I suppose it’s time I involved myself in this thread.
Some information, reflecting on posts thus far:
The difference between hand-rolled tobacco and tailor-made fags is insignificant (in terms of health and addictive qualities). Both are heavily treated with a large number of chemicals to increase the addictive action, thus making tobacco companies more money. Hand-rolled is certainly not a safer option.
Taxation from tobacco sales has not equalled it’s cost on our society since 2003. It cost the UK ~£3.5 Billion in 2009.
Is the gum more addictive than fags? No, but people do occasionally become addicted (although very rarely). Smoking delivers a large bolus of tobacco at a very fast rate. This is one of the reasons fags are so addictive. Tobacco companies treat their products specifically to speed this process up.
It should be pointed out that Nicotine, in the doses people receive through smoking or NRT use, is mostly harmless. It’s all the other crap in tobacco smoke that does the damage.
If your GP tells you that 5-a-day isn’t bad, he/she is misinformed. 1-a-day will, on average, double your risk of CHD.
Healthcare professionals smoking doesn’t validate it. My subjective opinion on this is that it simply highlights the power of smoking addiction on people, despite how well-informed they are of the consequences.
All kinds of people will tell you how to stop smoking. I’ll always state that smoking is an individual action. The basics of physiology are the same, but the psychological complexities differ for everybody. There’s no better or worse method, nor any better or worse type of pharmacotherapy. It’s all about what’s right for that individual.
I’d certainly agree that people won’t stop for good until they really want to, and adverts banging on about COPD/CHD/cancer won’t really make too much difference until it has a personal influence on that individual (e.g. Grandad has a stroke). Personally, I feel a lot of the messages about smoking cessation that the DH deliver are wrong. Instead of trying to make people feel bad about smoking, I’d prefer to let people feel good about considering stopping smoking.
That’ll do.