British American Tobacco (BAT)
BAT, manufacturer: Dunhill and Lucky Strike, is a British company headquartered in London, England. BAT is ranked third in the global tobacco market.
•British American Tobacco Russia (BAT Russia) is the third largest manufacturer in Russia and is steadily gaining ground in the cigarette market, particularly in Moscow. In 2009, BAT controlled 20% of the Russian cigarette market.
•Between 2001 and 2009 BAT Russia’s market share increased by 96%, from 10.0% to 19.6%.
•BAT Russia entered the country in 1994 after acquiring local tobacco factories. All cigarettes sold in Russia are manufactured in the country and 9.4% of the total cigarettes manufactured in Russia are exported.
•BAT Russia is a key contributor to BAT’s international success and the country continues to be an important market that BAT focuses on.
Smoking and addiction in England
Some two-thirds of current smokers in England say that they want to quit smoking, with three-quarters reporting that they have attempted to quit smoking at some point in the past.ii Around half of all regular smokers are eventually killed by a smoking-related illness. on average, smokers who die from a smoking-related illness lose around 16 years of life.
Nicotine is highly addictive and smoked tobacco delivers nicotine to the brain very efficientlyv and so many people find quitting to be very challenging. Tobacco addiction is complex, having physical, psychological and social dimensions that manifest differently in different people. However, by successfully stopping smoking, people can avoid smoking-related diseases and live longer, whatever their age, and this means that there is a very strong case for delivering effective tobacco control.
The economics of smoking
Treating smoking-related illnesses was estimated to have cost the nHS £2.7 billion in 2006/07, or over £50 million every week.vii In 2008/09, some 463,000 hospital admissions in England among adults aged 35 and over were attributable to smoking, or some 5 per cent of all hospital admissions for this age group.ii Illnesses among children caused by exposure to secondhand smoke lead to an estimated 300,000 general practice consultations and about 9,500 hospital admissions in the uK each year.
The costs of tobacco use are much greater than just costs to the nHS, with the overall economic burden of tobacco use to society estimated at £13.74 billion a year. These costs comprise not only treatment of smoking-related illness by the nHS but also the loss in productivity from smoking breaks and increased absenteeism, the cost of cleaning up cigarette butts, the cost of smoking-related house fires and the loss in economic output from people who die from diseases related to smoking or exposure to secondhand smoke.ix Reducing tobacco use will not only benefit nHS finances but also the wider local and national economy.
Teens easily influenced by cigarette ads
A new study in Pediatrics journal suggests that teen smokers are particularly susceptible to cigarette advertising. Researchers conducted a survey of 2102 non-smoking adolescents, ages 10-17, to assess the effect of advertising on young people. Researchers used masked images of six cigarette advertisements, as well as eight commercial control products, which included advertisements for sweets, mobile phones, clothing and cars. The cigarette brand advertising included Pall Mall cigarette, Marlboro cigarette , F6, Gauloises, L&M cigarette and Lucky Strike cigarette, which are among the eight most popular brands in Germany, where the study was conducted. However, all brand information was digitally removed for the study.
After nine months of exposure to the ads, thirteen percent of the adolescents (277) had started smoking. In the various groups of cigarette advertising exposure, 10 percent in the low-exposure group had tried smoking; 12 percent in the medium-exposure group; and 19 percent in the high-exposure group. High exposure to other advertisements did not appear to affect smoking initiation, researchers indicated.
Muse not banned from Australia
The door remains open for Muse to return to Australia despite the band being chastised for smoking during their Melbourne concert.
Newspaper reports suggested the UK rockers would receive a five-year ban from venues Down Under after bassist Christopher Wolstenholme was caught lighting up on stage at Rod Laver Arena last week.
The venue operates a strict no smoking policy under Australian law.
Muse's Australian promoters Lees and West said the band would be welcome back despite the indiscretion.
They released a joint statement with Rod Laver Arena on Wednesday denying a ban had been imposed on Muse and describing the newspaper reports as inaccurate.
Rod Laver's spokeswoman Jo Juler said: "Muse played two full shows at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne last week. It has been incorrectly reported that they have been banned from the venue due to a band member smoking on stage. We confirm that the band have not been banned from Rod Laver and did not receive a fine."
Reports in The Sun Herald and British tabloid The Sun added the band had encouraged the crowd to "mosh out".
