The drugs don't work

Nicotine patches branded a waste of time as study finds they don't help smokers quit long-term

Former smokers just as likely to relapse if they used nicotine replacement therapies to help them quit
Nicotine patches are no better than willpower at helping smokers to quit, research shows.

What a study. All that pharma crap that we keep having pushed on us is actually useless. Of course the study was only of 800 people so it could be just as unreliable as all those anti smoker studies that tell us SHS kills babies at 1500 yards.

It conforms with what my own two eyes see though. I know no one at all who has successfully quit with the help of nicotine replacement. The general consensus among smokers I have spoken with on the blogs is that the only way you successfully give up is if you really want to give up.

Researchers said the earlier trials had failed to replicate ‘real-life’ situations. They said success and relapse rates were similar whatever method smokers adopted.

There are also the massaged NHS stop smoking figures, like these from August 2010:

The NHS has helped a record number of people to successfully give up smoking, according to new figures.
The NHS Information Centre revealed 373,954 had quit cigarettes in 2009/10 - nearly half of those who had used the service.
It marked an impressive 11 per cent rise on the 337,054 people who gave up in 2008/09.

Sounds pretty impressive doesn't it? But how do they decide when a person has 'sucessfully given up smoking'?

The figures related to people in England who hadn't returned to the habit when they were contacted four weeks after they had stopped.

You can't tell if a persons quit attempt is successful after only four weeks. Also, how do they know who is telling the truth? Phoning someone up and asking if they are still off the weed will likely get a hasty, "Oh yes", while exhaling a lungful of smoke and reaching for the nearest ashtray.

As pointed out by Leg-Iron, the comments are crawling with anti smokers pretending to be ex smokers who have quit on the patches. There is an absolute frenzy trying to deny this study and sing the praises of nicotine replacement therapy. The study is even being accused of being funded by big tobacco, believe it or not.

Research funded and manipulated by the tobacco industry no doubt. No getting away from it, when you chew or wear it, nicotine replacements cut down or cut out your smoking. As my doctor once said, one is better eating it rather than breathing it.
- The Voice Of Reason, Hockley, Essex., 10/1/2012 10:06

"I stopped smoking 16 years ago using Nicorette 16hour patches. I have never smoked since."
"Patches absolutely DO work"
"On May11th 1993 I put a patch on as per instructions and I haven't had a cigarette since...and I was a 50 a day addict"
"10 years later, after a 40+ a day habit both myself and my husband are smoke-free having used patches in the initial stages to wean ourselves off the habit. "
"As a 30 a day smoker, and also working for a cigarette company, I have recently used Champix to quit - recommend it to all serious people,"

Sounds like there are a lot of savings to be made by stopping stop smoking services.