US STUDY SHOWS THAT THE MAJORITY OF SMOKERS AER UNHAPPY ABOUT THEIR ADDICTION

Researchers from the Public Health School at Georgia State University are calling on regulators to consider new rules in which smokers' lack of pleasure is absent from smoking cessation. Instead, more weight in the regulations should be put on the fact that most smokers are unhappy with their addictive habit.
The study entitled “Reassessing the importance of ‘lost pleasure’ associated with smoking cessation: Implications for social welfare and policy,” was published in Tobacco Control magazine. After analyzing data from 1284 smokers in the United States, researchers from the US Department of Tobacco Control Center (TCORS) found that over 80% of respondents were unhappy with smoking and regretted that they had ever adopted this habit.

“More than 80% of current smokers report high (22.5%) or very high (59.8%) discontent due to inability to quit, perceived addiction and regret about having started to smoke. Higher levels of discontent did not vary significantly by sex, age, race/ethnicity, education or income”.

When asked to verbalize the first thought that came to mind when they thought of cigarettes, amongst the most common responses were: cancer, addictive, nasty, stinky, expensive, dangerous and stupid.

Regulators must not assume that smokers associate quitting of smoking with exactly ‘a loss of pleasure’. The researchers pointed out that the number of smokers who are unhappy about their addiction greatly outnumbers those who wish to keep their habit of smoking, and regulators should have this in mind. “These discontent smokers could have a substantial net welfare gain if new regulations helped them escape their concerns about the health effects from continuing smoking,” concluded the study.