<P> In the case of opioid withdrawal, going "cold turkey" is extremely unpleasant but less dangerous . Life - threatening issues are unlikely unless one has a pre-existing medical condition . </P> <P> Smoking cessation methods advanced by J. Wayne McFarland and Elman J. Folkenburg (an M.D. and a pastor who wrote their Five Day Plan ca . 1959), Joel Spitzer and John R. Polito (smoking cessation educators) and Allen Carr (who founded Easyway during the early 1980s) are cold turkey plans . </P> <P> An early printed use of the term from 1920: </P> <P> Some addicts voluntarily stop taking opiates and "suffer it out" as they express it without medical assistance, a process which in their slang is called taking "cold turkey"... </P>

Where does the phrase quit cold turkey come from