If you're thinking about quitting smoking, join the rush and click over to the Quit for Good Stop Smoking program but don't waste a good newsletter, read this first!

Previously quit, but struggling? You need this unique guide: Never Think About Smoking Again

A quote to think about...

Stuff
Tobacco companies are usually vilified, except by their shareholders and directors.

Why? Well, they make lots of stuff... yes, tobacco stuff and money stuff.

For example, last year, Philip Morris USA made $4.6 billion in profit and Philip Morris International, in Switzerland, made $7.8 billion in profit. BAT in UK just announced their first quarter result of £668m.

The other stuff they make... tobacco, doesn't cause happiness. It causes one of every two smokers to die from heart disease, lung cancer, emphysema or other diseases because they smoked this stuff.

Time you said "Stuff it" to them?

Plantain - little soldiers
Plantain is worth getting to know better. You may have played 'soldiers' with the long, tough flower spikes, and now you are quitting smoking - your tough soldier friends can help you again.

Plantago is really the botanical name, and there are dozens of varieties, mostly found as weeds growing by the side of the road.

For smokers, plantain is great for that cough, and eliminating the mucus that has built up. Try your local health store for dried plantain leaf tea, but if you can pick your own, good-oh.

Bring some water to the boil, add a chopped or crushed leaf and steep for a minute or so, add honey if desired and a slice of lemon. Sip hot to relieve congestion and ease bronchitis, asthma, and cleanse the lungs, blood and stomach.

The whole plant is incredibly useful. The dried flower seed husks are sold as Psyllium for constipation (that's to relieve it not produce it). The leaves when crushed sooth insect bites, heal ulcers, wounds, warts and boils.

Is that genuine Tobacco - or compost?
Way back we mentioned some interesting facts on Tobacco smuggling. It's on the increase because of higher taxes being slapped on tobacco products. Here's the latest trivia:

Over 2000 British customs officers are engaged in trying to catch tobacco and other smugglers and counterfeiters. Even Imperial Tobacco has its own staff of 25 on the case. Of all the seized counterfeit cigarettes, Philip Morris makes up the most at 47%.

In counterfeit foodstuffs, Lipton teabags make up 67%, Adidas and Nike copies make up 53% of seized sportswear. Louis Vuitton rip-offs are 18% of accessories, and fake watches are headed by Rolex at 16%.

Firms have invested millions of dollars in machinery to identifying brand impostors, such as checking with ultra-violent light to test Johnny Walker and JB whiskey.

China is the main source of copied and illegal goods, often using many difference provinces to gather all the components of a products, then shipping via ports such as Dubai or Thailand, then finally selling to the unsuspecting public in say, Britain via the internet and open-air vendors.

Despite high-tech surveillance, often it's just a matter of simple packaging that gives the game away. Quotes a security spokesperson, "If someone is selling Benson & Hedges, Silk Cut or Marlboro for £2 to £3, with 'UK duty paid' written on the packets, then they must be stolen or counterfeit, because the duty alone in this country is £4."

"I have seen Benson & Hedges packs with 'duty free pack' written on one side, and 'UK duty paid' on the other. That is an impossibility — it must be one or the other," he said. "Others have the pack the wrong gold color, and I've even seen one with the word 'gold' misspelt as 'glod'."

Counterfeits are also a big problem with hand-rolling tobacco brands such as Golden Virginia. "A recent raid on a house near Heathrow airport found four women working round a kitchen table, stuffing pouches full of tobacco. 'Raw' leaf is easier to get into this country than a consignment of cigarettes — it might be brought in as compost, and may not show up on a customs x-ray."

What about a few other products... "a brand of sun-care claiming a protection factor of 90. There are two things wrong with that — the sun-protection numbers go up to only about 50; and, worse still, this product did not contain any sun protection at all." It was being produced in China and was seized en route to Israel.

A legal advisor, who advises pharmaceutical companies on how to pursue counterfeiters, says: "The threat has increased significantly because of the popularity of online pharmacies. People may think they are buying the genuine article, but it may in fact contain something dangerous or nothing at all."

Conversely, health workers in Eastern Europe, Africa and the Far East are accusing tobacco companies of turning a blind eye to cigarette smuggling in these poor and uneducated health-wise countries in order to initially flood new markets with their products to hook new addicts.

Feedback
Juanita, from Sydney, did our Quit for Good program, and commented:

"This course gave me a feeling of complete control. I just loved the way I sailed through without any forced willpower or desperate withdrawal symptoms that I so dreaded from trying to give up before." Juanita M

See you with the next Hot Quit Newsletter.