Australian concert and festival organisers have been trying to discourage the practice since the death of a girl at Big Day Out in 2001.
Juler denied the reports and said there were no issues or incidents to report.
Lees and West said that with "so much real pain and suffering currently in the world" the media should look elsewhere for stories.
Muse also played shows in Brisbane, Sydney and Perth without incident.
Fayetteville Tech eyes dress code, smoking ban
Fayetteville, N.C. — Students on the campus of Fayetteville Technical Community College might soon have to pull up their pants and snuff out their cigarettes.
The Fayetteville Tech Board of Trustees is considering implementing a dress code and a smoking ban.
The proposed dress code is designed to "improve the learning environment, enhance school safety and promote good behavior," according to a draft that the board is expected to debate at its November meeting.
"Whenever you see pants down around the knees and underwear exposed, to me, that is just absolutely inappropriate," Fayetteville Tech President Larry Keen said.
Keen said he has no problem with the clothes that a vast majority of his students wear, but he noted that some "are going to push the envelope."
The dress code would ban baggy pants, some piercings and suggestive language on clothes. Violators could face suspension or expulsion.
Keen said he wants students to start dressing like they will have to in the workplace.
“It all has to do with employability,” he said. “When they go out thinking they are dressing in a particular way, and that it does not give them a competitive edge in a very competitive market, then we’re doing them a disservice."
Keen said college officials are gathering input from students on the dress code and plan to word it carefully to head off legal challenges.
Students are divided on the idea of a dress code.
"No matter what kind of job you get, even if you work at McDonald's, they're not going to let you walk around with a little short skirt dress or spaghetti-strap shirt," student Beatrice Medina said.
"As long as it doesn’t distract anyone from their class and stuff, then (how they dress) shouldn’t really change anything," student Britt Bordone said.
Bordone also dismissed the idea of an outright smoking ban on the Fayetteville Tech campus.
The college already prohibits indoor smoking and restricts smoking to designated outdoor areas.
Twenty-five community colleges in North Carolina already have tobacco-free campuses.
Prohibiting sale of cigarettes
In October 2007, the legal age of purchase of tobacco throughout the UK
increased from 16 to 18 years. Despite this, the 
latest in a series of annual surveys
carried out in 2008 indicated that 44% of 11- to 15-year-old smokers reported
usually buying their cigarettes from shops, with a similar proportion buying
from others, and 28% buying from people who were not friends or relatives.9
Although in 2008 there was a sharp increase in the proportion of current smokers
finding it difficult to buy cigarettes from any shop, 43% of those who tried to
buy cigarettes from a shop reported that they were always able to do so. In addition,
one in ten 11- to 15-year-olds reported buying tobacco from vending
machines, even though it is illegal for under-18s to make such purchases.
Prohibiting
sale of cigarettes from vending machines is the simplest way to eliminate
this source of supply, and the Health Act 2009 again includes legislation to
achieve this. Further strategies to reduce the number and accessibility of retail
outlets selling tobacco are also needed. Options include licensing to reduce the
number of retailers (particularly in locations frequented by children, such as
close to schools), prohibition of tobacco retailing in premises that admit children,
prohibition of financial incentives to retailers to stock tobacco products,
prohibition of internet sale, and application of more punitive penalties to retailers who sell to children, for proxy purchasing, or those who supply illicit or
counterfeit tobacco. These, and more general policy proposals for more effective
tobacco control policy, are summarised in detail elsewhere.
Other areas of potential development include: the implementation of strong
smoke-free policies in schools and school grounds,22–27 as is now recommended
by the Department for Children Schools and Families, and required to gain
National Healthy Schools Status; promotion of school cultures that discourage
smoking; and the use of peer-led interventions. Helping children and young
people who are becoming established smokers to quit smoking is clearly also
important, but it is still not clear how cessation services should be configured for
young people.
Female celebrities smoking cigarettes
ECONOMICS OF TOBACCO USE AND SHS EXPOSURE
Tobacco use is costly, and the resulting
harms are completely preventable.
Health care costs attributable to tobacco
use and SHS exposure are estimated
to be in the billions of US dollars
annually. Other costs attributable
to tobacco use and SHS exposure include
loss of life and productivity,income diverted to purchase tobaccouse
materials, and fires.
