Ohio Smoking Cessation Resources are Drying Up

Smoking cessation resources have been diminishing over the past few years in Ohio, according to The Columbus Dispatch. The state’s Quit Line has been scaled back, and now serves pregnant women and low-income people; its future is in limbo. Free or low-cost smoking cessation groups are increasingly difficult to find.

Jennifer Singleterry, Manager of Cessation Policy for the American Lung Association, said Ohio is not the only state having trouble keeping its Quit Line alive. “Science has shown that people need help to quit. We want people to have access to help,” she said.

In 2008, the state’s Tobacco Prevention Foundation, which funded smoking-cessation classes, was dismantled. During that same year, most of the state money originally set aside for smoking prevention was used for other purposes. Whatever was left has been spent or was allocated to enforce the state’s smoking laws, the article notes.