Jake Shannon – Quitting Smoking by Committing Suicide?

Jake Shannon – Everyone knows that cigarette smoking is bad for those around you and even worse for your own health. That’s one of the reasons why smoking is banned in Utah bars and restaurants, besides it’s costly and disgusting, and can kill you and those you care the most about.
According to the New England Journal of Medicine, nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke were 25% more likely to have heart disease. The good news is, after just 5 years of non-smoking, the odds of dying from lung cancer drops by almost half! And after 15 years, the risk of heart disease is equal to that of a nonsmoker, and the risk of dying from lung cancer is only slightly higher than that of a non-smoker. How
Recently, doctors have been prescribing a new drug from Pfizer named Chantix to help smokers quit. The Chantix website boasts, “CHANTIX has been proven to help people quit.” It boasts a 44% cure rate verses 18% for a placebo (which is a pretty good rate for a sugar pill really!).
What the advertising likes to marginalize are the behavioral effects. The fine print of the Chantix advertisement reads,
“Some patients have reported changes in behavior, agitation, depressed mood, suicidal thoughts or actions”.
These side-effects have recently manifested themselves in some truly tragic ways (as these articles can attest):
* FDA Issues Public Health Advisory on Chantix
* This is My Brain on Chantix article from New York Magazine.
* Can Chantix Cause Depression?
* As Bad News Mounts, Chantix Prescriptions Crumble article from the Wall Street Journal.
So while you can potentially quit smoking with prescription Chantix, you may also quit living too.