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Tobacco free is what we want to be
Published Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Jim Craig, a program director at the Mississippi State Department of Health, started using smokeless tobacco at age 18. Before he knew it, he was hooked. He tried to kick the habit hundreds of times but always fell short. Heart trouble at age 26 motivated him to put tobacco down for what he hoped was the last time, but five years later he was using again. Now at age 49, he has quit for good.
“After I started back at age 31, I tried to quit hundreds of times but for some reason I could not quit for more than a couple of weeks,” Craig said. “My wife works as the human resources director at a hospital in Brookhaven, which was going to become a tobacco-free campus. The hospital provided free prescriptions for Chantix (a medication used to treat tobacco addiction) to employees and their family members who wanted to quit using tobacco, and after hearing of the program, my children asked that I quit.”
The prescription, plus the support of his friends and family, turned out to be exactly what Craig needed to put smokeless tobacco down once and for all. He said that he feels better and is saving money too.
“Today is day 347 since I quit and I have saved over $1,358 by not buying smokeless tobacco,” he said. “I feel great.”
You may think that smokeless tobacco is less dangerous than cigarettes, but a 2007 study from the University of Minnesota Cancer Center found that smokeless tobacco users had an equal or greater amount of cancer-causing chemicals in their urine samples than cigarette smokers.
Numerous health studies show that smokeless tobacco use can cause cancer of the throat, cheek, gums, lip, jaw and pancreas. It can also lead to pre-cancerous mouth sores called leukoplakia, bone erosion around the roots of the teeth, receding gums, tooth loss and an increased risk of heart attack and stroke.
There is no safe form of tobacco use.
Quitting can be made easier by calling the MSDH Tobacco Quitline at 1-800-784-8669 (1-800-QUIT-NOW). The program is free. Available from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m., callers to the Quitline can speak with health care experts about tobacco’s impact on health, receive advice on successful cessation and, like Jim Craig, get free access to medications that can make quitting easier.
Eliminating tobacco use in Mississippi is a big goal that will require concerted effort from all quarters: health agencies like the MSDH, the Mississippi Tobacco Free Coalition of Adams and Jefferson counties, educators, business owners and private citizens.
To learn how you can join the fight against tobacco, call the Mississippi Tobacco Free Coalition of Adams and Jefferson counties at 601-818-7748.
Paige Dickey is the project director of the Coalition of Adams and Jefferson counties.
Comments
Posted by Username (anonymous) on June 17, 2009 at 6:39 a.m. (Suggest removal)
It looks like this has quickly become the American way,trade one drug addiction for another"safer"drug addiction.
I'm personally glad that you have not used the drug(tobacco)in almost a year but I also would rather take a drug that could rot half my jaw off than a drug that could cause depression and suicidal tendencies like Chantix...Oh wait.. what am I thinking? Pfizer also makes drugs to combat the adverse side effects of depression and suicidal tendencies.Tobacco for many years in the past was not bad for you and one day they'll be saying that petrochemicals are worse that the negative effects of tobacco.
Just remember your NOT drug free if you are having to take more drugs.
Posted by beammeupscotty (anonymous) on June 17, 2009 at 7:05 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I don't remember smoking cigaretts as being one of the seven sins. Gluttony was so why aren't all you do gooders out there fighting obeseity? I enjoy smoking, I smoke about a pack every 3 days or so. I don't take any pills for depression or any pills for high blood pressure, in fact I take no medeciation at all. The only thing I am suffering from in my old age is a decline in my personal freedoms. Got a pill for that?
Posted by Username (anonymous) on June 17, 2009 at 7:42 a.m. (Suggest removal)
beammeupscotty I don't think big-pharma has even considered designing a drug that would restore the liberty that all humans are born with.
The answer to 1984 is 1776.
Posted by SniperX (anonymous) on June 17, 2009 at 8:46 a.m. (Suggest removal)
The answer to 2009 is 1776. 1984 was a great year!!!
Posted by Username (anonymous) on June 17, 2009 at 9:55 a.m. (Suggest removal)
SniperX "Nineteen Eighty-Four" is a book that was published in 1949 by the author George Orwell,you should read it and then you might understand my reference. You can buy it for less than 10 bucks at your local bookstore or you might be able to find it at the library.
Posted by Oracle (anonymous) on June 17, 2009 at 11:59 a.m. (Suggest removal)
When will you world savers get off of anti smoking and leave people alone?
Who's gonna pay for your car tag when smoking is banned?
You want to take on a "REAL HEALTH ISSUE" much larger than smoking?
If health is really your primary concern get your crusaders onto "OBESITY". Go picket the fast fooders, raise their taxes.
Gimme a break.
Posted by OldGrandDad (anonymous) on June 17, 2009 at 12:08 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Nice article, Paige.
Here's what Steve Martin said about smoking......
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFSymUhbV...
Posted by Yeahuhuh (anonymous) on June 17, 2009 at 4:39 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Former smoker here, and liberty freak. Everybody do what they can to stop smoking. Like alcohol, it is a bludgeon of a drug.
I say let everybody do what they want to without sending them to jail, but do not subsidize their bad habits. Hard to do that and be compassionate about the ills people cause themselves.
In 1776 if someone failed to keep themselves from being enslaved we said oh what the heck and let them be owned and worked. Another oh heck came when it was time to consider whether women had the brains to vote. I don't think we can rely on going back as a panacea -- there was a significant amount of failure to appreciate the complexity of life back then.
I'm here to say that the old solutions always seemed to carry with them awful consequences -- and too often idealists sanitize the memory. The burst of economy we got from the initial colonial freedom came at the price of environment and the natives and depended on large amounts of land and resources being there to be exploited.
Weaning us off tobacco, improving health and health care, carbon credits, and a thoughtful plan to protect personal liberties is the order of the day. Like it or not.
Posted by crackbaby (anonymous) on June 17, 2009 at 11:09 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Yep, sad to say, ole crackbaby smokes! Of course I say it doesn't effect my health, when I know its harming me with every puff. With that being said, I have worked for a living everyday of my adult life. I have paid State and Federal Taxes on every dollar I have earned. I have paid for my health insurance and life insurance with my own money. With the fact of myself being a smoker effecting my rates. If as my friend Yeahuhuh states,"a thoughtful plan to protect personal liberties is the order of the day". Why should the government be committed to weaning me off tobacco? If a state has a problem with smoking related illnesses being a burden on the Medicaid funds. The states problem is with the Medicaid recipients smoking, not ME!
The subject of personal liberties will always bring a response from me. Over the years I have watched States pass laws denying personal liberties, concerning issues in which the State had no "GENUINE INTEREST" what so ever, except to please a voting block or succumb to politically correct pressure!
I have watched groups of people whom demand their personal liberties be protected to the point of redefining sacred institutions within our society; lobby and demand laws be passed which clearly denied personal liberties of people.
I better stop! Darn my friend Yeahuhuh. Now you got me wantin a cigarette!!!! ha ha, los a luv
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