Overflight, 46

Unfortunately society spent the 20th century brainwashing our youth into believing the incalculably damaging illusion that we are basically weak and incapable of either enjoying life or coping with stress without the assistance of drugs. …
It is nicotine that plants this seed in our bodies and minds, suggesting we are incomplete and need something to fill the void. What people fail to realize is that:
NICOTINE CREATES THAT VOID
Nicotine therefore creates the conditions that often lead to other drugs. Once you have belief in the ability of your mind and body both to enjoy life to the full and cope with stress effectively, all drugs cease to be necessary or desirable. …
We should explain that it’s a confidence trick and that’s why they’ll enjoy life so much more, and be better able to cope with stress, while they are free from slavery …
We have just one problem: three powerful institutions [governments, the established medical profession, the media] who continue to perpetuate myths and illusions about smoking, all of whom are ifluenced by powerful pharmaceutical companies, which have a huge financial interest in perpetuating nicotine addiction.
Allen Carr, The Nicotine Conspiracy

“The area of maximum cultural manipulation, carried out chiefly by institutions, in the form of false cognitions and false interpretative models, is probably just that: the area of monetary and credit economics.”
Federico Caffè, as quoted in Marco Della Luna, Paolo Cioni, Neuroschiavi (Neuroslaves)