Even though tobacco used to be one of the major crops grown in Pennsylvania, the Keystone state is even more interested in growing its population of non-smokers. Many states in America do offer state stop smoking programs, so even if you don’t live in Pennsylvania, you don’t have to move here in order to get financial helps and support in your new smoke-free life.

They Do Work

With all of the problems going on in the state of Pennsylvania, there are many citizens who grumble about their tax dollars going to support state stop smoking programs rather than for any other state project. But these state stop smoking programs are working. In 2004, there were an estimated 2.3 million smokers in Pennsylvania. This has dropped to 2.2 million.

One hundred thousand people might not seem like much, but those 100,000 have now made their lives healthier. They will less likely to further tax the over-stressed Pennsylvania health care system and will miss less days of work. That’s 100,000 Pennsylvanian families who will be able to hang onto their loved ones a little bit longer. Can you really put a price tag on that?

What They’re Doing

Parts of the state’s stop smoking programs have included banning smoking in many places like hospitals, universities and government buildings. Another effective and humorous campaign has been to launch a series of public service announcements on television featuring ways to quit. They also had another featuring a teenager buying cigarettes getting eaten alive by carnivorous rabbits.

Pennsylvania Free Quitline

But one of the most successful state stop smoking programs in Pennsylvania has been the Pennsylvania Free Quitline. Even in a stop smoking program review by the website Goliath listed the free phone service as extremely effective, helping over 6,000 Pennsylvanians to quit within its first year of operation.

It’s not like talking to a phone psychic, though, where you hear what you want to hear. You do hear a lot of stuff that may make you angry or upset, but it can also save your life. This is because Pennsylvania Free Quitline is staffed by counselors trained to not only get you the information you need, but help give you the motivation you need. They also can help find financial help for getting nicotine replacement products and find any local services, support groups or workshops in your area. There are Spanish speaking counselors, too, so there’s no excuse not to call if you are only fluent talking in Spanish.