Los Angeles Inventor Launches Crowdfunding Campaign For Quit Smoking Laser

Imagine being able to give up nicotine with virtually no withdrawal symptoms. Entrepreneur Craig Nabat, president of Freedom Laser, experienced just that. His personal experience with quit smoking laser therapy inspired him to establish Freedom Laser in 2003. Nabat’s Los Angeles-based low-level laser therapy clinic has provided addiction relief to over 10,000 smokers and vapers.

This article was written by Susan Belknapp and originally published by The California Business Journal.

Nabat was personally able to end his pack-and-a-half-a-day habit by undergoing a 30-minute quit smoking laser therapy in a clinic in Canada. After his success at quitting 21 years ago, he was inspired to move from Detroit to Los Angeles to establish his quit smoking laser therapy clinic, which is now located off Sunset Blvd in West Hollywood.

For the past two decades, Freedom Laser’s Los Angeles clinic has provided a procedure that uses a low-level laser to stimulate the client’s hands, wrists, face, and ears to alleviate common nicotine withdrawal symptoms like anxiety, irritability, and cravings. The laser therapy technology is based on traditional acupuncture principles to stimulate the body’s natural healing abilities.

Now, Nabat wants to bring the low-level laser therapy procedure to the masses with his patented invention, the home use Freedom Quit Smoking Laser, a wearable headset equipped with eight low-level lasers that target specific acupuncture points in the ears.

The laser therapy device offers a nicotine-free method to quit smoking or vaping. Targeted auricular stimulation with lasers is designed to release endorphins, which are intended to alleviate nicotine withdrawal symptoms. Users are instructed to wear the headset for two 15-minute sessions daily for 30 days, and the laser device is designed with tranquil music for enhanced relaxation.

Freedom Laser’s new crowdfunding campaign will enable the company to fund an FDA clinical research trial and laser device inventory. The goal is to be awarded FDA approval as the nation’s first home use laser therapy device to treat nicotine addiction. A Reg CF crowdfunding campaign is live, and a Reg D will be established in June 2024 to bring on accredited investors.

Freedom Laser will sell the home use laser device through an e-commerce website allowing individuals nationwide who are seeking a means to overcome their smoking or vaping addiction access to this laser therapy procedure in the privacy of their own homes. In addition, the Freedom Quit Smoking Laser will be available wholesale to over 16,000 addiction treatment centers in the United States, and international distribution will follow shortly after that.

The alarming statistics concerning nicotine usage and the challenges associated with giving smoking up permanently are staggering. As many as 70% of smokers express their desire to quit smoking but struggle due to their powerful nicotine dependency. According to the American Lung Association, on average, a smoker makes 8 serious attempts before successfully quitting.

FDA-approved methods designed to assist individuals to quit smoking like nicotine patches, nicotine gum, and prescription pills can have limited effectiveness, leaving many individuals still trapped in a cycle of addiction. Moreover, the surge of e-cigarettes and vaping may perpetuate an even stronger nicotine dependency, whereby current and former smokers swap one delivery device for another.

Additionally, despite being illegal, teens are choosing vaping over cigarettes as their preferred nicotine delivery device method because of the variety of flavors and less risk of detection, which can set them on a lifelong path of nicotine addiction. Be on the lookout for the newest nicotine delivery device products on the market, oral nicotine pouches, which are being marketed under the brand names Zyn, On! and Velo. These tobacco-free oral nicotine pouches come in mint, citrus, or cinnamon flavors and are tucked between the upper gums and teeth, providing a direct delivery system for nicotine. The oral nicotine pouches have become increasingly popular throughout the United States in 2024, and without question, curious-minded teens will seek out this product.

Nabat speaks of his experience with smoking and how he became addicted. “I despised smoking when I was a kid,” he says. “My mother was a chain smoker and it bothered me so much. I was younger and smaller than most kids my age playing T-ball at 9 years old. My mother challenged me to hit a home run that season, and if I did, she promised to quit smoking. My entire team knew about the home run challenge that my mother proposed.”

“It was the last game of the season; I had two strikes, two balls and I hit a home run. Along with my tiny team members we ran over and demanded my mom rip up her cigarettes. A month later, she picked me up at camp, reeked of smoke, and flat-out denied to my face, she was not smoking. I learned right then and there how people truly struggle with nicotine addiction and will outright lie to their loved ones when they feel powerless over it. This has stayed with me until this day, and I have nothing but compassion for anyone who needs help quitting.”

“I continued to loathe smoking growing up and never thought getting hooked would happen to me. My first week away at college at Arizona State University, a childhood friend left behind a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. For some reason, I picked them up, jumped on my motor scooter, and drove out to the mountains for the first time. Lit up a cigarette once arriving there and was totally hooked within two weeks. Cigarettes are designed to make you addicted no matter what your belief system is. Use them long enough and hard enough, you’ll become addicted to them.”

The greatest appeal for Nabat – other than the fact that he’s seen low-level laser therapy work for not only him but tens of thousands of his clinic’s clients  – is that it doesn’t rely on using nicotine to get off nicotine. With the patch, gum, and vaping you’re just changing the nicotine delivery device method, and with prescription pills, there are many known side effects.

“When a person takes a puff off a cigarette or vapes, endorphins are released to the brain within seven seconds – that’s what keeps people coming back,” says Nabat. “The pain free low-level laser therapy mimics the feeling smokers receive from nicotine, helping them through the initial withdrawal process and alleviating the physical symptoms. Nicotine leaves your bloodstream after 72 hours. In another seven days, 4,000 toxic chemicals are out of the body. After 10 days – if you don’t put nicotine back in your bloodstream – you’re not physically addicted.”

The problem, Nabat says, is that once a person is addicted to any substance, it changes the pathways in the brain so the addict will almost always go back to their previous level of usage or more if they start again. This is why it’s so dangerous when people get off hard drugs. If they relapse and go back to the prior usage levels, their bodies can’t handle it, and a tragedy can occur.

In preparation for the FDA trial, Freedom Laser has already conducted a clinical study – an animal study on mice – at the University of Buffalo where they measured the brain waves of mice that received laser therapy ear stimulation. When the ears were stimulated with laser the blood flow throughout the mice’s body instantly increased.

“The animal study reinforced our hypothesis there is a release of endorphins with laser stimulation,” says Nabat. “The animal study gave us enough data to move forward to conduct an IRB-approved pilot study with 28 human subjects who wore the home use quit smoking laser device once a day for 25 days. People were reducing the number of cigarettes consumed daily, and all the study participants requested to use the laser device more often.

For Freedom Laser’s FDA trial, subjects will wear the device 2 times per day for 15- minutes per session, “and our engineers have also increased the power output of the lasers to induce a more positive effect,” says Craig Nabat, President of Freedom Laser.

“This invention is my life’s work; our team has the knowledge and expertise to make this a reality. We envision a world where overcoming nicotine addiction is within reach for everyone who strives to quit. Our goal is to revolutionize quitting smoking and vaping by providing individuals with a safe, drug free, and effective alternative instead of pharmaceutical-based FDA approved smoking cessation methods.”

Nabat sees the process moving very quickly once the FDA clinical trial is funded with the crowdfunding campaign, and the company has its sights set on also getting approval to treat opioid addiction.

Nabat is also starting a new initiative to clean up the trash throughout Los Angeles. He urges fellow Angeleno business owners to inspire change by encouraging employees to spend 30 minutes each month during work hours picking up and disposing of trash around their office buildings.