipped from China by “butt-leggers” who can make over $1 million per tractor-trailer load of smuggled cigarettes. He said tax hikes in the early 1960s created a profit opportunity for smugglers and by 1967, 25% of the cigarettes consumed in the State were bootlegged. High inflation in the late 1970s and early 1980s drove up cigarette prices, but the excise tax remained unchanged, thereby reducing smugglers’ profit margin and therefore related crime, Fleenor said. Lawmakers began raising the cigarette tax again in the 1980s and the 1990s, and smuggling and large-scale tax evasion resurged, he noted. Lawmakers continue to argue about the health of smokers as their reason for raising cigarette taxes, but as Gov. Wilson argued three decades ago, high cigarette taxes are bad public policy, he said. While organized crime exploited high cigarette taxes in the 1960s and 1970s, there is an “even deadlier adversary” today, he warned. The connection between cigarette smuggling and terrorism is no exaggeration, as a smuggling ring that police cracked in 2005 uncovered a multimillion dollar flow of money from New York City to individuals in the Middle East, Fleenor said (WSJ 5/7).
I find this to be an extremely interesting story.
What are your thoughts on this topic?
Is Patrick on target?
Is there anything that can be done or is it just inevitable that misguided lawmakers will continue to attempt to use tobacco taxes to meet budget shortfalls?
Let folks know what you think on this very interesting topic!
|
|
April 19th, 2008 — Conferences, General
The “city that never sleeps” once again hosts a show that I have personally always looked forward to attending as a tobacco buyer & marketer. The Tobacco Plus Expo once only permitted tobacco shop owners admittance but today it welcomes all channels of trade.
I once again look forward to attending the show. I encourage those who sell tobacco products to attend this show. Please make sure you look for Chris & I at the show. The lineup of speakers looks impressive! And it will be interesting to attend the “Exhibitor Presentation Theater”. I can’t wait to see what’s new!
The best part of this show I believe is always THE PEOPLE!
Well, if your not going to the show you will most likely miss something! I hear there are some very interesting developments in the industry that will be unveiled at the show!
Give us your thoughts? Why are you going? Why aren’t you going?
What did you like? What did you not like?
What you think of the seminars? What you think of Exhibitor Presentation Theater?
Anything really impress you?
Share your thoughts.
Well, Chris & I hope to see you!
March 24th, 2008 — Current Issues, General, Snus, Snuff & Alternative Products in US Markets, Tobacco Harm Reduction
The following information was delivered to my email the other day! Tell me what your thoughts are? Is it Possible to smoke harm free? I find this extremely interesting. What are your thoughts?
Millions of consumers who smoke cigarettes are looking for acceptable alternatives to satisfy their cravings for nicotine - anyplace and anytime. Whether consumers want to avoid the harmful byproducts of smoking tobacco or consumers want to enjoy the sensation of smoking in a public place, bar or restaurant, the Ruyan Electronic Cigarette not only simulates the experience of ordinary cigarette smoking, it also delivers nicotine to the system to satisfy the craving.
The Ruyan Electronic Cigarette Offers Significant Benefits to Users:
- Free of tar and the dangers associated with the many chemicals commonly produced by a lit, ordinary cigarette
- It does not require heat or ignition by flame
- One 16 mg cartridge is equivalent on average to 20 - 30 cigarettes
- Does not produce second-hand smoke
- Not regulated by the FDA
- It can be used in most “No-Smoking” areas and poses no fire danger
March 24th, 2008 — Current Issues, General, Tobacco Harm Reduction
In honor of March Madness, Michael Siegel is running his own tournament, complete with regions and brackets, to determine the anti-smoking organization champion for most ridiculous secondhand smoke health claim. Check out is his link listed in the blogroll, The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary. Then come back to the tobaccotoday.info blog and tell fellow tobacco bloggers who you think is the anti-smoking organization champion for the most ridiculous secondhand smoke health claim!
February 20th, 2008 — Acquisitions, Current Issues, General, Snus, Snuff & Alternative Products in US Markets
Seems like that is the question being asked lately but more importantly the questions that folks really should be asking are “What does consolidation in the tobacco industry mean to you?” As a retailer how do you think the consolidation of the cigarette/smokeless/cigar manufacturers will affect your business? If your a wholesaler what are your thoughts? Manufacturers what are your thoughts? What happens if your a manufacturer left out of the consolidation? To all, how do you plan on dealing with consolidation that seems so evident? Who do you think buys who? What leverage do you have as a retailer? Folks are talking about this but what are your thoughts?
