Dipesh, here in the U.S., by far, the majority continue to succeed by going cold turkey. We've built a website sharing the abrupt cessation science base at www.WhyQuit.com. There, you'll find hundreds of original articles, two free e-books, nearly 200 short quitting video lessons, and two online cessation support groups.

This link is to my free e-book, Freedom from Nicotine - The Journey Home: http://whyquit.com/ffn/index.html A paperback version is also available via Amazon.com at this link: http://www.amazon.com/Freedom-Nicotine-The-Journey-Home/dp/1478333022 If interested in having an abrupt cessation group I encourage to study and master the topic. If this is a free, not for profit or government program you are seeking to establish, feel free to use and share as much of our work as you wish.

Having presented live two-week six-session (two hours each) programs and having served as director of online support for 14 years, I assure you, although the compensation is horrible (nearly always pro bono) the emotional rewards couldn't be greater. If you have any questions I'd be delighted to assist.

Warm regards,

John

John R. Polito, JD

Director WhyQuit.com

[email protected]

01.843.797.3234

Oh, and if you'd like to see what educated and supported cold turkey quitting look like (what we call "Smart Turkey") take a peek at Turkeyville, a 2,180 member group that is likely Facebook's most popular quitting site: https://www.facebook.com/groups/whyquit/ John

Thank you very much john........... Currently i am researching on the quiting tobacco program....... The material are very nice..... Thank you once again......

This new July 31, 2013 U.S. Gallup poll may be of interest to you, Dipesh. It looks at successful recovery from the the ex-smoker's perspective. It does so by asking the open-ended question, "Trying to be as specific as possible, what strategies or methods for quitting smoking were most effective for you?" While nearly half credit cold turkey, another 25 percent or so provide responses that fall within the historic yet evolving definition of "cold turkey," abrupt and complete drug cessation, without resort to cessation products or procedures.

Link to Gallup article: http://www.gallup.com/poll/163763/smokers-quit-tried-multiple-times.aspx

Link to extracted Gallup table showing effective strategies: http://whyquit.com/studies/Gallup_Poll_July_2013.html

GSK, Pfizer and J&J would love for you to build your program around approved quitting products, GSK has spent billions over the past 39 years marketing and using its influence to make Nicorette a cornerstone of U.S. cessation policy yet, Yet, according to this poll only 1 percent of successful quitters credit nicotine gum for their success. I'm left wondering the percentage of that 1 percent who were still hooked on the cure, and whether any smoker has ever arrested their brain's dependence upon nicotine by continuing to replace it.

"Group pharma think" will encourage you to recommend costly approved products having 8-12 week treatment periods before product use ends and your program's participants attempt to adjust to natural brain dopamine pathway stimulation. The beauty of abrupt cessation education, counseling and support programs is that within 72 hours of ending use, participants both inhabit nicotine-free bodies and move beyond peak withdrawal.

Effective abrupt cessation programs provide intense up-front education and support during those first 3 critical days, keeping every participant on the exact same recovery page (ending all use at the first session). Joel Spitzer's 13 day programs always started on a Tuesday, with the first two-hour group session running a bit long. Participants returned for additional 2 hour sessions on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and Monday, with graduation the following Monday (day 13). It allowed them to move beyond peak withdrawal prior to the weekend, with greater likelihood of alcohol use. It also forces almost immediate extinction of work related use cues,

Providing telephone support between sessions, with program content as presented in Joel's Library (http://whyquit.com/joel/) , at a very minimum you should expect at least 50 percent of participants to remain 100 percent nicotine free and graduate on day 13. Six month continuous cessation rates (not one puff) should never fall below 30 percent. If your budget allows, Joel discovered that regular follow-up reinforcement letters mailed after graduation, with periodic follow-up telephone calls, can substantially enhance six-month cessation rates (50% is not unusual, again, depending on the quality and intensity of follow-up). This link is to the collection of follow-up letters shared by Joel: http://whyquit.com/joel/#articles Again, if a not-for-profit program you're free to use and share them.

A few lessons I learned the hard way. If any participant relapses, as cold as this sounds, they cannot be permitted to remain in the group, but can attend a future group. Allowing them back will undercut the "same page" recovery and healing dynamics, as the group's focus will turn to the perpetual withdrawal and still complaining user. Also, no breaks during sessions, especially the first. And don't forget to collect all cigarettes at the end of the first session. Make them leave as new ex-smokers.

That first session is the most critical. There, I provide motivation by devoting at least half my time (normally more) to educating them as to how each puff further damages the body, why they need to quit and dependency basics. Accepting that their brain wanting disorder is no different from the wanting felt by other drug addicts greatly simplifies recovery's rules: that one is too many, while thousands never enough.

The second hour is devoted to destruction of false use rationalizations (the biggest being the fraud of "just one" and that nicotine is a stress-buster) and to how to quit. This short video by Spitzer presents his basic tips. At a minimum, each should be briefly reviewed: http://youtu.be/l27zWo7hbcY If desired, you can play any portion of any of Spitzer's nearly 200 videos via a laptop that ties the Internet to a wall projector. YouTube allows you to create links to the exact minute and second of any video that you wish to jump to. You could have pre-established links to every question or concern imaginable. After a few programs the facilitator will likely grow comfortable in sharing the answer themselves.

For example, this link jumps to the 12 minute and 49 second mark of Sptizer's video entitled "Why do smokers smoke?" There, he explains stress induced urine acidification and why smokers falsely believe that smoking is a stress-buster: http://youtu.be/S9AmZiI3rNI?t=12m49s

Dipesh, I sincerely hope you follow through with your dream of helping smokers quit, as the reach of a high quality program pumping out the most dependency recovery savvy ex-smokers your nation has ever seen is no different from the influence of any high quality university.

Again, I'm here and will gladly assist in anyway possible.

Regards,

John