Clive Bates: Open letter to delegates at WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control COP-5

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DC2

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An excellent letter by Clive advocating tobacco harm reduction products and policies, and its generated many excellent comments.
It looks a whole bunch of the heavyweights of the THR movement were there to comment.
It gives me hope that the world is not completely full of monsters and idiots.
 

JENerationX

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Not sure my thoughts are worth the 2 cents today, but I added them anyway.

Thank you for taking a stand!

I have attempted to quit smoking over the years with gum, patches, a powder dissolved in water, Chantix, cold turkey, and the nicotrol inhaler. The longest anything lasted was 2 weeks.

I tried an e-cigarette a family member had and thought that MAYBE I would be able to decrease the amount of damage I was doing on a daily basis by substituting the e-cig for some of my daily cigarettes. Within a month, I was no longer smoking at all. I have severe asthma, and was using a nebulizer and 2 inhalers on a daily basis. I now have a single inhaler that I have used twice (due to a cold) since I stopped smoking.

I have watched 5 family members die through smoking related diseases. I’m ecstatic to say that I no longer have any desire for cigarettes, and according to my doctors, my own health has greatly improved. Had I not found e-cigs, I am absolutely certain that I would smoke until I die. The “quit or die” message was not going to save me. An opportunity to greatly reduce harm was a message received and heeded. I would like to think that any health professional would rather see someone reduce the harm than die an early death because they are unwilling or unable to practice abstinence.
 
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