Nicotine Free in the New Year? It can happen for you

Each New Year, thousands of people across Montana resolve to improve their lives, vowing to give up their bad habits in exchange for healthy lifestyles. The Quit Now Montana (formerly Montana Quit Line) wants to help people who attempt to quit tobacco and has free programs designed for all Montanans. The Quit Line has expanded services to many groups and aims to help those with New Year’s resolutions to quit using tobacco products, e-cigarettes, or other nicotine delivery devices by offering free support, a personalized quit plan, and cessation medications at no or reduced cost.

According to The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, tobacco use takes a heavy toll. Smoking is the leading cause of preventable disease and death, claiming the lives of more than 480,000 adults in the United States each year, along with an estimated 34,000 deaths from secondhand smoke exposure. Currently, 16 million people are suffering from smoking-caused illnesses.

  Closer to home, smoking has a significant impact on our state. 1,600 Montanans die each year from their own smoking. 19,000 Montana kids alive today will ultimately die prematurely from smoking. Annual health care costs in Montana directly caused by smoking total $440 million, with Medicaid costs caused by smoking totaling $81 million. These do not include health costs caused by exposure to secondhand smoke, smoking-caused fires, smokeless tobacco use, or cigar and pipe smoking.

In addition to lung cancer, smoking can lead to a variety of respiratory complications and chronic diseases including asthma, chronic bronchitis, emphysema, coronary heart disease, stroke, pneumonia, and cancers of the mouth and throat.

The growing epidemic: Vaping

E-cigarette use, or vaping, is now the MOST commonly used tobacco product among Montana’s teens. According to the Montana Office of Public Instruction, more than HALF of Montana high school students have tried e-cigarettes and one in four Montana high school students currently use e-cigarettes.

E-cigarette aerosol is not “harmless water vapor”. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that the e-cigarette aerosol that users breathe from the device and exhale can contain harmful and potentially harmful substances, including:

• Nicotine. In any form, nicotine is unsafe for youth as it can interfere with brain development.

• Ultrafine particles that can be inhaled deep into the lungs.

• Cancer-causing chemicals.

• Heavy metals such as nickel, tin, and lead.

Free help is available at Quit Now Montana

Kicking the habit isn’t easy, but there are resources to help such as the Quit Now Montana. Through this free service, you will be guided into a program that will best fit your individual needs. Quit Now Montana offers specialized counseling for a broad spectrum of tobacco and e-cigarette users, including pregnant and post-partum smokers, teens, spit tobacco users, and for American Indians.

Full details are available by visiting https://quitnowmontana.com/ .

  Quit Now Montana services include:

• FREE pro-active cessation coaching sessions.

• FREE nicotine replacement therapy (gum, patches or lozenges) available ages 18 and up.

• Reduced cost cessation medication.

• A pregnancy and postpartum program offering special services to women who enroll while they are pregnant, and cash incentives for coaching calls (up to $220 total). Call 1-800-Quit Now.

• In addition to the Tobacco Quit Line services, the American Indian Commercial Tobacco Quit Line offers free culturally sensitive coaching with American Indian coaches. The direct line number is 855-5AI-QUIT (885-524-7848).

Youth Quit Program: My Life, My Quit

A program to directly help youth under the age of 18, My Life, My Quit offers:

• 5 FREE coaching sessions either by text, chat, or phone to help youth under 18 quit all forms of tobacco including vaping.

• Dedicated toll-free number (1-855-891-9989), or text “START” to 36072.

• Online enrollment at http://www.mylifemyquit.com

• RESPECTS privacy through confidential enrollment and coaching.

Make a New Year’s Resolution for yourself, your family and your loved ones, make the call or go online today.

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Havre’s HELP Committee and Boys & Girls Club of the Hi-Line are committed to promoting safe and healthy lifestyles to become long-lived, responsible citizens. For more information on this or related topics, contact the HELP Committee at 406-265-6206.