If you’ve been looking for an excuse to quit using tobacco products, Thursday is your day. It’s the Great American Smokeout.
This is the 49th year for the American Cancer Society event.
“The Great American Smokeout is not just an opportunity for people who use tobacco to set a plan to quit. It’s also a clear wake-up call for lawmakers to say it’s time for West Virginia to stand up to Big Tobacco,” said Doug Hogan, government relations director, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN). “For too long, West Virginia has allowed the tobacco industry to addict people to deadly, cancer-causing products. It’s time to say, enough is enough. West Virginians deserve better.”
In West Virginia, tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of disease and death, and smoking is linked to at least 12 types of cancers, including lung, liver and colorectal cancers. Each year, more than 4,000 people die from a smoking-related disease in West Virginia alone.
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that 1 in 5 of adults in West Virginia smoke.
“Nearly 70% of adults who smoke want to quit, but quitting is incredibly difficult,” Hogan said. “We know that well-funded tobacco prevention efforts and services that help people quit are so important to provide the support needed to help people quit, and to help prevent kids and young adults from starting to use tobacco. That is why ACS CAN is calling on state lawmakers to allocate $5 million during the next state budget and invest future JUUL settlement payments into tobacco prevention and cessation.”
The group also calls on West Virginia to increase the cigarette tax by $1.50 per pack, tax all other tobacco products at a parallel rate, and invest a portion of the tobacco tax revenue in programs to prevent kids from starting to use tobacco and help those already addicted to quit.
Free resources on quitting tobacco can be found through the American Cancer Society’s cessation program, Empowered to Quit or at the West Virginia Tobacco Quitline.