Kick the Habit!

Tobacco addiction is the largest preventable cause of illness and premature death in the United States. In 2000, the US Public Health Service first said that tobacco addiction was a chronic disease (Fiore, et al., 20001). Drug addiction, including nicotine, is a disease that occurs over a long time, like diabetes, hypertension, asthma, and others (McLellan, et al., 2000²). It is not solved quickly, but takes a long-term commitment to successfully treat.

The US Public Health Service Clinical Practice Guideline: Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence (20083) states that intensive tobacco treatment can be provided by any “suitably trained” clinician. It also says that there is “no” clinical intervention today that can reduce illness, prevent death, and increase the quality of life more than effective tobacco treatment interventions. These web pages have been adapted from this Guideline to help officers move toward successfully stopping the use of commercial tobacco products.

1 http://whyquit.com/guidelines/2000JuneConsensus.pdf

2 http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=193144  

3 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK63952/