Treatments
for tobacco use and dependence
are among the most efficacious
and cost-effective preventive services
in both the short-term and longterm
and are second only to childhood
immunization in terms of costeffectiveness.
THE TOBACCO INDUSTRY
The goal of the tobacco industry is
profit, not health. Tobacco industry–
sponsored research programs have
been designed to gain an air of legitimacy
and produce results favorable
(or less unfavorable) to tobacco use.
The tobacco industry has attempted to
present the evidence of harms from tobacco
use and SHS exposure as “controversial.” Youth exposure to tobacco
industry–sponsored prevention
advertising does not prevent tobacco
use, and industry-sponsored prevention
programs that target parents may
actually promote youth tobacco use.
Growing Tobacco
Tobacco is grown in over 125
countries, on over 4 million
hectares of land, a third of which
is in China alone. The global
tobacco crop is worth
approximately US$20 billion, a
small fraction of the total amount
generated from the sale of
manufactured tobacco products.
Tobacco is grown on less than
one percent of the world’s
agricultural land, and on a wide
variety of soils and climates. Since
the 1960s, the bulk of production
has moved from the Americas to
Africa and Asia: land devoted to
tobacco growing has been halved
in the USA, Canada and Mexico,
but has almost doubled in China,
Malawi and United Republic of
Tanzania.
The production of tobacco
leaves has more than doubled
since the 1960s, totalling nearly
7 million metric tons in 2000.
The greater use of fertilisers and
pesticides, as well as the increased
mechanisation, that have
produced these higher yields are
environmentally damaging. The
problem does not end with
growing tobacco: the processes
used in curing tobacco leaves
cause massive deforestation.
There are millions of tobacco
farmers worldwide.
The tobacco
industry exploits them by
contributing to their debt burden,
while using their economic plight
to argue against efforts to control
tobacco. In the USA, the bond
between the tobacco industry and
the tobacco farmer finally is
beginning to break down, and
partnerships are developing
between the farmers and the
public health community.
Display ban of tobacco products
Display bans are regulations that prohibit the visual display of tobacco products within
the point of sale. They are the most restrictive of all point-of-sale regulations, which
include limitations on height and visibility of displays, prohibition of self-service displays,
and restrictions on logos, banners, and window posters.
Whether display bans have an impact on tobacco consumption is an empirical question.
Also, the likely magnitude of that impact can only be estimated using empirical
techniques.
This is why this paper considers the case of Iceland, the only country in
Europe to have introduced display bans before 2009.
Iceland introduced display bans in August 2001.1 The Tobacco Control Act explicitly
mandated that products had to be placed in a manner that they were not visible to the
customer. Ireland and Thailand are the only two other countries to have introduced
nationwide display bans Ireland in 2009 and Thailand in 2005.
Most Canadian
provinces and two Australian states have also implemented point of sale display bans. 3
In Iceland, as in most western countries, smoking prevalence has been declining since at
least the mid 1980s. The percentage of individuals aged 15 to 79 years who smoked
declined from 33% in 1987 to 19% in 2007. Likewise, the percentage of individuals aged
15 to 24 years who smoked fell from 27% in 1989 to 18% in 2007.
Several factors may explain this negative trend. While the display ban may have been
responsible for part of the observed decline, it cannot explain the evolution of the
smoking rate prior to August 2001. In addition, the display ban was preceded by several
other tobacco control measures, such as an advertising ban on all media and the
introduction of mandatory health warnings in 1984, a ban on smoking in public areas in
1999 and brand sharing prohibition in 2000. Those interventions may also be responsible
for the observed reduction in the smoking prevalence after August 2001. Finally,
cigarette prices in Iceland have been continuously increasing since the mid 1980s, bothin absolute and relative terms. The increase in tobacco prices, driven primarily by tax increases, is likely to have a negative impact on smoking prevalence. A simple correlation analysis shows that the smoking rate variations are closely and inversely related to changes in cigarette prices.
TOBACCO-CONTROL PROGRAMS
The use of evidence-based best practices for tobacco control has been widely promoted
and has succeeded in reducing tobacco use in the United States. Reducing tobacco use poses
special challenges because tobacco products are legal and easy to acquire, highly addictive, and
heavily promoted by the tobacco industry. About 50% of current everyday smokers attempt to
quit each year, but only 4–7% of those are successful. Creation of a tobacco-free culture thus
could be enhanced by development of an environment that encourages abstinence, denormalizes
tobacco use, and makes a variety of prevention and cessation services available.
