The Goerlitz tapes
Thursday, June 18, 2009 
Chris Snowdon, author of Velvet Glove, Iron Fist: A History of Antismoking, has conducted an interesting interview with former 'Winston Man' and long-standing anti-smoking spokesman David Goerlitz.
"There is no question that David remains passionately committed to tobacco prevention," writes Chris. "He has been honoured by, amongst others, the World Health Organisation, the American Lung Association and the American Cancer Society. He has met everybody who is anybody in the anti-smoking movement and, after two decades, knows the movement inside out.
"David was good enough to spend six hours talking to me while I was researching Velvet Glove, Iron Fist and he gave me a fascinating insider account of how tobacco control has operated in the past two decades ... he talks about how the tobacco control movement lost its way to become a "corrupt" and "greedy" institution dominated by extremists and 'wackos'."
According to Goerlitz, the antismoking movement has become "criminal and corrupt". Smokers, he says, have been made to "feel like lepers".
"I never intended to become an anti-smoking zealot; that has never been a part of who I am. I’m just livid at the fact that now I’m guilty by association because of the people in the anti-smoking movement who are so vindictive and hateful."
The Goerlitz tapes are available HERE.
If you haven't got time to listen to them I recommend that you read Chris's article on Spiked instead. Click HERE.
Reader Comments (11)
Well it's there from the horse's mouth now isn't it?
Why do our numpty politicians still only believe quotes from the anti-smoking lobbies instead of listening to the professionals whose businesses they are wrecking?
Not to mention the wrecked communities, social lives and families. Perhaps our politicians are in it for the money as well and are receiving back-handers from the anti-smoking movement - I don't know.
I know one thing though, they have well and truly been led up the garden path by this clever industry. One day some heads will start rolling as a result and it will serve them right.
All MPs or their researchers need to read this article.
This is very useful stuff. It pinpoints the time when there was a level playing field and the pharmo's were scratching for a living. I even remember noting that the pharmo's had started a commercial war against the tobacco giants. They stated that smoking was bad for health then set about to prove it with experiments on rats & mice in enclosed smoke filled cages. A grisly thought! Results were inconclusive and actually prolonged life for some rats. They abandoned the experiments but pronounced them successful anyway. Myth became fact and, trusting "scientists", the world gradually began to be indoctrinated into believing that smoking is bad for you. The Pharmo's too began to believe their own lies. They took the precaution; however, of switching their research into finding out just exactly where the health benefits lay in the tobacco leaf and why it produced such well being.
And so came the birth of the highly profitable prescription drugs, and nicotine was renamed by the pharmo's as Niacin, Nicotinic Acid and Vitamin B3.
The anti-smoking propaganda continued until we all believed that smoking is bad for you. People tried to stop or cut down and gradually smoking became less and less popular. Meanwhile the health benefits were lost and sale of nicotine based prescription drugs increased. Their harmful side effects were brushed under the carpet and research continued to try to perfect these drugs. They never have, of course. Nicotine, isolated from the tobacco leaf, is a deadly poison. Introduced directly into the system, it has devastating side effects. The natural act of smoking allows the blood stream to absorb sufficient of the benefits while blowing out the excess. It creates a protective mucous lining which also captures every-day germs breathed in. It produces the cough which expels them. It creates low blood pressure. It sharpens concentration. It produces a beneficial feeling of well being. The list of benefits is endless.
Like most people who contribute to this blog, I believed that smoking was harmful. I tried to stop, or at least cut down. It wasn't until the smoking ban started to become law that I became outraged and turned to the internet to find others like me prepared to fight the total ban and its infringement of liberty and destruction of our social networking system.
I found FOREST and began my own research through the links found within it. What a revelation! What an explanation of how Big Brother has obtained global control and builds up the wealth which increases it.
Domination by the EU, by our EU backed governmental system, by our tyrannical local councils and their licence to print money; all these can be traced back to vast pharmo wealth.
And still we await that first single death certificate which pronounces "Death from Smoking". It cannot be produced. No Coroner has the tool of conclusive evidence. The jury is still out - and always will be.
Smoking was beneficial, not harmful. Non-smoking is harmful to health. .
[With apologies to regular contributors – who’ve heard this all before – ad infinitum! If only our spokespeople could turn their opening statements to attack not defence. We do NOT admit that smoking is harmful but claim freedom of choice. The jury is still out and always will be, Nothing has ever, ever, been proved.]
You and I agree on most things, Margot, but I find it terribly hard to believe that not smoking is harmful to health. I've certainly come across people who, when they've given up smoking, seem to suffer poorer health but that might be due to the shock to the system of withdrawal. WRT the benefits of active smoking,to be fair to the anti-smoking lobby (now there's a phrase I never thought I'd utter) I don't think that they've ever said that nicotine is harmful, they say that it's what constitutes the tar in cigarettes that causes damage and it's the reason why they'll talk about 'therapeutic nicotine'.
I'll admit that I'm not up on the science behind active smoking and I'm prepared to believe that the risks might well be exaggerated but, as a smoker of many years, I know that my own health has suffered to some extent in that I now become breathless very quickly. Although I'm sure that this is partly due to my not being very fit nowadays, it would take a lot to convince me that smoking hasn't played some part and even more to convince me that my health would be worse if I stopped.
Joyce.
I'm working away this weekend but will try to get back to you on this one.
