About Us ...

• To impart an understanding of the powerfully addictive nature of tobacco and nicotine products and how nicotine enslaves the same brain dopamine pathways as heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine.
  
  
• To help all understand that although nicotine is one of the most captivating drugs known to man that it is simply a chemical with an I.Q. of zero, and is no match against your greatest weapon of all, your intelligence and becoming an educated quitter.
  
  
• To help motivate all wanting to arrest their chemical dependency upon the super toxin, fetal teratogen, cancer promoter and natural insecticide nicotine, to succeed in doing so.
  
  
• To provide a totally free education resource devoted to the costs, risks and known dangers posed by smoking, tobacco and nicotine, and the teaching and support tools needed to aid quitters in arresting their dependency upon nicotine.
  
  
• To assist all ex-users in avoiding relapse.
  
  
• To aid youth and young adults in grasping the full range of risks associated with nicotine dependency before they begin to experiment.
  
  
• To counter tobacco industry:
  
  
  1. Shotgun-type tobacco industry marketing that has no regard for the age or maturity of the mind it strikes.
  2. Practices of knowingly enticing purchase and use of tobacco products in the presence of children and teens.
  3. Marketing which suggests to youth false reasons why adults purchase and use cigarettes and oral tobacco.
  4. Silence on teaching youth the full spectrum of risks associated with becoming addicted to smoking or oral nicotine use.
  
  
• To counter pharmaceutical industry:
  
  
  1. Marketing which falsely suggests that quitting cold turkey is nearly impossible, when in fact it is the method used by more than 80% of successful long-term quitters.
  2. Marketing implications that placebo is a real-world quitting method.
  3. Research and marketing suggestions that the expectations of clinical trial placebo users who joined clinical trials in order to obtain a 50/50 chance of receiving weeks or months of free dopamine pathway stimulating chemicals (chemicals they hoped would diminish their withdrawal syndrome), have any legitimate comparison relationship whatsoever to real-world cold turkey quitters, quitters who fully expect to endure and successfully navigate withdrawal.
  4. Claims that cessation pharmacology research is science-based and the ridiculous assertion and fiction that researchers in placebo controlled clincal trials were somehow able to blind and hide from nicotine addicts the onset or absence of full-blown nicotine withdawal. Clinical trial efficacy findings do not reflect product effectiveness but frustrated and fulfilled participant expectations, and the intensity, duration and quality of counseling, contact and support offered within each study.
  5. And to end use of placebo controls in cessation clincial trials as being in clear violation of Principle 32 of the World Medical Association's (WMA) Declaration of Helsinki, which commands that the "benefits, risks, burdens and effectiveness of a new intervention must be tested against those of the best current proven intervention," that placebos should not be used unless "compelling and scientifically sound methodological reasons" are demonstrated. Common sense screans that the intentional slaughter of placebo quitters inside clinical trials, in order to create newsworthy results and avoid honest and much needed cessation product and quitting method competition, must come to an end.
  
  
• To motivate government health officials to analyze the history of pharmaceutical industry financial influence upon government cessation policy and immediately reverse all policies suggesting that it is against national cessation policy to trust your natural instincts and quit cold turkey by abruptly ending all nicotine use, policies that today mandate that all quitters should instead be encouraged to purchase and use expensive dopamine pathway stimulating chemicals for weeks or months.
  
  
• To aid all who have arrested their dependency in understanding that the only means of preventing relapse is to remain committed to never using nicotine again ... to Never Take Another Puff, Dip or Chew.

WhyQuit unites four independent cessation resources - motivation enhancement, a quality education, serious group support, and free professional cessation counseling.  Each resource serves a dual dependency prevention objective of motivating youth not to start, helping them see through the smoke and deceptive marketing, and providing a ring-side seat in watching those addicted to nicotine as they reclaim control of their minds, health and life.

WhyQuit's education foundation is anchored in the life's work of Joel Spitzer, a Chicago nicotine dependency prevention and cessation counselor and programs director who started his career as a smoking prevention health educator with the American Cancer Society in 1972.  Since then Joel has presented more than 690 live seminars to approximately 100,000 attendees and more than 350 full nicotine cessation clinics reaching over 4,500 participants. From 2000 to 2008 Joel's Evanston and Skokie Health Department programs were funded by the State of Illinois. Joel currently serves as a smoking prevention and cessation consultant to the Evanston Department of Health and Human Services, education director at WhyQuit's free online support group Freedom from Nicotine, and director of AskJoel, a free site where Joel responds to smoker questions. More than 100 of his original cessation articles are featured at WhyQuit in Joel's Library, along with more than 60 free counseling videos (which as of 1/24/09 had logged 1,099,916 views), and his free PDF e-book "Never Take Another Puff," which on August 15, 2007 logged its first one million Internet downloads (1,672,129 as of 1/24/09).

WhyQuit's founder and director is John R. Polito, a former 30-year heavy smoker who has mentored under Joel since January 20, 2000. In September 1999 John co-founded Freedom from Tobacco, then a a free MSN based support group which in January 2009 migrated to Yuku and was renamed Freedom from Nicotine. In 2001 John started presenting free two-week clinics and seminars modeled upon Joel's programs. From 2003-2006 hepresented free bi-monthly seminars at the College of Charleston. During 2007 "Healthy South Carolina Challenge," a project of South Carolina First Lady Jenny Sanford and South Carolina's Department of Health (DHEC), the Governor's staff requested and featured quitting tips submitted by John. The South Carolina Department of Corrections retained John to present 63 nicotine cessation seminars in 28 state prisons during 2007-2008, as the prisons became tobacco-free. On January 1, 2009 John released his free PDF e-book "Freedom from Nicotine - The Journey Home."

WhyQuit, Freedom and AskJoel are staffed by cessation educators who have each studied under Joel Spitzer.  Please note that none of the forum's educators, including Joel Spitzer, are physicians or doctors and WhyQuit's and Freedom's information and services are designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between a site visitor and his/her physician.  Do not rely upon any information at this site to replace individual consultations with your doctor or other qualified health care provider.

Each site has been developed, is maintained, and is funded by its editor, author or managers.   No site has received any public or private funding whatsoever, no financial donations have ever been accepted by anyone associated with any site, and no editor, author or manager receives any financial compensation whatsoever for their online work.  For a detailed statement visit WhyQuit's Disclosure page.