Flawed research equates placebo to cold turkey

Why placebo should not be equated with cold turkey:

...can people who volunteer to test a drug, but who are randomly assigned to get a placebo instead of the drug they wanted, reasonably be compared to people who decide to quit smoking without drugs? A growing chorus of independent experts and health advocates are expressing concern that the pharmaceutical industry has either divorced itself from common sense or is intentionally deceiving smokers.

"Pharmacotherapy in general is over-emphasized," asserts Dr. Michael Siegel, a physician and professor at Boston University School of Public Health. "Most smokers who quit successfully long-term are those who quit cold turkey without any particular pharmaceutical aids."