I agree that smoking gives shortness of breath, but maybe this is a good thing in our much polluted atmosphere. However, many top footballers seem to smoke - no shortness of breath there. The "tar" which is frowned upon is actually the mucous I mentioned which collects up the germs breathed in. It causes the cough to get rid of them. Other health benefits are the natural immunity and internal healing powers smoking brings - you'd need to read up on this. Certainly children from smoking homes are healthier than those without the benefit of SHS. Apparently drinking water has more chemical additives than cigarettes and many additives in cigarettes such as formaldehyde are naturally present in our bodies. As I am sure you know, "safe" cigs were produced with far less additives. They were packaged and ready to market when the US Government stepped in, banned them, and told manufacturers to destroy all stock. I wonder why???? Perhaps because Big Pharma wanted to continue to say that their use of nicotine was safer than in cigarettes? It's still only their word against ours, whichever way you look at it, and Big Pharma's use of nicotine can have devastating side effects.
It's a big subject. Do a bit more research yourself when you have time and pass it on.
Best regards, as always.
Hope that you're enjoying the work that you're doing this weekend, Margot!
Have studies been done that show that children from smoking households are healthier?! Who on earth has commissioned them? I just can't imagine how researchers could prove this, for the same reason that they can't prove that passive smoking is harmful: because they can't control all the other variables which influence general health. It could be, for instance, that parents who smoke are less risk-averse and this attitude has a positive effect on the children's well-being.
I believe that, even if it were generally accepted there were no risks involved in active smoking, the pharmas would peddle their NRT (probably on the grounds that it's a more 'acceptable' method of delivery). I also think that some doctors suspect that the risks of smoking are exaggerated but I'd hope that, if smoking had real, positive effects on health, the profession as a whole would encourage it.
My personal view is that smoking carries risks the level of which will vary between individuals due to a number of factors but that adults have the right to expect that they alone should choose whether to accept the risk. It's absolutely insulting that other people should think that they have the right to make that decision and to set about engineering it through scaremongering, demonisation and cynical taxation.
It's nice to see my tapes are causing a few of you to debate this issue. That's all I ever wanted. Fair, rational, reasonble and logcal debate. David Goerlitz, former Winston Man
This post is not letting me enter website.
It is www.formerwinstonman.org
"if smoking had real, positive effects on health, the [medical] profession as a whole would encourage it."
Joyce.
The medical profession, which includes the pharmaceutical manufacturing profession, is not really there to make us all healthy. If they achieved this they would be out of a job. They are happy to wave their magic prescription wand and give us the quick fix of antibiotics when needed, or set a bone or two. Major surgery is a way of obtaining fame and approbation for the well paid surgeons and, at its best, is to be commended. However, such "one-off" medical services are insufficient to finance what is now the wealthiest industry in the world.
In the smoking sixties people WERE healthy. There was less and less need for doctors and their medicines. Something had to be done! This is when the pharmo's came up with the idea of starting "research" into the possibility that smoking is harmful. They already knew all about the benefits of nicotine and were using it in many of their prescription drugs.
Yes, surveys HAVE been done which show that children, and people, who live in a smoking environment are less prone to diseases and ailments in general. There is true science, which is rarely allowed to speak, and bogus science, which is mainly based on invented statistics. No, I can't, at this moment, easily trot out all the links and references. I haven't time to re-do all I've done and read about in the past. Many other posters on these sites have done even more research. It's all there on this site and the F2C site for those willing to take the time to read back through the years. Many excellent books and papers have been produced by true science and these too are mentioned and can be accessed through these and other pro-smoker sites.
The benefits of smoking is a huge subject and it is not possible to encapsulate it all into a few easy sentences.
Anyone who believes that smoking is harmful can try an easy personal experiment. Simply stop smoking for a while and see how you personally get on. Yes, there will be an initial shock to the system when the benefits of smoking are suddenly withdrawn but with perseverance this can be got through. After all, many people are natural non-smokers.
Mind you, until now, they have had the benefit of living in smoky atmospheres. What the future will bring both for them and present day children is anybody's guess. Asthma, heart disease and cancer all seem to be on the increase.
It is far better for Doubting Thomases to try the personal experiment of giving up. They are not doing themselves or the cause any good by sitting on the fence worrying about it. After all, they might succeed! Think of the money they will save! If, eventually, they find that not smoking is having adverse effects on them, they can always go back to it.
Giving up smoking is now declared the leading cause of old age. Health systems are stressed with the cost of aged care. An economist has atated that the decline in smoker numbers is adding to the cost of aged care. Add to this the savage decline in government profit from tobacco tax.. Smokers died before they became a burden in healthcare. The AHS lobby will wish when they are old that there were enough smokers to pay for their aged care which is in a shocking state of lacking funds. Delia
wanted for treason blair prestcot brown straw flint reid hewitt collaborators and there enforcers the price is working stubbing out blairs legacy and labours war of mass destruction imposed on liberty respect tolerance equality identity compassion democracy integrity united kingdom who gave who the right to impose persecution bullying abuse and the deaths of innocent people under their controlled democracy are traitors have no elusions they are accountable for this so this is your better united kingdom as in war you pay the price for liberty its not what we want its what thay gave in memory of anthony mcdermott who was bullied and persecuted into suicide and hanged himself and all others so this is your new healthy united kingdom to all parties protect demands liberty and movments reinstated no liberty no peace lest they forgot no compromise this is an afront to our forfathers from protect
wanted for treason blair prestcot brown straw flint reid hewitt collaborators and there enforcers the price is working stubbing out blairs legacy and labours war of mass destruction imposed on liberty respect tolerance equality identity compassion democracy integrity united kingdom who gave who the right to impose persecution bullying abuse and the deaths of innocent people under their controlled democracy are traitors have no elusions they are accountable for this so this is your better united kingdom as in war you pay the price for liberty its not what we want its what thay gave in memory of anthony mcdermott who was bullied and persecuted into suicide and hanged himself and all others so this is your new healthy united kingdom to all parties protect demands liberty and movments reinstated no liberty no peace lest they forgot no compromise this is an afront to our forfathers from protect