Clearing The Air

What makes Johnson & Johnson Company's boardroom more excited than funding smoking bans?....Getting kids hooked on their nicotine patch -Nicoderm, etc

From the educational website and group -Forces, comes this story about how pharmaceutical interests and doctors are encouraged to prescribe pharmaceutical nicotine products to children as young as 12.

...Concern that teenagers may become hooked on Nicotine Replacement Therapy itself - because their brains are still developing, thus making them more vulnerable to addiction - was one of the reasons why the treatment was not originally recommended for the age group......However, after research the Committee on the Safety of Medicines approved its use in 12 to 18-year-olds, as well as pregnant women...

And as Clearing the Air has pointed out on numerous ocassions, the Johnson & Johnson Company has been very influential in getting smoking bans passed by providing hundreds of millions of dollars to non-profit lobbying groups like the American Lung Association, ASH, CTFK, American Non-Smoker's Rights etc....even the CDC. J & J does not typically provide the funds directly, they allow their political division the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) to fund these smoking ban efforts........then they get the kidees hooked on their pharmaceutical nicotine products.......Good old fashioned rent seeking legislation at its finest.

Ever notice the increase in pharmaceutical nicotine product advertising (such as Nicoderm, Nicotrol) in an area where governement mandated smoking bans have been implemented?........Anybody out there think this was simply a coincidence?

I for one, think the pharmaceutical nicotine companies like Johnson & Johnson conduct business far less ethically than the tobacco companies ever did. Because their funding and promotion of smoking bans, to increase profits, eliminates hospitality businesses and jobs around the globe.

posted by marcus aurelius @ 7:34 AM