Successful comprehensive tobacco-control programs with demonstrable, albeit
incomplete, effectiveness have been developed and implemented by numerous organizations,
including the National Cancer Institute and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; state
governments, including those of California and Massachusetts; and commercial organizations.
The programs use a combination of educational, clinical, social, and regulatory strategies to
denormalize tobacco use. Comprehensive tobacco-control programs vary in target audience, size,
funding sources, and administrative oversight and governance, but they share several key
components that contribute to their success: the development and implementation of a strategic
plan, dynamic leadership, effective and enforceable policies, communication interventions,
adequate resources, appropriate therapeutic interventions (including those for special
populations), surveillance and evaluation of effectiveness, and management capacity to bring
about change in response to the evaluation. If implemented in constructive harmony, those key
components can provide DoD and VA with the capacity to develop and operate their own
tobacco-control programs.
Communication interventions can increase tobacco users’ awareness of the benefits and
means of tobacco cessation, educate potential users about the hazards posed by tobacco, and
change social norms and attitudes toward tobacco. Public-education campaigns can inform
consumers about cessation medications or other interventions, such as quitlines. Conversely, the
advertising of tobacco products, particularly aimed at young adults, can increase demand for
tobacco products.
Smoking restrictions are most effective when they apply to a variety of public and private
settings, when they ban tobacco use completely rather than partially, and when they are strictly
enforced. Many governments, businesses, education institutions, and health-care facilities have
adopted and enforce tobacco-free policies.
The tobacco retail environment encompasses the accessibility of tobacco products and the
promotion of tobacco products, both at the point of sale and through advertising. Increased
tobacco prices, restricted access to products, and decreased out-of-pocket costs for treatment all
reduce consumption. Increasing tobacco prices is one of the most effective mechanisms both to
prevent tobacco use and to fund tobacco-control efforts. However, as tobacco taxes and tobaccofree
regulations have increased, tobacco manufacturers have responded with the development
and promotion of new tobacco products, particularly varieties of smokeless tobacco. The
advertising of those products increases their consumption.
Studies show that the rate and duration of tobacco abstinence are increased when
cessation interventions are used, but only about 21% of smokers who attempted to quit for at
least 1 day in the preceding year used a cessation medication. Behavioral interventions shown to
have some consistent effectiveness include brief advice and assistance from a health-care
provider during routine health-care visits, multisession telephone counseling, and face-to-face
group and individual treatment. Those interventions are most effective when combined with
pharmacologic treatments approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Combined
interventions can result in long-term abstinence rates of more than 30%. Effectiveness has a
dose-response relationship: multisession intensive interventions achieve significantly higher
abstinence rates than brief interventions. FDA-approved tobacco-cessation medications are
primarily nicotine-replacement therapies (such as nicotine gum or patch), bupropion, and
varenicline. The Public Health Service (PHS) clinical-practice guideline Treating Tobacco Use
and Dependence: 2008 Update provides an evidence base for tobacco-cessation treatments.
Tips to Get rid of all nicotine
Attitude - A positive can-do attitude is important to both the conscious thinking mind and the primitive lizard brain, which is in control of the body’s fight or flight panic responses. Take pride in each hour of healing and each challenge overcome. Celebrate the full and complete victory each day of freedom and healing reflects. The next few minutes are all that matter and each is entirely do-able. Yes you can!
Patience - Years of satisfying low blood-serum nicotine levels conditioned us to be extremely impatient, at least when it came to our addiction. A deprived nicotine addict could inhale a puff of nicotine and have it arrive in the brain and release dopamine within 8 to 10 seconds, and oral nicotine users could feel it within minutes. Realize the importance of patience to successful recovery. Baby steps, just one hour, challenge and day at a time, and then celebrate. Keeping or Carrying Cigarettes, Dip or
Chew - Get rid of all nicotine delivery vehicles, including replacement nicotine products. Keeping a stash of nicotine makes as much sense as someone on suicide watch keeping a loaded gun handy just to prove they can. Why toy with failure or play mind-games with your ongoing healing and freedom? Build in some delay for those less than three minute crave episodes. Fully commit to going the distance and seeing what it is like to awaken to new expectations of a nicotine-free life.
