smoking in the news; Report urges state spend more on smoking cessation

from the News-Gazette

Report urges state spend more on smoking cessation

CHAMPAIGN – State employees in Illinois have comprehensive insurance coverage for smoking cessation, but the state is spending just a fraction of what federal health authorities recommend on a quit-smoking resource available to everyone.

An American Lung Association report released Tuesday morning commended Illinois for being one of five states leading the way in providing comprehensive coverage for smoking cessation for state employees and their dependents.

But the organization also found Illinois and 14 other states invested less than $1 per smoker in the 2010 fiscal year on their tobacco quitlines that offer callers help trying to quit smoking.

A whole 32 cents per smoker (supposedly) was spent in Illinois to help people quit.

The CDC's recommended funding level is what it would take for each state quitline to be available to all smokers who want phone counseling, reach 8 percent of tobacco users in the state each year, deliver services to 6 percent of tobacco users in the state every year and offer two weeks of nicotine replacement therapy to all tobacco users and four weeks worth to callers who are uninsured or under-insured.

...

Surveys show more than 70 percent of tobacco users want to quit.

Nah, or they'd quit.

Not all treatments work for everyone, so a range of treatments – seven different medications and three types of counseling (phone, group and individual) must be available to smokers under a comprehensive smoking cessation program, according to the report.

Actually, one size does fit all. If you want to stop, just don't do it anymore.

Medications and counseling are for people who think they want to quit, but really don't.

The good news, according to the lung association, is there are proven treatments available to help smokers quit and there are many ways to get these treatments to smokers.

"The bad news," the report states, "is that these treatments just are not getting to enough smokers."

If you want to quit, figure out why you want to quit. If you want to smoke, than there is no reason that will be out there to make you quit. If the state really wants to do away with smoking, they can make it illegal. It's easy, just do it. Otherwise, it's just bullshit.