Quit Smoking Shot
Smoking is the biggest of all addictions. Not only is it more widespread than, say, heroin addiction but some claim that it is also more difficult to shake off. Now, when it comes to injections, we have all become used to the wonder of immunisations and the millions of lives that it has saved. Could the power of the injection actually cure you of cigarette addiction in the form of a quit smoking shot?
Despite medical science having looked for a cure for smoking for decades, very little more than the usual nicotine replacement therapies has even been produced. But an anti-nicotine vaccine is currently undergoing development and trials.
NicVAX is a drug that is injected into the arm which then stimulates the immune system into producing antibodies which bond with nicotine and hence stop it from entering the brain.
There have been some studies conducted but the results are from from conclusive of patients being cured of their cigarette addiction in the long term. In one such study, most of the test subjects continued to smoke cigarettes afterwards, despite a series of NicVAX injections. However, it did conclude that NicVAX was “safe and well tolerated” and these are still very early stages.
So, the reality of a quit smoking shot solving all the problems of a smoker are still not here yet. So what do I think of using an injection to block nicotine entering the brain?
Well, in my opinion, this won’t necessarilly solve the problem. I think that you have to look at people who occasionally smoke other nicotine/tobacco containing products like pipes, cigars or even the Scandinavian “snus”. Would you call a guy who smokes a cigar maybe 3 times a year, say at a party, would you call him an addict? And do you think that he craves tobacco really badly during the rest of the year that he thinks of turning to cigarettes?
In fact, show me a single person who has turned to cigarettes as a cheaper form of nicotine after smoking the odd cigar? I think you’ll be hard pushed.
So, I think that there is more to cigarette addiction and quitting smoking than just nicotine. Could it be a habit, could social conditioning be involved? Whatever, there is more than meets the eye, in my opinion.