Zyban is a pill that supposedly helps you quit smoking. It is also a dangerous drug and associated with fatalities among is users. It is alarming to think that these days, mainstream medicine and the media feel it is perfectly ok to market dangerous drugs as a method of stopping the deadly practice of tobacco smoking. Smoking is a psychosocial habit, but big pharmaceutical companies and the media promote it as a nicotine addiction because that is where there is money to be made—hoodwinking people into believing that they should pay for a pill to fix all their problems. Unfortunately, that little pill engenders with a whole new set of dangerous health issues. For your own protection, let’s take a closer look at the drug Zyban to underscore how unhealthy and unsafe smoking cessation drugs really are. Zyban is a drug whose distributor GlaxcoSmith Kline claims mitigates the symptoms of nicotine withdrawal by way of the chemical compound buproprian. It is taken in pill form and is supposed to diminish feelings of anxiety, frustration, irritability, and depression that accompany the cessation of nicotine use. So is it actually effective? Consider this quote from a June 2001 edition of the Sydney Morning Herald related to a study on Zyban’s efficacy conducted by none other than GlaxcoSmith Kline itself: “Ms Renee Bittoun, director of the Smoking Research Unit at Sydney University, said she could not reveal the precise results of the study, which was sponsored by the drug’s manufacturer, GlaxcoSmith Kline, because her contract would not allow it…But the study did not show that Zyban was any more effective at helping people give up smoking than the gums or patches” This quote is loaded with information so let’s take a minute to unpack it. First, it shows that GlaxcoSmith Kline will not allow the release of its own research conclusions if they do not perfectly align their agenda, which in this case would be their desire to show that Zyban is effective. The study conducted by Ms. Bittoun showed that Zyban was no more effective in helping people stop smoking than nicotine replacement therapies, which have recently been proven ineffective smoking cessation aids by scientists at the Harvard School of Public Health. Thus, pharmaceutical companies like Glaxco Smith Kline are willing to suppress information and lie about the efficacy of their products, even to the extent that they bind their employees by a contractual obligation to be dishonest. While this is horrible in its own right, it becomes even more of a travesty when you consider the fact that Zyban is not only ineffective, but also extremely dangerous. The list of side effects alone should make you quiver with fear: • Seizures • Suicidal thoughts • Nausea • Cardiovascular problems • Insomnia • Gastrointestinal problems • Death Those are just a few of the side effects associated with Zyban, side effects that GlaxcoSmith Kline itself readily admits. Imagine smoking for 24 year and finally deciding to quit, enlisting the help of a Zyban pill and then dying 24 hours later from a seizure; this isn’t an exaggeration—it has happened to numerous Zyban users. Where is the logic behind a smoking cessation pill that is more immediately harmful than the cigarettes themselves? The fact that more is not being done to stop pharmaceutical companies form marketing such dangerous drugs to people trying to get healthy by quitting smoking is a clear indication that something has gone terribly wrong in our profit driven society. The best method of smoking cessation—habit cessation, is not promoted in the mainstream because there is no money to be made when people take charge of their own lives and habits and learn to build new healthy ones. If you are thinking of quitting smoking, then don’t give one dollar to a company like GlaxcoSmith Kline. Take control of your own life and choices and learn to be healthy through the power of your mind and free will and start living the healthy lifestyle that you want on your own terms.
