All roads lead to Pharma

January 28th, 2012

There are several ways of giving up smoking.

You can go “cold turkey”.  You decide one morning that this is it – you are no longer a smoker and you just stop.  You resist all temptations and that is that – you are no longer a smoker.

Another method that is becoming increasingly popular is to switch to the electronic equivalent – the e-cigarette, the e-pipe or the e-cigar.  While these have been marketed as smoking alternatives, increasing numbers of ex-smokers are reporting that they very successfully used the e-route to quit altogether.

The method we hear most about is the so-called “nicotine replacement therapy” – the patch, the gum and the nicotine inhalers.  Of the three methods these have been proved to be the least successful by far, over a long period.  They tout themselves as being successful but that is only measuring cessation rates after a month or less.  After a year, most smokers who have tried this route are back on the fags again.

The likes of ASH and the other Anti-smoker organisations would have you believe that the aim of their campaigns is to get people to stop smoking.  You would imagine therefore that they would chose the most successful route and would advertise that.  You would imagine that they would be delighted at the e-equivalent for a start.  Here is a method that has a proven high success rate and achieves their aims.  So why are they so desperate to have the e-cigarette banned or at the very least, subject to the same restrictions as cigarettes?  Does that make sense?

If you check any of the government quit smoking campaigns or look at the ASH cessation methods, they all suggest that the best way to quit is to “contact your doctor or pharmacist”.  Why would that be?  A doctor or pharmacist doesn’t sell e-cigarettes?  You don’t need a doctor or pharmacist to tell you to go “cold turkey”?  But what have doctors and pharmacists have in common?  Yup – the pharmaceutical trade.  They are both going to suggest the least successful method – the pharmaceutically produced patch, gum or inhaler.  They will even promote Champix, which has incredibly dangerous side effects.

Why is this?  Why do ASH et al insist on promoting the least successful method while attacking the more successful?

Surely you can come to the obvious conclusion?

Would it help if I mentioned pharmaceutical sponsorship and grants?

Now it is my fault

January 27th, 2012

It’s funny how things change.

Last December, our Glorious Leader, Dane Enda gave a State of the Nation speech.  One thing he was definite about – it was not the People who caused the financial crisis.

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Later on, he expanded on that.  It was not the People; it was the banks, crap government and developers.  The only one he missed there was the Financial Regulator who was fast asleep at the wheel.  At least it wasn’t our fault.  He wasn’t blaming me.

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Yesterday he was asked yet again what caused the crash in Ireland.

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What the fuck?

No mention of builders?  No mention of the Worst Government in History?  No mention of the Financial Regulator?  Suddenly it’s my fault?

Fuck that.

I can only assume that he spent his little winter holiday in Davos arse licking.

It would explain why he is so full of shite.

No shit Sherlock

January 26th, 2012

I am appealing to my Irish readers.

Well, that’s not strictly true as the vast majority of you are not living here [lucky sods], so most Irish don’t find me appealing.

Anyway, this is for the few who do live here.

You may have heard that one of our ministers [a little cunt by the name of Sherlock] is trying to implement a bill that will effectively hand over control of the Interweb to our gubmint and the music industry.  It is essentially the same as the American SOPA thing in that they can shut down a site if they don’t like its content. 

Seeing as our shower are just puppets for the EU, that means we hand over control to Brussels.  They claim that it’s to prevent copyright infringement, but knowing the EU, it will go much further than that.  Even this humble little site could be under threat as once or twice [*cough*] I have said a few things that could be construed to be anti-EU.

In a few days, they hope to implement this bill without even a vote [democracy at its best again?] so there ain’t much time.

The only way we can stop this is by lobbying. and that is very simple.

Get your arses over to Stop SOPA Ireland and sign the petition.

It has occurred to me that they can’t tell the nationality of the signature if the email address is a .com but of course I would never ask all you non-Irish .coms to sign now, would I? [*cough cough*]

So do you want the likes of EMI to dictate what sites we visit?  Do you trust our gubmint?  Do you trust the EU?

If the answer to any of those is no, then sign the damned thing.

If the answer to any of those is yes, then you are nothing short of a fucking moron.

So just sign the fucking thing.

OK?

Or would you like to see me wiped off the airwaves?