November 28th, 2007 — Snus, Snuff & Alternative Products in US Markets, Tobacco Harm Reduction
NOW CHECK THIS OUT! In a recent edition of the Buffalo News Brad Rodu challenges the current FDA proposal as ignoring a life-saving strategy!
In an op-ed in Buffalo News, Dr. Brad Rodu, a professor of medicine with an endowed chair in tobacco harm reduction research at the University of Louisville, said the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which aims to give the Food and Drug Administration regulatory authority over tobacco products, is “fatally flawed” because it would “effectively prevent the nation’s 45 million smokers from learning that smokeless tobacco products are vastly safer alternatives.”
The message about smokeless tobacco products is “critical to the life-saving strategy known as ‘tobacco harm reduction,’” Dr. Rodu said. He cited a recent article in the medical journal Lancet, which said tobacco product regulation “should promote complete cessation of nicotine product use as the preferred option, but also encourage existing smokers who are unable to stop smoking to adopt a less hazardous source of the drug,” and “should therefore apply the levers of affordability, promotion, and availability in direct inverse relation to the hazard of the product, thus creating the most favorable market environment for the least hazardous products.” The Royal College of Physicians, whose report was the basis of the Lancet article, said that “low nitrosamine smokeless tobacco products may have a positive role to play in a coordinated and regulated harm reduction strategy which maximizes public health benefit,” Dr. Rodu noted. The pending FDA legislation is the opposite of such a rational approach to helping smokers, and the bills fail to acknowledge that nicotine itself does not cause the diseases that kill smokers, he said. ”Congress should rewrite those portions of H.R. 1108 and S. 625 that impose irrational and dangerous limitations on the communication of truthful information about smokeless tobacco and its relative risk vis-a-vis cigarettes,” Dr. Rodu said (Buffalo News 11/12).
IS BRAD RIGHT OR WRONG? DO YOU KNOW OF ANYONE THAT HAS USED MOIST TOBACCO TO KICK THE SMOKING HABIT? DO YOU THINK CONGRESS WILL GET THE RIGHT MESSAGE? WHAT IS THAT MESSAGE? IS THERE ANYTHING WE CAN DO? IS THERE ANYTHING WE SHOULD DO? ANY THOUGHTS ON HOW PM WILL APPROACH THIS NOW THAT THEY ARE TESTING MOIST TOBACCO? DO YOU BELIEVE AS BRAD MENTIONS THAT NICOTINE IS NOT THE EVIL? SO MANY THOUGHTS I HAVE BUT WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THIS ISSUE?
November 28th, 2007 — Current Issues
In my reading today, I found an article on the TMA website that I found to be very interesting that I’d like to know what you think! Read on and blog on!
Boston University School of Public Health professor Michael Siegel said on November 27th that Smokefree Pennsylvania’s recent statement that “Repeatedly exposing a child to hazardous tobacco smoke pollution is child abuse” illustrates the current mentality of the anti-smoking movement, which “is unable to see any values beyond not smoking… and has been overtaken by fanaticism.” Dr. Siegel said the movement attaches a moral value to not smoking instead of a health value, and it has become a “zeal unchecked by reason.” He said exposing a child to environmental tobacco smoke in and of itself is not a form of child abuse, and only overzealous thinking would lead one to the conclusion that virtually all parents in the 1980s and earlier were child abusers, since ETS exposure was ubiquitous at the time. The lack of reasoning precludes him from considering himself a part of the current anti-smoking movement, he said. As a scientist and a trained policy analyst, he cannot stray away from reason, argumentation and development of solid foundations for policy positions, he said. The current anti-smoking movement’s “abandonment of reason” results in an incorrect and absurd definition of child abuse, he said (tobaccoanalysis.blogspot.com 11/27).
Has the “anti-smoking movement” gone overboard? Or do you side with Smokefree Pennsylvania? What are your thoughts about Dr. Siegel? Is he right? Is he wrong? Seems pretty controversial! So tell me what you think?