Photo by: Geir Halvorsen
As of September 30th 2011, the Provincial Government of British Columbia will be offering smokers who are interested in quitting smoking, a 12 consecutive week supply of nicotine in various forms. A portion of the cost will be covered by Pharmacar and the rest of the cost will be covered by the Provincial Government (aka tax payers). The question on my mind is, how much is this costing me? Based on the number of participants, it is estimated to cost taxpayers of British Columbia approximately 25 million dollars. How effective is nicotine? Will the investment of the government actually help reduce the number of smokers in British Columbia, or is it just another tax hike? I mean lets think about this rationally, is a 12 week supply of nicotine a sufficient amount to help a smoker to overcome their cravings and quit? The Canadian Medical Association Journal states that there are 550000 British Columbians who smoke and each year approximately 6000 die from tobacco use. Nicotine is the chemical in tobacco that causes addiction when reacting with brain cells. With these nicotine patches, gums, or inhalers, smokers can get the nicotine their body desires without inhaling the harmful chemicals that are also associated within cigarettes. Research done by the Educational Information Rescources Center at University of North Carolina, states that less than 7% of smokers are successful at overcoming their addiction to this highly addictive drug although 90% of smokers would actually like to quit. The nicotine in cigarets makes addicts happy; “Nicotine causes a strengthening of the connections responsible for the production of Dopamine in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) of the brain pleasure or reward centre”, or in simple words….. Happiness. Alright folks now lets take a step back and review. We said that there are about 550000 smokers in B.C. and 90% are interested in quitting therefore will take advantage of the nicotine patches provided by Pharmacare. However, less than 7% are actually successful in quitting, which means that approximately only 380000 smokers will be able to quite smoking by using the free nicotine offered. Now let me ask you this, do you think that it is fair for nonsmoker taxpayers to be paying for the 550000 smokers to attempt at quitting and perhaps end up at the same place as before their 12 week free dosage of nicotine? 
All the smokers think this is a good idea, but what about the rest of the non smoking population?
Resources:
How does Nicotine work , What is Pharmacare
