Researcher Dr Brent Caldwell used to call himself “the living dead” after he suffered a recurring brain tumour.
Caldwell has never been a regular smoker but knows the attraction of nicotine and is looking for 1,600 guinea pigs to trial his mouth spray that provides a direct nicotine hit without nasty chemicals.  
His research focuses on breaking peoples’ dependence to the ‘smoking sensation’.
The first time he properly inhaled a cigarette was while travelling in Eastern Europe where the air pollution gave him an excuse.
“It was back when everyone was smoking indoors; it was minus 27 degrees outside.  I got a real head rush from smoking and you can see why people smoke. I don’t think I could give up coffee that easily, but at least it’s not killing me.”
Due to his ordeal with brain cancer Caldwell knows the horrors smoking can cause, and is now a pioneer in the field of nicotine replacement therapy.
At present only 10% of people who use current nicotine replacement therapy actually stop smoking long-term and around 5,000 people die every year in New Zealand from smoking related disease, he says.
“Many of my friends are artists who smoke and it’s very difficult for them to quit in that [social] environment. You have to not [smoke] when you have the urge, if you happen upon [a smoking situation] by chance it’s not so bad, but you need to break the urge.”
Patches and gum release nicotine into the body slowly and don’t give an instant sense of relief.
 “Look at road workers and builders that walk around with a rolled up ciggy in their mouth, it’s so ingrained, that unless they have a rewarding way to get a hit, they won’t stop. They need a fast acting therapy to suppress the craving.”
Caldwell says a holistic approach of incorporating his mouth spray with patches and counselling, works to break addiction.
“We offer a more realistic way to get off smoking, and a safer delivery system to give you that hit. Its possible people might use the spray long-term, but that would be so much better for their health than smoking,” says Caldwell.
The trial will be run from the University of Otago campus in Wellington, where a smaller trial has already shown smokers prefer the spray and mouth sachets over government subsidised nicotine gum. Caldwell hopes that if the trial is a success the spray will become as readily available as the gum.
He says although from the 1960s to the 1990s the rate of smoking declined from around 30% to 20%, it has been stuck at 20% for nearly 20 years now and something needs to be done to get that number down.
The research team is keen to hear from volunteers in the Wellington are interested in quitting smoking. Phone 0800 318 167 or visit www.otago.ac.nz/zonnic