Duty my arse

January 25th, 2012

What kind of fucking eejit wants to give away money needlessly?

Apparently the Irish do.

Today our gubmint is parting with €1.25bn to gamblers without any compulsion to do so.  Yup – €1,250,000,000 that might as well be going up in smoke.

But it’s not just the gubmint.

The fucking people of Ireland are at it too.

I have lost count of the number of times I have heard people being interviewed and saying that they know the property tax is “necessary” or “fair” or even “right”.  They say they “accept that Ireland is in a mess” and then go on to say they are keen to “do their bit”.  Un-fucking-believable.

I have been paying taxes all my life.  Every time I enter a shop, I pay VAT.  Every cent I earned was taxed.  They are even taxing my pension.  I have moved house a couple of times and paid massive Stamp Duty each time.  I inherited a few bob and was taxed heavily on that.  Every time I fill the car with petrol I pay Excise Duty and VAT.  Every pint I drink is a huge donation to the Excise Man.  Every ounce of baccy I buy is mostly tax.  Every fucking move I make is taxed.

Only yesterday I filled the oil tank [the neighbours found my syphon again].  It cost me over €700, and a hundred of that went straight into the gubmint’s coffers.  €100 for what?  What did they do to deserve that much?  It was a private transaction between myself and the oil company but they still have to sneak in and grab a large chunk of it.

it is NOT my “duty” to pay extra taxes.  It is NOT my “duty” to bail Ireland out of a mess I didn’t create.

It IS the gubmint’s duty to stop throwing my fucking cash away like fucking confetti.  They needn’t throw away that €1.25 billion for a start.  There is no reason to pay it.  Someone gambled and lost.  Tough fucking shit.  But why do we still have to pay?  Because the fucking EU says we must.  And why do they say that?  Because it’s their fucking banks who are the gamblers.

Apart from that, they still throw money around like there is no tomorrow.

I really am pissed of with this country.

And I am also getting pissed off with the people in it.

Sheer spite

January 24th, 2012

It’s an interesting concept.

An organisation whose primary aim is supposed to be the health and welfare of the nation is forcing smokers not just to leave hospital buildings but is now forcing them out onto the road.

There is no logic behind this move, as even those who believe in the myth of Environmental Tobacco Smoke will have to admit that smoke outdoors poses no health risk whatsoever?  Those same people will have to admit that standing by the side of a road in one’s pyjamas on a cold winter’s day is not exactly the healthiest of actions?  Even some of the more enlightened members of the medical profession can see that.

I am no expert on the individual hospitals around the country, but amongst the hospitals I am familiar with, leaving the hospital grounds will bring you out to a very busy main road, or else there is one hell of a long walk to get to the perimeter of the grounds.  Forcing either option is nothing short of dangerous and spiteful.

Of course, reading the first article above we find some telling pointers.

“The HSE’s director of public health policy, Dr Fenton Howell, who is a former chairman of Ash, the anti-smoking lobby group, …….”

So here we have The Righteous in plain view again.  This is not about health – it is about a single minded obsession with beating down and humiliating smokers at every opportunity.

“He added: ‘We need to recognise that there is almost a sense that cigarettes are not as dangerous as they are. Five and a half thousand people die from tobacco every year, and there are thousands admitted to hospital beds because of their addiction.’”

At least he is beginning to get the message.  Cigarettes are not the equivalent of a loaded gun.  What he is really saying here is that people are starting to think that cigarettes are not as dangerous as ASH claim they are.  And then he plays ASH’s favourite game of plucking figures out of the air. There is nothing like a spot of emotive figure-juggling!

“We can’t manage patients by letting them continue the thing that brought them into hospital in the first place.”

OK.  Apply that to the few cases where you genuinely think that smoking may have contributed to the problem, but then you also have to force all victims of sports injuries to renounce sport for life.  All road accident injuries must have their driving licence immediately revoked, or they must be banned from the pavements.  Patent rubbish.

Probably the most telling statement in the article is near the top -

“The introduction of the smoking ban is being staggered so professionals within the hospital can get sufficient training in smoking cessation therapies such as nicotine patches and gum.”

There couldn’t possibly be a connection between between the fact that the anti-smoking lobby are so heavily funded by Pharma, and the promotion of Pharma products that have been proven to be useless?

Could there?

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