Health leaders call for immediate action to curb smoking in the U.S. Every year cigarette smoking contributes to about one in five deaths in the United States. A group of prominent health leaders called for the immediate implementation of national action to reduce the number of smokers in the country by 15 million in a report published last week. The call to action aims to curb smoking, the largest cause of preventable death and illness in the United States, by reducing the number of adult smokers from 40 million to 25 million by 2024.

The report, which solicited input from 120 key tobacco leaders from different organizations in the United States, found that smoking prevention and quitting rates have made progress among young people, but smoking cessation for adults is lagging. Every year, smoking costs the United States more than $300 billion, of which nearly $170 billion goes directly to health care for adults who have diseases caused by tobacco use. More than $156 billion is lost in productivity because of premature deaths and exposure to secondhand smoke. “It is much cheaper to pay for cessation measures than to pay for the treatment of diseases caused by smoking,” said Michael Cummings, co-leader of the Tobacco Research Program and professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Medical University of South Carolina. About 7 in 10 adult smokers want to stop smoking. Around half attempt to quit every year and only a fraction succeed in staying off cigarettes, according to a study in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The percentage of adults who attempted to quit smoking increased by only five percent from 2000 to 2015. The report strongly recommends the adoption of three strategies that could help curb smoking among adults. The first involves raising taxes on cigarettes and other combustible tobacco products, while keeping taxes low on noncombustible nicotine products, such as nicotine replacement medications and electronic cigarettes. The contributors of the report believe this new tax structure will compel more people to shift to safer noncombustible alternative nicotine products. The second strategy involves giving people greater access to tobacco dependence treatment services because the most common method used by smokers – quitting cold turkey – yields the lowest success rate, at only about five percent. Tobacco dependence treatment services involve a combination of behavioral counseling and pharmacotherapy consisting of nicotine replacement medications (gum, patch, lozenge, inhaler or nasal spray) or prescription non-nicotine medications (Zyban or Chantix) and have a success rate of 20 percent in comparison. Health-care disparities make it difficult for adults who belong to certain groups, such as those with low incomes, to get access to intensive counseling and medications that ease the process of quitting. To address this issue, CADCA’s Geographic Health Equity Alliance (GHEA) specifically focuses on education and awareness campaigns in populations experiencing tobacco-related disparities.

Rockaway, NJ – Representatives from Rockaway, NJ headed to the Washington, D.C., area to join approximately 3,000 substance abuse prevention specialists and advocates from throughout the country for CADCA’s (Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America’s) 27th Annual National Leadership Forum.

“We are humbled to be have been chosen to share our successes in linking prevention science with recovery support for high impact community outcomes,” related Christopher Goeke, Project Director for CCSHM. “Being asked to present at CADCA on our work is such a fantastic opportunity to further extend our collaborative efforts nationally.”

CADCA’s Forum covered a wide range of topics – everything from how to prevent prescription drug abuse and the abuse of synthetic drugs and marijuana to how to create tobacco-free environments and develop policies to reduce underage drinking.

Morris County Prevention is Key is excited to be launching the Addiction Recovery Response Team. This is a really unique public collaboration aimed at reducing the relapse rates from opiate use in Morris County. Key community partners like CARES, the hospitals, the Prosecutors office, and the Department of Human Services are coming together to make Certified Peer Recovery Specialist (CPRS) available in the hospital emergency rooms anytime someone is saved from an opioid overdose with Naloxone. The CPRS’s will meet with the patients in the ER with the goal of getting them into treatment and hopefully long term recovery. Training to become a CPRS is available exclusively through the CARES located in Rockaway, NJ.

The coalition representatives heard from several federal leaders including Michael Botticelli, former director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) who both received CADCA’s National Leadership Award at the event. Morris County Prevention Is Key also met with U.S. representatives and senators at the Forum’s Capitol Hill Day event on Wednesday, Feb. 8.

CADCA’s National Leadership Forum, the nation’s largest training event for community prevention leaders, treatment professionals and researchers, took place at the Gaylord National Hotel and Convention Center on Feb. 6-9. Visit the Forum website for details about training sessions, speakers, and special events at cadca.org/events/forum2017.

For more information on Morris County Prevention is Key or CARES, please visit www.mcpik.org or www.morris.caresnj.org

Please join us to learn what Morris County is doing to confront the opiate epidemic from prevention to recovery, and how you can be a part of its efforts.

Check out Morris County’s pictures from Knock Out Opiate Abuse Day!

Morris County freeholders declaring October 6th “Knock Out Opiate Abuse Day” in Morris County

Volunteers speaking to doctors at Atlantic Health about the dangers of prescription opiates