 All patients will receive two 15 minute face to face standard counseling sessions by the research coordinator. First counseling will be done in preadmission. Counseling will include provision of advice to quit smoking and obtaining information regarding smoking behavior and skill building supplemented with standard printed materials. The patients will be informed of benefits of even short term abstinence before surgery. The target quit date TQD for all patients will be set up as 24 hours before surgery as surgical patients are routinely required to be abstinent at the time of surgery. The patients will be instructed to initiate the medication or placebo exactly one week before TQD. The whole treatment period is 12 weeks which includes 1- week titration as follows: 