Sheila's blog recommends quitting for Scotland

ASH Scotland takes up the 'new year quit theme' (although without backing in the form of free nicotine patches from the government, which is being offered by the Department of Health in England), exhorting people to quit smoking in order to save money – for Scotland as well as for the sake of personal financial and health gains.

Sheila Duffy refers to the ASH Scotland report Up in Smoke in support of her plea to stop smoking for Scotland. This report estimates woeful logic and shameless guesses in order to force the figure for smoking-related costs up above the figure for revenue.

Unlike Action on Smoking and Health (UK), Sheila's blog post refers almost positively to alternative smoking cessation treatments and willpower.

There is a lot of help and advice out there to support smokers thinking about quitting. Lots of people can quit through willpower alone – and often find it easier than they thought it would be. Many people find alternative therapies help them.

Admitting that people can quit smoking through willpower alone is new in anti-smoking circles. ASH Scotland's reference to alternative methods of quitting on its website is almost reasonable:

Complementary therapies like acupuncture, hypnosis or laser therapy, help some people to stop smoking but there is a lack of scientific evidence to support their effectiveness and they can be expensive. If you are interested in using a complementary therapy, find out about the therapy and choose a registered therapist before you commit yourself to a course of treatment.

The effect is spoiled by the assertion that NRT and Zyban 'have been tested in scientific trials': even developers of nicotine cessation treatments know this is bunkum. But at least Sheila has acknowledged that some people find that willpower and therapies other than NRT, Zyban and Champix work. Contrast the page on non-NHS therapies on the Action on Smoking and Health website.

Smoking cessation is an industry these days: at least, some people treat it as an industry (and a ruthless one too). Look forward to a major trade conference on smoking cessation drugs and therapies to be held in 2011.