MCDH and Centegra Partner For Cease-Smoking Class

McHenry County Department of Health and Centegra Health System are partnering to offer a seven-week quit smoking class for adults beginning on Thursday, January 12.

Classes will be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m. every Thursday at Centegra Health Bridge Fitness Center, 10450 Algonquin Road, Huntley, according to a MCDH release.

A $25 course fee, payable at the first class, is refundable if registered participants attend all seven sessions. Class members also will receive a free three-day pass to the Health Bridge Fitness Center, the press release said.

During the class, instructors will teach practical ways to end nicotine addiction through group support and behavior modification. They also will review nicotine replacement products currently on the market. Instruction is provided by MCDH staff members who are trained in the American Lung Association’s “Freedom from Smoking” program.

Brazil bans smoking in enclosed public places

The Brazilian Congress has passed a bill banning smoking in enclosed public places nationwide.

Smoking bans are already in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and other big cities.

The new law goes one step further. It makes illegal designated smoking rooms in airports and bars that exist even in those places with a ban already in place.

It also raises taxes on tobacco products and is forcing a minimum price on the products, increasing costs for consumers by up to 55 percent within four years.

The law is in part aimed at cigarettes that enter the country illegally, mostly over the border with Paraguay. Those are sold for a fraction of the price of Brazil-made cigarettes.

President Dilma Rousseff is expected to sign the bill into law soon.

E.L. marijuana policy punishes illegal use only

Despite a legal development last week that gives police the power to seize medical marijuana from registered patients, MSU and East Lansing police said they have not ramped up efforts to shut down the herbal alternative on campus.

Last week, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette issued an opinion that effectively allows police officers to confiscate medical marijuana from patients . If a patient is stopped for another reason, such as a traffic stop, an officer can take away any amount of the substance in their possession and cannot return it.

But on campus, police policy has not changed as a result of the ruling — patients who legally are allowed to have marijuana will not see their medicine taken, MSU police Sgt. Florene McGlothian-Taylor said.

“We don’t confiscate as long as the individual is in compliance with the law,” Taylor said.

University policy prohibits marijuana use on campus, meaning students are subject to university punishment. Students, however, can break their housing contract with no penalty if they are a medical marijuana patient.

East Lansing police also said they don’t take away marijuana from medical marijuana patients unless a patient has it confiscated for using legal marijuana in an illegal way, East Lansing police Capt. Kim Johnson said.

“Even the people with the cards can’t do certain things with it,” Johnson said. “(But) if they fall within the law, we wouldn’t be taking it.”

The opinion was issued on the grounds that forcing officers to return the drug is a conflict of state and federal laws and therefore would be forcing them to commit a federal crime.

“The people of this state, even in the exercise of their constitutional right to initiate legislation, cannot require law enforcement officers to violate federal law,” Schuette wrote in the opinion.

But Brian Fenech, an Ann Arbor defense attorney who specializes in medical marijuana, said the ruling is a blatant distortion of the act passed by voters.

“It’s clear from the law that’s not how it was intended to be handled,” Fenech said. “It’s another one of Schuette’s attempts … to try and usurp the will of the people by creating law out of whole cloth.”

The Michigan Medical Marihuana Act passed with a ballot initiative in 2008. Since then, about 119,000 residents have become registered as medical marijuana patients, according to numbers from the state of Michigan.

“I think it’s hypocritical if it’s a medicine,” English sophomore Colin Konkel said. “If a person has permission to use that substance, they should be allowed to have it on them without it being confiscated.”

Most smokers want to quit but few do, a CDC report finds

When it comes to quitting smoking, the lungs might be willing but the flesh is weak. A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds that while about 69 percent of smokers last year wanted to quit, only about a tenth were able to do so.

The CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report used data from a large national survey from 2001 through 2010. Among the smokers surveyed most - 68.8 percent - wanted to quit for good in 2010, and 52.4 percent tried to quit in the previous year. Only 6.2 percent succeeded, however.

When broken down by race and ethnicity, 75.6 percent of blacks were interested in quitting, followed by 69.1 percent of whites and 61 percent of Latinos. Blacks also had the most attempts at quitting (59.1 percent), followed by whites (50.7 percent). But more whites were likely to quit smoking than blacks - 6 percent versus 3.3 percent. The discrepancy, the report said, could be due to blacks' lower use of proven stop-smoking treatments as well as their higher use of menthol cigarettes, which may be linked with fewer successful quit attempts among blacks.

People who had more education were more likely to try to quit compared to those with less education, and they were more likely to succeed: 11.4 percent of smokers with an undergraduate degree were able to quit compared to 3.2 percent of smokers who had at most completed high school.

Just under half of study participants who saw a healthcare professional said they were advised by them to stop smoking. Among current and former smokers who were able to quit in the last two years, 31.7 percent used counseling, stop-smoking medication or both. Among people age 25 to 64, attempts at quitting went up from 2001 to 2010.

Smoking an addiction, not a habit, lung association says

Leah Heneghan was so afraid of exposing others to the stench of cigarette smoke after she'd lit up that she took to carrying around a can of Febreze.

The smoker of 18 years, who had made several attempts to stop over the years, knew it was time to quit for good.

"This time it just feels like some-thing clicked in my head," she said. "My entire being agreed to it this time instead of fighting me."

It wasn't easy. Heneghan, 37, the creative director for Vancouver Craft Beer Week, had to stop drinking the very beverage she is paid to market because it made her want to smoke.

She switched from coffee - another trigger - to tea, drank lots of water and didn't go out as much.

