Guest columnist

LET'S USE TOBACCO-ACCORD MONEY TO HELP SMOKERS QUIT

IF we were in a war that killed 1,200 Americans every day, it would
dominate the headlines. Politicians would make speeches praising our
soldiers. Civilians would gladly make sacrifices to help the war effort and
bring the killing to an end. But the 1,200 Americans who die every day from
smoking-related causes die quietly indoors. Their deaths lack the drama
required to make major news headlines. We don't hear about them as we would
if they were in a war.

That's sad, because most of these deaths could be prevented. Why aren't they?

Smokers have been widely misunderstood. Many people do not give them the
credit they deserve. Most smokers want to quit and have tried to quit. They
do not lack the will; they lack only the way.

We now know more about how to quit smoking than ever before, but we need to
get this information to smokers. That won't happen by itself. That's why we
should spend a large portion of the money from the tobacco settlement to
help smokers quit.

Smokers are not fools. They would like to live longer and enjoy greater
health and energy. They dislike being shunned. They want the extra money
they would get from quitting. Smoking controls them, and they resent that;
they want to be free. They want respect.

There are enormous immediate benefits of quitting smoking, and smokers want
them. According to the American Psychiatric Association, more than 80
percent of smokers say they want to quit. In any given year, 35 percent try
to quit smoking.

If you have ever been through nicotine withdrawal, you may know how heroic
the effort is. But fewer than 5 percent succeed on their own.

Some people smoke casually and quit easily. Then there are people like me.
After using alcohol, marijuana and cigarettes for 20 years, I quit alcohol
and marijuana in 1984. I wanted to quit my three-pack-a-day cigarette
addiction as well. But it took me 18 months, and smoking was much harder to
give up than my two other addictions.

Why are cigarettes so addictive? The active ingredient, nicotine, is a
powerful stimulant, like cocaine or amphetamines. Nicotine alters the
brain; eventually, your brain cannot function properly without it. Going
without a cigarette can feel like going without air.

But there is more to addiction than chemistry. Smokers have a high degree
of control over the amount of nicotine in their bloodstream. Nicotine gets
to the brain in about 7 seconds, just like crack cocaine.

It also breaks down quickly. Moderate and heavy smokers take hundreds of
doses (puffs) each day. Pack-a-day smokers take 200-300 doses of nicotine
throughout the day. And smoking pervades their lives.

Control, fast action, fast breakdown, number of daily doses and
pervasiveness all contribute mightily to the unique addictiveness of
smoking. To make quitting sound easier than it is simply sets smokers up
for failure and discouragement.

Society has made it harder to be a smoker, but it hasn't made it any easier
to quit. Smokers are in a double bind. They are pressured to quit and want
to quit, but they are deluged with positive images of smoking in ads and
movies, and they are deprived of accurate information on how to quit.

Cigarette companies advertise heavily, and research has shown that
magazines that carry cigarette advertising are less likely to run articles
about the dangers of smoking or how to quit. The research probably
understates the influence of cigarette companies, since they own major food
companies - Kraft and Nabisco - which also advertise heavily.

Fortunately, we now know more about how people quit smoking than ever
before, but we need to get the information to smokers. Researchers at the
University of Rhode Island conducted massive studies of how people quit
smoking.

Quitting suddenly on impulse rarely works. Instead, it involves a large
number of small steps, starting weeks before the smoker takes his or her
last puff, and continuing for months afterwards.

Smokers who become quitters spend time thinking about the benefits of
quitting and resolving their mixed feelings, studying their habit, planning
and preparing to quit, learning new skills for handling stress and solving
problems.

It's not a simple process, but those of us who have quit successfully will
tell you it's well worth it. Once the process is broken down into small
steps, each step is fairly easy.

Eighty percent of all smokers started before the age of 18 - before they
could make a genuine choice. Many of these smokers will pay with their
lives. The tobacco companies outspend all their opponents combined by 10 to
one, and tobacco money prevents opposing voices from being heard.

Smokers can and will quit if we get the truth out, but this won't happen by
itself. Let's stop the commercial war on smokers.

Washington will soon start getting money from the tobacco settlement.
Tobacco kills more residents of this state than anything else. Let's spend
the money where it will do the most good. Let's help smokers quit.

Checked-by: Richard Lake