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To the Editor: The Commentary on global regulatory strategies for tobacco control by Mr Gostin¹ included most of the accepted regulatory options to promote tobacco control but failed to include one of the most important: treatment regulation.

Several of the actions suggested in the Commentary have been shown to motivate smokers to attempt to quit, but there is little evidence that these actions help smokers stop once they have tried to quit. If smokers only needed to be motivated, then treatment would not be necessary. However, if smokers are dependent on nicotine, then ignoring treatment does not make sense (imagine a global program to treat alcoholism that did not include a treatment component).

In addition, with more than 150 randomized controlled trials validating smoking cessation treatments,² increasing access to treatment is a much more scientifically based regulatory strategy than most strategies proposed by Gostin (with the exception of taxation).^3-4 Helping . . . [Full Text of this Article]

John R. Hughes, MD
john.hughes@uvm.edu
College of Medicine
University of Vermont
Burlington

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Global Regulatory Strategies for Tobacco Control
Lawrence O. Gostin
JAMA. 2007;298(17):2057-2059.
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Treatment Regulation in Promoting Tobacco Control—Reply
Lawrence O. Gostin
JAMA. 2008;299(7):763-764.
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