Nicotine withdrawal caused her to be moody and short with people.

"You have to realize it's not you being angry at someone; it's this horrible little addiction trying to fight its way back."

And addiction, many are arguing, is exactly the word to describe chronic smoking. In recognition of Addictions Awareness Week, which started Mon-day, the BC Lung Association is calling for the term "addiction" to replace the word "habit" when referring to tobacco smokers.

"The amount of times that I've tried to quit and I haven't been able to over the years - you can't tell me that that's a habit," Heneghan said. "'Habit' doesn't seem like it's a serious enough word."

Nicotine dependence is included in the manual used by doctors to diagnose psychiatric disorders and has predictable withdrawal symptoms, including irritability, anxiety and cravings, said Dr. Milan Khara, clinical director of the tobacco dependence clinic for the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority. "So really, by many measures, this meets the standard for an addiction and not a habit or a life-style choice."

And although the withdrawal symptoms experienced by smokers are not as traumatic as for those addicted to "hard" drugs such as heroin or cocaine, nicotine is in many ways more addictive because it enters the brain within seconds of inhalation, Khara said.

"The brain is actually altered by exposure to nicotine. That change is what leads to withdrawal symptoms when, in fact, a smoker does stop smoking."

Introducing a change in terminology is important because smokers are much more likely to seek treatment when they think of it as an addiction rather than a question of willpower, Khara said. The two treatments that Khara says have been clinically proven to help smokers quit are counsel-ling from a health care provider and medications delivered via gum and patches.

The B.C. government began subsidizing nicotine-replacement therapies on Sept. 30. To get the gum and patches at no charge, patients must first call 8-1-1 and register for the pro-gram with a nurse. Two smoking-cessation drugs are also covered under Pharmacare.

But for Heneghan, it wasn't counsel-ling or gum that made the difference this time; it was apps. One told her how many cigarettes she would have smoked and how much she would have spent on them; the other provided access to a community of people who were trying to quit, where she could post how she was feeling and get positive reinforcement: "It makes you feel like you've got this real sup-port community. That probably was the thing that made the biggest difference to me."

Florence smoke-free ordinance takes effect Tuesday

Restaurants and bars within Florence city limits will go smoke-free Tuesday when the long-anticipated smoking ordinance officially takes effect.

Florence City Council adopted the ordinance May 9 following years of contentious debate. The measure passed by a 5-2 majority of council members and will apply to most public indoor gathering places within the city, including restaurants and bars.

While some restaurants had to prepare for the changes by removing smoking sections and ashtrays and informing customers, other restaurants and bars in both the city and in Florence County went smoke-free long ago and said they felt the ordinance was overdue.

One of those restaurants is Stefano’s, which eliminated its smoking section several years ago Stefano’s owner Steve Toniolo said he made the decision because he felt the benefits outweighed any possible negativity. He said he was pleasantly surprised by the reaction of both smokers and non-smokers alike.

“We had a long wait for the non-smoking section, so we decided to just decorate outside, put out some concrete benches and smokeless ashtrays out there and people just go outside to smoke a cigarette,” he said.

Toniolo said that he feels business actually increased when he decided to make the establishment smoke-free and said it provides a better atmosphere for every customer trying to enjoy a meal.

“Everybody seems more happy. Even the people who do smoke, they don’t really have a problem with going outside and smoking a cigarette,” he said.

Many restaurant owners said although the impact of the smoking ordinance will not truly be known until it takes effect, they hope to retain their customers despite any backlash from smokers.

The ordinance prohibits smoking in enclosed buildings and spaces within the city, but allows for smoking on open decks, balconies and patios of restaurants.

Monroe mayor in hot water over smoking allegations

Current and former Monroe employees along with resident business owners allege Mayor Michael Gabbianelli smokes in his third-floor town hall office.

“He always smokes in his office and still does,” said Alma Alexander, a longtime tax office employee who retired in June.

Resident business owner Dave Montizer said the mayor lit up in a private meeting last year with zoning board members and his attorney Richard Kaser, who couldn’t be reached for comment.

“He was smoking a cigarette in the open,” Montizer said. “My lawyer said, ‘You’re smoking in a township building …’ ”

Montizer said Gabbianelli replied, “You don’t (expletive) like it, there’s the (expletive) door.”

Former township Mayor Jack Luby has heard similar tales. His two children work for the township.

“I’ve heard people say they’re (ticked) by it and told him ‘You can’t smoke in here. Go outside,’ ” Luby said. “Evidently the rules are made for everybody else.”

Monroe’s smoke-free workplace policy was adopted by Luby’s administration in 1997. Each violation carries a fine between $100 and $1,000, along with up to 30 days community service. People who smoke in public or government spaces are subject to $200 fines, according to state law.

A Monroe police officer said, on the condition of anonymity, secondhand smoke from the mayor’s office sometimes travels via air ducts into the police station.

When asked in their town hall offices if the mayor’s smoking was a nuisance, about a dozen township employees paused before replying for the record, “No comment.” Two other employees answered they weren’t aware the mayor smokes.

In an emailed response from township solicitor Chuck Fiore, Gabbianelli wouldn’t address smoking allegations. Monroe Police Chief Joseph Smart and other police administrators didn’t comment Monday. TRICO Municipal Joint Insurance Fund insures Monroe’s town hall. TRICO executive director Paul Miola didn’t comment Monday.

It’s the latest in a growing number of problems for the part-time Democratic mayor, who faces growing scrutiny for allegedly violating state or local regulations.