by Dick Puddlecote
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DickPuddlecote/~3/d25N0BUu4co/scottish-anti-smoking-groups-pay-in-kind.html

Scottish Anti-Smoking Groups Pay In Kind Staggering stuff from ASH Scotland’s Sheila Duffy.

Ms Duffy said: “Quitting tobacco is the single best thing a smoker can do to improve their health. We do not support banning e-cigarettes as they could help many smokers to move to a less risky product. However e-cigarettes are produced by commercial companies, with a profit motive.”

Err, unlike those philanthropic non-profit producers of NRT her bunch promote relentlessly, and which regularly sponsor events attended by Duffy, eh?

You know, like Pfizer ($14.5bn profit) and Novartis ($9.6bn profit), for example, prominent sponsors of a summit in 2011 at which Duffy presented an opening address.

Well, all that financial assistance must be repaid, obviously.They pat your back, you have to pat theirs.

ANTI-SMOKING groups in Scotland have spoken of an urgent need to regulate the use of e-cigarettes to avoid creating a new wave of addiction.

The Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Authority (MHRA) is due to publish guidance next month which could effectively ban their use across the UK.

It is considering the re-classification of e-cigarettes as medicines, which would effectively take them off the shelves until they have had many years of clinical trials and testing, similar to pharmaceutical products. The EU has already issued a similar directive.

So, even though she admits e-cigs benefit public health, Duffy and her Scottish pals are more concerned that they are strictly regulated to the same extent as pharmaceutical products – even if that increases costs, wipes out much competition, and undoubtedly reduces their economic advantage over tobacco.

Still, those pharma sponsors – whose profits are being dented by the stunning success of e-cigs – will be very happy, so that’s all right then.

It’s never been about health.