Evil Weed

I heard a report the other day which suggests to me that smoking cessation is turning into something of a 'cottage industry' these days.

One that provides a heathy living for people who can find ever more ingenious ways of dealing with the smoking habit - but without ever insisting that, at some point, smokers just have to make up their minds to stop.

The report suggested that maybe smokers should continue slapping on patches and taking nicotine tablets and whatnot - even while they are still smoking - because that will help cut down their the amount of 'bad' nicotine they absorb through smoking cigarettes.

Now the report didn't say who was paying for all these patches and tablets and multiple smoking cessation treatments - although I imagine it involves the public purse, as usual.

Speaking as an ex-smoker myself I have to say it's completely bonkers if public money is involved in this madcap plan - because the only way to give up the 'evil weed' is because you really want to at the end of the day.

And while I can see the sense in giving people a bit of help to quite the nasty habit - there has to be some real personal commitment at the end of the day - otherwise it's a complete waste of time, effort and resources.

I am a great supporter of the NHS but I don't admire everything it does and here's a good example of where money could be spent on other, far more sensible things.

Instead of expanding a 'smoking cessation' service without any convincing analysis to explain how more public money can replace the level of personal commitment required to give up their cigarettes.

The whole thing smacks to me of Scotland's hopelessly inadequate and depressing 'methadone' programme - which was supposed to be a relatively short-term way to help wean people off of their heroin addiction.

Instead many of the people are still on the heroin substitute many years later - and with little evidence to show that the methadone programme has actually helped them get to grips with and make some real changes to their chaotic lives. 

So it seems to me that the 'programme' has become an end in itself - a little cottage industry which has become lazy, complacent and no longer interested in achieving an outcome.  

Now nicotine and heroin are two very different drugs, but the principle of dealing with addiction has to be the same - and surely the number one objective has to be to draw a line and stop for good.