ASH APPLAUDS FDA'S APPROVAL OF NON-PRESCRIPTION NICOTINE PATCHES [07/04]

The FDA's approval to sell nicotine patches without a prescription may help millions of smokers to finally break their addiction, and new TV and other ads for the product are sure to provide additional incentives and encouragement to quit, says Action on Smoking and Health (ASH).

"But patches deal only with a physiological addiction to the drug nicotine, and not to the psychological habituation which also makes it so difficult for many to quit," says ASH Executive John Banzhaf.

"Slapping on a patch will not automatically make you a nonsmoker," says Banzhaf, which is why smokers should try to use the patch only in conjunction with a well-thought-out plan to quit, or a stop-smoking clinic or program.

Failure to deal with the psychological and well as the physiological part of the problem may lead to failure, and a reluctance for hard-core smokers to try again in the future, he warns.

More than 90% of all American smokers desperately want to quit, but addiction to a drug as addictive for many people as heroin or cocaine means that most never quit or relapse shortly after quitting.

Nicotine, whether administered in patches or gun, reduces the withdrawal symptoms many smokers feel, and make it easier to give up what for many is a life-long habit.

Banzhaf notes that the growing number of restriction on smoking in public places provides a very strong added incentive for smokers to quit, and also helps them to remain clear by removing the temptation of other smokers lighting up around them.

ASH is a national antismoking organization best known for getting cigarette commercials off the air, and smoking banned in so many public places.

ASH - ACTION ON SMOKING AND HEALTH 2013 H Street, NW / Washington, DC 20006 / (202) 659-4310