Published: November 18, 2009 09:17 pm         

MARK BENNETT: Perhaps today is the day folks will put their smokes away

TERRE HAUTE — Two images pop into my mind when smoking gets mentioned.

One makes me grin slightly and shake my head. The other still tugs at me years later, and makes me remember a two-word promise.

My college rock band went through drummers like the Chicago Bears go through quarterbacks. The shortest stint belonged to a talented guy named Al who rolled into Terre Haute on a freight train boxcar. He drummed with other early ’80s bands — his sole source of income — and briefly sat in with us. Short on cash, yet resourceful, he’d walk in to our practices with a handful of squashed cigarette butts and a pack of rolling papers. Al squeezed out the remaining tobacco into a tray, rolled it up and lit up.

That’s rock ’n’ roll, as they say.

The other image is of a beloved family member. He grew up a couple generations before me, when smoking was actually considered healthy. Decades later, that hard-to-break habit had severely weakened his big, kind heart. In our last conversation, in a hospital intensive-care unit, he gathered his breath, lifted an oxygen mask, and told me to take care of my wife and our kids. “I promise,” I said.

As a nonsmoker, it’s hard to comprehend the difficulty in quitting. But perhaps today a few folks — who know that struggle all too well — will find a way to put their smokes away for a while, or maybe for good. Help is available.

Today marks the American Cancer Society’s 34th annual Great American Smokeout. The event encourages smokers to formulate an exit strategy for their habit. Toll-free telephone “quitlines” connect them with coaches, who’ll customize a program just for them, and give them access to free, two-week nicotine replacement therapy. (That means gum or patches.) The Society hopes they embrace a “tobacco-free life.” But if their hiatus only lasts 24 hours, they still might also learn a valuable lesson about themselves.

“Even if they stop for just one day, the point is, we want people to see they can live without it,” said Carrie Evans, whose job is to help smokers become nonsmokers, like herself.

It’s a tall task for Evans, program director for tobacco prevention and cessation at CHANCES For Indiana Youth in Terre Haute. Indiana has America’s second-highest smoking rate, with 26.1 percent of Hoosier adults lighting up regularly, well above the 20.6 national rate. Indiana has ranked in the top 10 for years. But statistics released last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed we’ve jumped to second from sixth. Only West Virginia, at 26.6 percent, puffs more prolifically.

Why? Lots of reasons. Knowledge is one thing. The pool of funds used to conduct cessation programs and education has taken a hit. The state gets $35 million annually through the 1998 national tobacco settlement, but, thanks to the recession, Indiana is using a larger portion of that money (which doesn’t come from taxes) to pay for other things. Also, state cigarette taxes — which deter some people — aren’t as high as many other states. And, while several communities, such as Vigo County, have local indoor smoking ordinances, the Indiana Legislature has failed to pass a statewide law. Nonsmokers encounter secondhand smoke more often than necessary.

Debbie Stevens, who helps adults and pregnant women to quit smoking, thinks environment plays a role. The 56-year-old grew up in Paris, Ill. Her parents smoked and, as a result, “they both died younger than they should’ve,” she said. Stevens started smoking, too, in college, and continued for 10 years.

Then she moved to Los Angeles, where healthier, smokefree living was more common and the pressure to stop was greater. “I experienced a cultural change,” Stevens said. “I saw how the legislation helped people quit.” She did, too.

The contrast showed up again in 1992, when Stevens moved back to the Wabash Valley, where she now serves as an addiction therapist at the Union Hospital Maternal Health Clinic. “I really did notice how much things had not changed here,” she said.

Despite that, Hoosier smokers who want to quit, can. The telephone quitlines offer free help. The American Cancer Society has resources smokers can pick up at its local office, as well as help by phone and online, said Dawn Clinkenbeard, community program manager. For those willing to invest in better health, Stevens offers a six-week acupuncture program for $250 per person. The success rate is good, Stevens said, because “people that come to me individually and pay, they’re motivated.”

Motivation is crucial. Even with prices above $4 a pack, people find ways to fit cigarettes into their budgets. “When you have an addiction, you get very resourceful, and you figure out how to do it,” Stevens said.

Today might give a few folks a chance to save some money, save some future health-care expenses, and maybe save their life.



Mark Bennett can be reached at (812) 231-4377 or mark.bennett@tribstar.com.

Sources: American Cancer Society, Indiana Tobacco Prevention and Cessation

     

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