Tag: cessation

‘States Shortchange Tobacco Prevention’
Photo: Tobacco Reporter archive
Most U.S states continue to shortchange programs to prevent kids from using tobacco products and help tobacco users quit despite over $1.1 billion in legal settlement payments from Juul, according to a new report.
Maine is the only state to fully fund tobacco prevention and cessation programs at Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-recommended levels. Eight other states provide at least 50 percent of the CDC’s recommended funding, and 31 states and the District of Columbia are spending less than a quarter of the CDC’s recommendation.
The report, Broken Promises to Our Children: A State-by-State Look at the 1998 Tobacco Settlement, was released by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, the American Heart Association, the American Lung Association, Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights and Truth Initiative. These organizations have issued annual reports since the November 1998 Master Settlement Agreement.
This year, states have additional revenues that could be dedicated to tobacco prevention programs because of more than $1.1 billion in recent legal settlements with Juul for its deceptive marketing practices and its role in the youth e-cigarette epidemic.
Key findings of the report include:
Even without counting the Juul settlement funds, the states this year (fiscal year 2024) will collect $25.9 billion from the tobacco settlements and tobacco taxes. But they will spend just 2.8 percent—$728.6 million—on tobacco prevention and cessation programs, down from $733.1 million in fiscal year 2023. This funding amounts to less than a quarter (22 percent) of the total funding recommended by the CDC.
The amount states are spending on tobacco prevention pales in comparison to the $8.6 billion a year tobacco companies spend to market cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products in the United States. This means tobacco companies spend nearly $12 to market their products for every $1 the states spend to fight tobacco use.
“We know what works to win the fight against tobacco, and states have plenty of resources from tobacco settlements and taxes to invest in programs that can accelerate progress. Unfortunately, most states are falling short in funding these lifesaving programs,” said Yolonda C. Richardson, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, in a statement. “The tobacco industry continues to do everything it can to target our kids, Black communities and other vulnerable communities, especially with flavored products like menthol cigarettes and flavored e-cigarettes. We know their playbook, and policymakers should be using every tool available to protect our kids and help those already addicted.”
January 11, 2024
E-cigs More Effective Than NRTs: Study

Image: Vladyslav

Nicotine e-cigarettes are more effective quit-smoking products than conventional nicotine-replacement therapies (NRTs), reports University of Massachusetts Amherst, citing the latest Cochrane review.
The review found high certainty evidence that e-cigarettes lead to better chances of quitting smoking than using patches, gums, lozenges or other traditional NRTs.
“In England, quite different from the rest of the world, e-cigarettes have been embraced by public health agencies as a tool to help people reduce the harm from smoking,” said Jamie Hartmann-Boyce, assistant professor of health policy and promotion in the School of Public Health and Health Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
“Most of the adults in the U.S. who smoke want to quit, but many find it really difficult to do so,” said Hartmann-Boyce, who conducted research at the University of Oxford in England before joining the University of Massachusetts Amherst earlier this year and is the senior author of the review and a Cochrane editor. “We need a range of evidence-based options for people to use to quit smoking, as some people will try many different ways of quitting before finding one that works for them.”
The review included 88 studies and more than 27,235 participants, with most of the studies taking place in the U.S., the U.K. or Italy.
“We have very clear evidence that, though not risk-free, nicotine e-cigarettes are substantially less harmful than smoking,” Hartmann-Boyce said. “Some people who haven’t had success in the past with other quit aids have found e-cigarettes have helped them.”
For every 100 people using nicotine e-cigarettes to quit smoking, eight to 10 are expected to successfully quit compared to six of 100 people using traditional NRTs and four of 100 trying to quit without support or with only behavioral support, according to the review.
“Not everything is either entirely harmful or beneficial,” Hartmann-Boyce said. “Different things can have different impacts on different populations. Evidence shows that nicotine e-cigarettes can help people quit smoking and that people who don’t smoke shouldn’t use e-cigarettes.”
Hartmann-Boyce compared tobacco smoking versus e-cigarette use to the treatment for substance use disorders involving opioids. “We’re not going to prescribe methadone to people who aren’t addicted to opioids,” she said. “But for people addicted to opioids, we recognize that methadone is a helpful thing.”
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not approved any e-cigarettes as medications to help adults quit smoking. “While certain e-cigarettes may help adult smokers transition completely away from, or significantly reduce their use of, more harmful combusted cigarettes, the law’s public health standard balances that potential with the known and substantial risk with regard to youth appeal, uptake and use of these highly addictive products,” said Robert Califf, FDA commissioner.

January 9, 2024
Cytisine More Effective than NRT: Study

Image: molekuul.be

Cytisine, a low-cost, generic stop-smoking aid that has been used in eastern Europe since the 1960s, increases the chances of successful smoking cessation by more than two-fold compared with placebo and may be more effective than nicotine replacement therapy, according to a new study published in Addiction. The cessation tool reportedly has a benign safety profile, with no evidence of serious safety concerns.
Cytisine is a plant-based compound that eases smoking withdrawal symptoms. It was first synthesized in Bulgaria in 1964 as Tabex and later spread to other countries in eastern Europe and Asia, where it is still marketed. In 2017, the Polish pharmaceutical company Aflofarm began selling it as Desmoxan, a prescription-only medicine, and Canada approved it as an over-the-counter natural health product, Cravv.
This study pooled the results of eight randomized controlled trials comparing cytisine with placebo, with nearly 6,000 patients. The combined results showed that cytisine increases the chances of successful smoking cessation by more than twofold compared with placebo.
The study also looked at two randomized controlled trials comparing cytisine with nicotine replacement therapy, with modest results in favor of cytisine, and three trials comparing cytisine with varenicline, without a clear benefit for cytisine.
“Our study adds to the evidence that cytisine is an effective and inexpensive stop-smoking aid,” said lead author Omar De Santi in a statement. “It could be very useful in reducing smoking in low- and middle-income countries where cost-effective smoking cessation drugs are urgently needed.”
Cytisine is currently not licensed or marketed in most countries outside of central and eastern Europe, making it unavailable in most of the world. At the end of January, cytisine pills are due to become available in the U.K., according to National World.

January 5, 2024