Anger as recovery phase after smoking
Anger is a normal and expected emotional recovery phase. It is also a means to
experience the flow of missing adrenaline, once part of our nicotine high. Sadly,
underlying anger anxieties can be used to intentionally fuel rage. I take no pride
in recalling that I could intentionally became so nasty, and create so much turmoil
among those I loved, that I could convince them that I needed my cigarettes back.
But there are fine distinctions between anger felt during the emotional recovery
stage and using anger as an adrenaline crutch or sick relapse ploy. The anger
phase of recovery is a period of healing where we begin to awaken to the
realization that it may be within our ability to pull this off and succeed. That just
maybe, our last puff, dip or chew, ever, is already behind us.
Durable nicotine use memories flowing from captive dopamine pathways elevated
that next fix to one of life’s top priorities. But emotional recovery has now
transported us from fear of quitting to fear of success. Is it any wonder that anger
would be the mind’s reaction? It is now being struck with the very real prospect
that a high priority relationship has come to an end. Is it at all surprising that
anger can foster resentment at leaving, and envy of those still using?
Knowing the root cause, now all the quitter needs is some excuse, any excuse, to
let it all out, to vent, to turn a molehill into a mountain. Conflicting motivations,
freedom or feed-em, risk of succeeding, fear of the unknown; just one spark, any
spark, and an overwhelmed and exaggerating mind stands primed to lash out.
While this high-energy phase of the emotional stage of goodbye is a normal step in
recovery, the educated quitter both recognizes its arrival and understands anger’s
roots.
Recognition is critical as it provides a protective seed of reason inside a
mind looking for a spark, a loaded mind in which intense exaggeration is poised to
abandon rational thought.
If allowed, that spark will activate the body’s fight or flight response, releasing a
cascade of more than one hundred chemicals and hormones.
But knowledge’s seed of reason knows that breaking nicotine’s grip upon our mind
and life is not a logical reason to fight, lash out, become enraged or flee. It knows
that an exaggerating mind is not an honest mind. It is a mind sick with tunnel
vision, which ignores all positives while focusing only on negative. It knows that
the spark is not the issue.
The issue is emotional recovery.
So how does a mind trained in recognizing and understanding recovery anger
prevent it from harming both us, and the world around us? The next Chapter on
subconscious recovery provides a number of techniques for navigating a crave
episode which may not peak for three minutes. In that anxiety underlies both crave episodes and anger episodes they’ll serve you well. Let me leave you with
one exercise in creating the patience needed to move beyond anger.
Mounting inner recovery frustrations have just encountered a spark. Have
patience, just one micro-second at a time. Recognize the anger building within.
Understand what’s happening and why. Realize that unless being physically
assaulted that only bad can come from unleashing our body’s fighting chemicals.
Anger is almost never a solution. It reflects primitive instincts that are out of
control. It brings strong potential to harm both us and innocent victims, leaving
emotional wounds that may never heal.
If possible, sit down. Slowly close your eyes while taking a deep breath. Focus
all concentration on your favorite color or object, or upon the sensations associated
with inhaling and exhaling that next breath. Feel the cool air entering and its
warmth while slowly exhaling. Baby steps, just one second at a time. Take
another slow deep breath while maintaining total inner focus. Feel the sense of
calm and inner peace as it begins to spread. Slowly open your eyes as you begin to
sense that your body’s fighting chemicals no longer flow. Hopefully it is now safe
to respond to the spark with logic, reason and calm.348
How long will the anger phase last? As long as allowed. Can in-depth
understanding of the emotional journey allow us to skip it altogether? Possibly
but we have no studies.
Clearly knowledge can provide the insights needed to
recognize transitions and hopefully react in healthy, non-destructive ways. It’s
what anger management is all about. Hopefully understanding and acceptance
will help accelerate emotional recovery. But if not, don’t be disturbed as each step
reflects deep and profound emotional healing.
Fears, cycling emotions, an addict’s relapse ploy or feeling a sense of loss,
recovery offers plenty of opportunities to encounter anger. We also need to
remember that normal everyday life can produce anger too, even in never-users.
At times, anger’s causes may overlap and get tangled. But even then, we have it
within us to fully control anger impulses, without harm to innocent bystanders or
us.
