24 septembre 2009
Denial phase of emotional recovery after smoking
The denial phase of emotional recovery is associated with ending a long and intense chemical relationship. It is the flip-side of active dependency denial, which used distortion and blocking techniques to provide cover and insulation that enabled us keep our nicotine relationship ongoing, while suppressing most anxieties associated with doing so. Denial is the unconscious defense mechanism - just below the surface - that allows us to resolve the emotional conflict and anxiety that would normally be felt by a person living in a permanent state of self-destructive chemical bondage.
Most nicotine addicts we'll see today are well insulated by a thick protective blanket of unconscious denial rationalizations, minimizations, fault projections, escapes, intellectualizations and delusions. They insulate them from the pain and reality of captivity, or create the illusion that the problem is somehow being solved. But here, during recovery, those same anxiety defense tools will now distort reality to buffer and aid transition to a nicotine-free life. Although we may say we are ending nicotine use, on a host of levels the mind isn’t yet convinced. If convinced, why do so many of us initially treat recovery as though some secret or hide in isolation? Why do we need an escape path? If convinced, why take comfort in knowing where that one hidden cigarette rests or the location of that last pouch, tin or pack? Why not throw them out, along with the ashtray or spit can?
The denial phase protects against the immediate emotional shock of leaving the most intense relationship we may have ever known, while embarking upon a journey from which there should be no return. It’s a shock buffer that allows us time to come to terms with where we now find ourselves. It operates unconsciously to diminish anxiety by refusing to perceive that recovery will really happen. While a positive force in allowing this journey to commence -- including allowing you the courage to reach for this book – it can also forecast relapse. It hurts to recall the number of times I went three days and then “rewarded” myself with that one puff that spelled relapse. It almost seems as though I’d endured the worst of withdrawal just to renew and invigorate lame “it’s too hard” rationalizations for continued smoking. Clearly I hadn’t made it beyond denial. But if I had, next up would have been anger.
02 juillet 2009
Value of unprocessed tobacco
The value of unprocessed tobacco production in 1999 was US$1 100 billion, over 9 times the value for 1970, an increase only partly attributable to increased production.
Comparing domestic prices with international prices, using the so-called Nominal Protection Coefficient (NPC), gives an estimate of the magnitude of market price distortion resulting from agricultural policies. During the 1970s, domestic and international price trends for unprocessed tobacco were very similar, in both direction and magnitude. However, in the first half of the 1980s, domestic prices declined while international prices were increasing slightly, tobacco producers were taxed rather than being supported. In contrast, in the 1990s, domestic prices began increasing faster than international prices indicating that protection to producers was increasing.
24 juin 2009
Package onserts
One of the vehicles for the corrective statements is a
cigarette package onsert, which the district court ordered
Defendants to “affix to cigarette packaging, either on the outside
of or within the outer cellophane wrapping around the package
. . . in the same manner as certain Defendants, such as Philip
Morris and Brown & Williamson, have utilized package onserts
in the past.”
Defendants
object that the onserts violate the Federal Cigarette Labeling and
Advertising Act (“Labeling Act”), which provides that “[n]o
statement relating to smoking and health, other than the
statement required by section 1333 of this title, shall be required
on any cigarette package.”
The Labeling Act defines a “package” as “a pack, box,
carton, or container of any kind in which cigarettes are offered
for sale, sold, or otherwise distributed to consumers.” A package onsert is “[a] communication affixed to
but separate from an individual cigarette pack and/or carton
purchased at retail by consumers, such as a miniature brochure
included beneath the outer cellophane wrapping or glued to the
outside of the cigarette packaging.”