Province Helping Smokers

Ontario will spend $4.5-million over the next three
years to help nearly 23,000 smokers who are in treatment for other addictions to quit.
Health Minister Deb Matthews says addicts undergoing treatment will have free counselling and a five-week course of over-the-counter nicotine gum and patches.
Matthews says the government is helping other smokers to quit by funding drugs like Champix and Zyban through the province’s public drug benefit program.
Addiction expert Dr. Peter Selby says tobacco is often the first substance that people become addicted to, and the last one they quit.