EXCLUSIVE: Want To Quit Smoking? Trade Nicotine For CBD, A Former Phillip Morris & Altria Exec Says

Every year, more than eight million people die from tobacco. More than seven million of those deaths have been caused by direct tobacco use, while the rest is caused by second-hand smoke. 

In the U.S., cigarette smoking is still the leading cause of preventable disease and death, with more than 480,000 Americans dying from it each year, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

If we know all this, then why are we still choosing to smoke? 

The addiction? Definitely. 

But isn’t there something more to it than nicotine addiction? What about the power of habit? 

Nicotine Addiction Versus The Power Of Habit 

Have you read the book The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg? If not, you should. The main point? Simplified – you can never erase a habit, you can just replace it with another one. 

Talking about smoking – that’s why nicotine patches often don’t help. Long-time smokers want to feel cigarettes between their fingers, they are missing holding and opening a brand new pack, inhaling and exhaling smoke, or simply taking a smoking break at work.

In addition to nicotine, they are “addicted” to these habits. So many times smokers' hands reach for the package, just out of the habit of doing something with their hands, not always in need of smoke or nicotine.

So, how to quit then? According to Duhigg, you need to replace your habit with another one, ideally a healthier one.

Enter TAAT Global Alternative, a maker of cigarette alternatives, with no nicotine and tobacco. So, what are they made of?

The “Beyond Tobacco” base material of TAAT is made of a hemp blend with proprietary flavorings. Benzinga wanted to learn more, so we reached out to TAAT CEO Michael Saxon. 

“We make an alternative to cigarettes, engineered to provide a familiar experience for adult smokers but with no nicotine or tobacco,” Saxon told Benzinga. The company is relying on a patent-pending treatment process to create “a user experience substantially similar to that of smoking a tobacco cigarette.”

It’s All About ‘The Product Format’

Saxon is a tobacco industry veteran – in 25 years in the space, he worked with some of the biggest tobacco companies in the world, such as Phillip Morris International PM and Altria MO in the U.S., Europe and Asia. He decided to join TAAT because of the opportunity size.

“The tobacco industry is worth nearly one trillion U.S. dollars, substantially driven by global sales of cigarettes,” Saxon said. “No matter how much demand there may be for 'alternatives' to smoking (i.e., vaping, nicotine patches, etc.), adult smokers frequently revert back to cigarettes because they enjoy the product format."

Saxon added that even cigarette giant Phillip Morris has spent around $300 million to create and test market a “virtually denicotinized” cigarette, aiming to capitalize on this trend. One of the reasons, it didn’t succeed is that consumers didn’t like the cigarette.

“Personally, I can only imagine tobacco that’s been 'heavily processed' to remove the nicotine won’t taste anything like regular tobacco at all,” Saxon said.

What makes TAAT’s offering different from similar products offering an alternative to tobacco is that the base material used is often perceived as “hemp-containing CBD that tastes and feels a lot like tobacco.”

Reducing Anxiety That Comes With Quitting

“Hemp is an extremely versatile material, which doesn’t only give us the ability to offer adult smokers an ultra-realistic smoking experience with no tobacco or nicotine, but it also allows us to leverage CBD’s properties as an anxiolytic… which means a substance that can be used to reduce anxiety, such as what an adult smoker might experience when moving away from nicotine,” Saxon explained.

He further mentioned several studies that support CBD’s effectiveness in mitigating nicotine withdrawals and having received anecdotal feedback from TAAT’s consumers.

What’s more, this alternative allows “adult smokers to continue enjoying the ‘nicotine-adjacent’ attributed of the smoking experience,” Saxon said. “Nicotine is arguably a very small part of the overall ritual for adult smokers when you consider how multifaceted it is.”

“I believe it gives adult smokers the option to make a minimal compromise. Keep your physical motions and routines mostly the same, but trade the nicotine for CBD… which has numerous inherent benefits in the context of making the switch.”

Healthier Habit Or Quitting Entirely?

The questions are — do smokers just change one habit for another, or do they ultimately stop smoking entirely? Is the idea behind TAAT to offer healthier alternatives or to help individuals quit smoking completely?

“This is an intriguing question for further scientific inquiry,” Saxon answers. ”Ultimately, it is a personal decision for adult smokers in terms of whether they wish to stop smoking altogether or if they wish to keep smoking but with a potentially less harmful alternative such as TAAT.”

Major Catalyst For TAAT

Currently, TAAT is sold across many gas stations and chain stores, including Buc-ee locations in Texas and a dozen 7-Eleven locations. The company is also looking to leverage that presence to expand.

“Perhaps the biggest value proposition of TAAT, which is invisible to the consumer, is the fact that retailers make significantly more margin selling TAAT compared to what they earn selling traditional tobacco cigarettes,” Saxon explained.

He added that retailers are earning pennies selling a pack of 20 tobacco cigarettes, because of the taxes and high wholesale prices.

The major catalyst for the company makes the option for retailers to profit significantly more from selling TAAT than from selling cigarettes, Saxon added. 

Photo: Courtesy of Mathew MacQuarrie on Unsplash