Smokers' rush to quit overwhelms clinics in Tokyo

The recent hike in the price of cigarettes in Tokyo has so many smokers seeking medical treatment to help them quit, clinics and drug companies are struggling to keep up with demand.

In mid-October, a man in his 60s who had smoked 20 cigarettes a day for 30 years visited Tokyo Medical University Hospital in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo. He had tried to stop smoking a few times in the past, but could only go without tobacco "for two days at the most," he said.

This time, swayed by the October price hike and his wife's urging, the man knocked on the door of a clinic to seek medical help in kicking the habit.

On his first visit, the man received a lengthy lecture from Dr. Yoji Hirayama about the damage smoking causes to one's health. He was asked to confirm his resolve to quit and told to discard all his remaining cigarettes.

To ease irritability and other side effects of quitting, the man was prescribed Champix--a nicotine-free drug designed to help smokers quit. At the hospital a few weeks later, Hirayama asked the man if he still felt like smoking.

"Only for a moment after dinner," he replied. "I don't think I'll smoke anymore."
 

According to Hirayama, more smokers began visiting his clinic for treatment around August, and the same was apparently true at other medical institutions. So dramatic was the uptick in the number of people wanting to quit before the price hike, it led to a nationwide shortage of the Champix drug.

Champix manufacturer Pfizer Inc. said that up through August, it had supplied enough to treat 70,000 patients a month in Japan. The quantity rose to enough for 170,000 patients in September, and from Oct. 1 to Oct. 6 alone the company provided enough of the drug for 80,000 patients.

Some clinics in Toyko have declined to accept new patients for nicotine addiction treatment, but Yuko Takahashi, a doctor in charge of such treatment at Kyoto University Hospital, encourages smokers not to abandon their efforts to quit and even buy Champix online if they can't get medical assistance.