• 800 QUIT NOW Free Services for District Residents
• Five counseling sessions from certified tobacco treatment specialists
• Free NicodermCQ patches and Commit lozenges - eight week course of treatment
• Fax to Quit program for healthcare providers and community organizations to initiate proactive
• Call-backs from quilting counselors to qualified District smokers
• Local number for Spanish-speaking callers that connects directly to quilting
• Carbon monoxide (CO) testing conducted pre and post-cessation

According to the Mayo Clinic, residual nicotine and other chemicals left on a variety of indoor surfaces by tobacco smoke. This means that even non smokers can be affected by not only second hand smoke but also tobacco smoke that is left in furniture, carpet, clothing, cars or other common areas that tobacco is used. Third hand is of particular harm to infants and animals. The only way for a non smoker to be safe is to ensure that their property is non smoking just like restaurants and bars! For more information on third hand smoke, please visit the Mayo Clinic's website.

References:

¹ Feighery E, Ribisi K, Achabal D and Tyebjee T. Retail Trade Incentives: How Tobacco Industry Practices Compare with those of Other Industries. American Journal of Public Health. 89(10): 1564-1566.

"You may have seen the study published recently about the effectiveness or lack there of of Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT). If not, follow the link and read the article. Our friends at American Lung Association have responded to the study with the following:

The American Lung Association finds this to be an interesting study but urges the media and the public to view the role of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) within the larger context of tobacco addiction and cessation. While this study examined the effect of NRT on relapse, the Lung Association believes NRT's main role to be at the beginning of a quit attempt, helping the smoker wean him- or herself away from the nicotine in tobacco.

The American Lung Association does agree strongly with the authors of this study that the best way to reduce tobacco use in the U.S. is to implement evidence-based practices, which include states investing in tobacco prevention programs, increasing tobacco taxes and implementing smokefree laws. These practices, which have been outlined in the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions' Best Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Control Programs, have been proven to reduce the number of youth who begin smoking and to increase the number of current smokers who successfully quit in state after state where they've been implemented.

There are physical, mental and social aspects to nicotine addiction, and nicotine replacement therapy is only meant to address the physical addiction. Behavioral counseling and social support help to address the mental and social components of tobacco dependence and it is these two factors that are likely to be more important in relapse prevention over time (the main issue examined by this study). A comprehensive approach to smoking cessation that addresses all three components of a smoker's addiction is key to avoiding relapse and achieving long-term success.

"Given the billions of dollars and the decades spent by the tobacco industry to make the most addictive cigarette possible, it is no surprise that we have yet to find a simple solution for quitting smoking," said Norman H. Edelman, M.D., chief medical officer of the American Lung Association. "There's no single technique that's likely to help every smoker quit. That's why the American Lung Association advocates for an overall public health approach to quitting smoking—which includes access to all seven FDA-approved medications and all three forms of counseling with as few barriers to access as possible. Well-established public health measures including high cigarette taxes and comprehensive smokefree air laws provide the context to maximize the effectiveness of these cessation techniques."

In their study, Alpert et al. argue that public dollars should be used to fund comprehensive tobacco control programs – including cessation services – but that providing free medications to smokers should not come at the expense of these public health programs. In that regard, we agree: states must offer cessation services in a comprehensive way and create an environment with higher taxes, prevention efforts and smokefree laws – an environment that truly supports quitting smoking.

Selling deadly products in a place of health results in a variety of unfortunate mixed messages.

For generations, the neighborhood drugstore has been a place to turn to for a wide variety of life's necessities- Medicine, health advice, etc. America's pharmacists and drugstores have served as both our corner store and as America's medicine cabinet.

But in our pharmacies, each of which is a licensed health care facility, licensed by the state to dispense medication to people in need, something else is for sale. Something that despite dire warning labels is sold in the same stores as asthma inhalers and cough syrup. This substance is tobacco.

It doesn't have to be this way. Ordinances recently passed in San Francisco, Boston and other cities have eliminated the sale of tobacco products in pharmacies, paving the way for future ordinances limiting the sale of tobacco in neighborhood places we turn to for health and medical advice.

This information was made available by our friends at the California LGBT Tobacco Education Partnership.

For more information on tobacco free pharmacies, please visit www.lgbtpartnership.org

SmokeLess LGBT DC is designed to inform the LGBT community and allies about tobacco's negative health impact on the LGBT community, the targeting of the LGBT community by the tobacco industry, the particular danger to LGBT youth, and the use of tobacco profits to fund public policies detrimental to the LGBT community.

Sign up to become a member of SmokeLess LGBT and help in the fight against tobacco in DC! Email Riana at rbuford@mautnerproject.org for more information and to sign up. Also visit the website at https://www.mautnerproject.org.

References:

¹The Wall Street Journal (1992). "Philip Morris to Push Brand on Gay Media." Retrieved April 7, 2025 from http://www.lgbttobacco.org/files/PhilipMorrisPushBrandOnGayMedia.pdf