Once things calm, where does the mind turn next? What is anger’s solution? Why
not try to cut a deal to keep our cake while having eaten it too? But this isn’t
about cake. It’s about a highly addictive chemical with tremendous impact upon
our physical, subconscious, conscious and emotional well-being.
Caffeine Use
Caffeine is a mild central nervous system stimulant found in coffee beans, tea leaves and
cocoa beans. The question during recovery is whether or not we can handle a doubling of
our normal daily caffeine intake without experiencing “caffeine jitters” or other
symptoms of over-stimulation?
Nicotine somehow doubles the rate by which the body depletes caffeine. What’s that
mean? It means that if we were drinking 2 cups of coffee while using nicotine, once
nicotine use ends the stimulant effect of those two cups of coffee might now feel like 4
cups.
According to a 1997 study, “continuous caffeine consumption with smoking cessation has
been associated with more than doubled caffeine plasma levels.
Such concentrations may
be sufficient to produce caffeine toxicity symptoms in smoking abstinence conditions.”
The study found “a significant linear increase in caffeine sputum levels across 3 weeks
post cessation,” and that “three weeks after cessation, concentrations reached 203% of
baseline for the caffeine user.”
I can’t quit
I’ve made it no secret over the years that my favorite Joel Spitzer article is the one entitled, “I Can’t Quit or I Won’t Quit.” It’s about a lady who enrolled in one of Joel’s two-week clinics, which involved six, two-hour sessions. She advised Joel up front that, "I don't want to be called on during this clinic. I am quitting smoking, but I don't want to talk about it. Please don't call on me." Joel said, “Sure. I won't make you talk, but if you feel you would like to interject at anytime, please don't hesitate to.” She grew angry. "Maybe I am not making myself clear, I don't want to talk! If you make me talk I will get up and walk out of this room. If you look at me with an inquisitive look on your face, I am leaving! Am I making myself clear?"
Surprised by the force of her reaction, he said he’d honor her request. Although he still
hoped she’d change her mind and share her experiences with the group, Joel was no longer
expecting it.
With approximately 20 participants, it was a good group except for two women in back who
“gabbed constantly.” Others
were forced to turn around and
ask them to be quiet. The
women would stop for a few
seconds and then were right
back at it. Sometimes, when
other people were sharing sad,
personal experiences, they
would be laughing at some
humorous story they had shared
with each other, oblivious to
surrounding happenings, recalls
Joel.
On the third day of the clinic it
happened. The two ladies in the
back were talking away as usual
when a young lady asked if she
could speak to the group first because she had to leave. The two in the back continued their
private conversation as if she wasn’t there. The young woman said, "I can't stay, I had a
horrible tragedy in my family today, my brother was killed in an accident. I wasn't even
supposed to come tonight; I am supposed to be helping my family making funeral
arrangements. But I knew I had to stop by if I was going to continue to not smoke."
She’d remained nicotine-free for two days and not smoking was obviously important. Joel
recalls that the group “felt terrible, but were so proud of her, it made what happened in their
day seem so trivial. All except the two ladies in the back of the room. They actually heard
none of what was happening,” writes Joel. “When the young woman was telling how close
she and her brother were, the two gossips actually broke out laughing. They weren't
laughing at the story, they were laughing at something totally different not even aware of
what was being discussed in the room.” The young lady excused herself to return to her
family, said she’d keep in touch and thanked the group for their support.
A few minutes later Joel was relating a story to the group when all of a sudden the lady who
had requested anonymity interrupted him. "Excuse me Joel," she said loudly. "I wasn't
going to say anything this whole program. The first day I told Joel not to call on me. I told
him I would walk out if I had to talk. I told him I would leave if he tried to make me talk. I
didn't want to burden anyone else with my problems. But today I feel I cannot keep quiet
any longer. I must tell my story." The room went quiet.
British American Tobacco
British American Tobacco (BAT) which dates to 1902 and sells more
than 300 brands worldwide. BAT’s international brands include Dunhill, Kent, Lucky
Strike, Pall Mall, Vogue, Rothmans, Peter Stuyvesant, Benson & Hedges, Winfield, John
Player, State Express 555, Kool and Viceroy. It does not own all these brands but is licensed
by other companies to distribute them. Here are a few BAT admissions.
