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is may come as a surprise to you: It isn’t easy to quit smoking. Breaking the habit consistently ranks among the most difficult things to do, among the likes of climbing a sheer, 3,000-foot rock face in Yosemite or writing a halfway-decent novel. Some people may find quitting easier than others, but it still requires an unbelievable amount of resolve and willpower regardless of who you are.
For some things, it’s nice to have a little outside help and support.
Which is why it’s so important for organizations like Tobacco Free Florida to offer programs to help smokers quit.
The advocacy group overseen by the Florida Department of Health is sponsoring weekly Quit Smoking Now classes at Grace Marketplace, Gainesville’s main shelter for providing services to the homeless.
Classes started last week and are on Sundays. They are structured like a support group, although free nicotine replacement patches and similar products are available to participants. The program lasts six weeks.
The program is aimed at helping Alachua County’s most vulnerable residents quit and hopefully lead to a higher quality of life. A similar program is also available to UF students through GatorWell, partially sponsored by Tobacco Free Florida.
The classes are funded by money the state received from legal settlements with major tobacco companies in the ‘90s. Tobacco Free Florida provides programs and resources for Floridians who want to quit smoking, as well as for massive ad campaigns and education initiatives.
So far, the organization seems to have been effective, saving an estimated $4.2 billion on health care since it started in 2007.
Smoking is a personal decision, but once it becomes something of a dependency, it is one of the most terrible addictions you can have. Yes, it can — and probably will — wreck your health. But there are a lot of other factors that make the habit awful, including the high cost of cigarettes and the pervasive social stigma against people who smoke.
Worst of all, though, is that smokers cannot avoid any of these negative impacts. The very fact that they are addicted makes everything else a second-hand concern. Smokers normally can’t control their addiction.
It’s great that Tobacco Free Florida is starting this program for at-risk people in Alachua County. We understand that public sponsorship doesn’t always work out the best way, but helping citizens of our state break such a powerful addiction is an excellent way to go about it.
[A version of this story ran on page 6 on 1/15/2015 under the headline “Program helps kick the smoking habit"]
