Tobacco Talk: Helping Veterans Kick the Habit

By Joan Rubel
Berkshire AHEC
04:02PM / Wednesday, June 10, 2009

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Free Nicotine Patches for Veterans
 
Richard T. McCarthy, veterans' service officer for the city of North Adams, is all too familiar with the reasons why so many veterans smoke.

A Vietnam-era vet, McCarthy served in the Army Airborne. He told me that, for every hour of training, they'd get a 10-minute break and the order, "Take 10 and light 'em if ya got 'em."  

In those days, cigarettes were subsidized by the military. They came in C-rations pack, and free cartons were passed around. Sure enough, many vets first started smoking when they joined the service. Maybe this is one of the reasons veterans still smoke at a higher rate than the general population.

In Massachusetts, veterans smoke at a 33 percent higher rate than other adults the same age. And they pay the price by suffering from more cancer, heart disease, respiratory diseases and other illnesses caused by smoking.

Now through June 30, Massachusetts veterans, members of the National Guard and their families who call the state's Quitline at 1-800-Try-to-STOP are eligible for a free four-week supply of nicotine patches and telephone support to help them quit smoking. 

Retail value of the nicotine patches is approximately $100. The offer is being made by the state Departments of Public Health and of Veterans Services.  

Those who get support and use medicines like the nicotine patch are more than twice as likely to be able to quit for good as those who try to quit on their own.  

If you're a smoker who's tried to quit before, now is the time to try again. It takes most smokers a few tries to quit for good. 

McCarthy smoked for 30-plus years and tried to quit six or seven times. What finally worked for him was setting a goal for himself. He wanted a boat and, being a disciplined guy, he regularly set aside the money that he would have spent on cigarettes for the boat fund. That goal motivated him through the difficult process of quitting. Now he is an ex-smoker who owns a boat.   

Each person's motivation for quitting will be different. Another Vietnam-era vet, Warren Quinlan of Cambridge, said, "I was willing to risk my life for my country. I don't want to have survived a war only to die from smoking."

The nicotine patch giveaway program runs through June 30. Any veteran who is a current Massachusetts resident is eligible, regardless of where he or she lived during years in the service. 

So, if you know a veteran who smokes, tell him or her about the giveaway, while there's still time. And, if you or someone you know takes advantage of the free patch giveaway, tell us about it. Post your comments here and tell us how you quit or helped another smoker quit.  

Though smoking rates have fallen in recent years, smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death and disease in Massachusetts. More than 8,000 Bay State residents die each year from tobacco-related causes.

More information is available at www.makesmokinghistory.org or by contacting me, Joan Rubel, at Berkshire Area Health Education Center.

Joan Rubel is coordinator of Berkshire AHEC's Community Smoking Intervention Project. For more information, visit www.berkshireahec.org or contact her at jrubel@berkshireahec.org. Tobacco Talk runs monthly.