Attorney General Wants Continued Funding

For Smokers’ Quitline

HARTFORD — Attorney General Richard recently dispatched letters to Governor M. Jodi Rell, House Speaker James Amann, and Senate President Pro Tem Donald Williams, calling for restoration of funds for the Quitline, a vital and successful statewide smoking cessation program.

The Quitline is a successful statewide smoking cessation program combining counseling and nicotine replacement pharmaceutical drugs, which exhausted its funding within 30 days after beginning July 1. It has been continued with counseling alone through January.

An allocation of $2 million from existing and available sources such as The Tobacco and Health Trust Fund would enable smokers who need help quitting to fulfill their New Year’s resolutions, Mr Blumenthal said.

Mr Blumenthal said this program — funded wholly by the national tobacco settlement money that he fought vigorously to secure — must be continued indefinitely, and include the full range of services, including nicotine replacement treatment.

“Countless smokers wishing to quit in the New Year — indeed making New Year’s resolutions to break their addiction — will lack assistance when the Quitline program shuts down a few weeks after January 1,” Mr Blumenthal said. “The state in effect is failing its promise of nicotine replacement resources.

“Last week’s news that Connecticut is dead last among all 50 states in using the tobacco settlement money to fight smoking provides an urgent historic impetus and incentive to use available resources for the Quitline and other tobacco cessation programs,” he added.

Mr Blumenthal commended Governor Rell for her efforts starting Quitline and continuing counseling services through January — but said the program must include nicotine replacement pharmaceutical drugs. The most successful tobacco cessation programs combine counseling with nicotine replacement pharmaceutical drugs. The original Quitline program was based on this approach, Mr Blumenthal said.

The Quitline’s full services shut down merely 30 days after funds depleted almost immediately — a testament to its success, but also the need for more funding.

The initial Quitline investment of $1.9 million is a small fraction of the massive amounts of tobacco settlement money the state receives each year, Mr Blumenthal said. Connecticut will receive about $140 million this year alone — bringing the total received by the state to more than $1 billion since 1998.

Mr Blumenthal said the governor has the direct authority to immediately restore the Quitline. About $6 million of tobacco settlement funds remains in The Tobacco and Health Trust Fund.

Additionally, approximately $2 million in funding for the Connecticut Cancer Plan is likely to remain unused this fiscal year, and legislative leaders should commit to restoring those funds.

“Of the $1 billion received so far since 1998,” Mr Blumenthal said, “only a fraction — less than one percent — has been spent on tobacco cessation and prevention programs like the Quitline despite my repeated protests year after year. We fought hard for this money, and financial resources should be used to fund cessation services for the rest of the fiscal year — as well as additional programs next year.

“The state has a moral obligation to spend a significant portion of the tobacco settlement dollars on tobacco cessation and prevention programs,” the attorney general continued. “Helping smokers to quit is also sound policy — making their lives longer and more productive, and reducing health care costs. The state’s failure to spend more than a small fraction of the tobacco settlement money to fight tobacco addiction betrays the purpose of our historic legal victory, and the needs of smokers whose very lives depend on cessation programs. It has also given Connecticut the odious distinction of ranking last nationally in spending to fight tobacco.”