November 1961 - Smoking “differs in important features from addiction to other
alkaloid drugs, but yet there are sufficient similarities to justify stating that smokers are
nicotine addicts.”
1967- “There has been significant progress in understanding why people smoke and the
opinion is hardening in medical circles that the pharmacological effects of nicotine play
an important part... It may be useful, therefore, to look at the tobacco industry as if for a
large part its business is the administration of nicotine (in the clinical sense).”
August 1979 - “We are searching explicitly for a socially acceptable addictive product.
The essential constituent is most likely to be nicotine or a direct substitute for it.”
April 1980 - “In a world of increased government intervention, B.A.T should learn to
look at itself as a drug company rather than as a tobacco company.”66
In light of the above tiny sampling of tobacco industry admissions, should there be any
doubt in our minds as to who was slave and who was master, who profited and who lost?
Nicotine supply
The need to replenish one’s nicotine supply gets recorded in what may be the highest
definition memory the mind can produce. Our mind is essentially told, “Hey, pay attention
to this!”8 Continued nicotine use causes these extremely salient memories to quickly pile
up. They soon begin burying all remaining memory of life without it. We quickly “forget”
that it was ever possible to function without it.
Our rewarded and punished mind was left totally yet falsely convinced that nicotine use
was essential for survival, that it defines who we are, gives us our edge, helps us to cope,
and that life without it would be horrible or even meaningless.
Rewarded by dopamine
and punished by an endless need for more nicotine, we quickly grew to believe that we
cannot function comfortably without it.
Why can’t you starve yourself to death? Have you ever thought about it? Not only are we
rewarded with dopamine “aaah” sensations when we anticipate eating or actually do so, we
are punished with anxieties and hunger pains when we wait too long between feedings.
Yes, what goes up must come down.
As our body slowly metabolized and rid itself of the
nicotine we introduced via our method of delivery, we gradually experienced increasing
mood deterioration and escalating distress, punctuated by insula driven anxiety, depression
and anger. We each endured greater extremes in daily mood swings than non-users, and
the greater our dependency the more unstable our moods
ESTIMATED IMPACT ON STATE, LOCAL, AND TRIBAL GOVERNMENTS
CBO estimates that
the costs of those mandates to state, local, and tribal governments would be small and
would not exceed the threshold established in UMRA ($69 million in 2009, adjusted
annually for inflation).
The bill would preempt state laws governing tobacco products that are different from or
in addition to the federal regulations authorized by the bill, including laws governing:
• Product standards,
• Premarket review,
• Adulteration,
• Misbranding,
• Labeling,
• Registration,
• Good manufacturing standards, or
• Modified-risk tobacco products.
That preemption would be an intergovernmental mandate as defined in UMRA.
However, because the preemption would simply limit the application of state and local
laws, CBO estimates that it would not impose significant costs on state or local
governments.
Income tobacco effect
Findings on how demand for cigarettes changes as consumers’ income increases are inconsistent. The
estimated coefficient of the income variable in most studies of demand for cigarettes is significant and
positive, implying that cigarettes are “normal” goods and that increasing income would have a positive
effect on demand for cigarettes.
However, a number of studies (e.g., Wasserman et al., 1991, Keeler et
al., 1993, Yurekli and Zhang, 2000), particularly those using cross-sectional survey data also found
that income has either an insignificant effect or negative effect on demand for cigarettes. A metaanalysis
by Andrews and Franke (1991) who used results from 48 studies found that the weighted
mean income elasticity is 0.36, which is significantly greater than zero. They also found that the
income elasticity for cigarettes fell over time.
Cigarette exports and imports
Turkey neither exported nor imported cigarettes until 1981 when the first cigarettes were exported,
with the first imports following in 1984. It became a net importer of cigarettes, with a trade deficit of
US$56 million in 1985, reaching a peak of US$289 million in 1990. Imports fell from 1991, reaching
a negligible level in 1999.
Cigarette exports, in contrast, started increasing after 1990, peaking at
84 Tobacco in Turkey
US$100 million in 1997. Consequently, in 1995, the trade deficit in cigarettes was reversed to a trade
surplus, with the country becoming a net cigarette exporter in 1999. The foreign exchange earning
from cigarette trade amounted to US$68 million in 1999