Common knowledge seems to indicate that smoking is pricey. Some students who have picked it up, though, say that kicking the habit is just as costly.
For Ohio University sophomore Julian Marriott, it takes four packs of Marlboro 27s to feed his nicotine addiction each week. It’s a $96-per-month habit that he has unsuccessfully attempted to nix on several occasions.
“You can easily spend $100 just on quitting for two weeks,” Marriott said.
According to smokefree.gov, those looking to kick the habit should start by chewing a piece of nicotine gum every one to two hours.
Nicotine gum such as Nicorette can cost as much as $50 for a 100-piece pack. At that rate, quitters would be forced to spend up to $200 in a month.
On average, a smoker will attempt to quit seven times before he or she is successful, said Mary Kate Gallagher, a peer health educator at the Ohio University Campus Involvement Center and a junior studying community health.
“It’s very difficult to quit smoking. It’s been compared to being just as difficult as quitting heroin or alcohol,” said Kris Washington, assistant director for health promotion at the center.
Tyler Hutchison, a sophomore studying geology, has made ditching his four-year smoking habit his New Year’s resolution every January, using both nicotine gum and the “cold turkey” method to quit.
“That gum and stuff is just too expensive,” Hutchison said. “I try not to smoke on the way to class. That helps cutting down.”
For students looking to light up less, Dan Hudson, pharmacist at Campus Care, suggests the three-prong system to kick the habit: nicotine therapy, anti-depressants and individual or group counseling.
The nicotine therapy is meant to help someone trying to quit gradually lessen their nicotine fixes, the anti-depressants are used to help with withdrawal symptoms, and counseling is designed to offer a support system.
The success rate when using the three-prong system is between 80 and 90 percent, Hudson said.
“If you are using any one of those things by themselves, they’re not nearly as effective,” Hudson said.
And Karen Robinson, nursing supervisor at Campus Care, warns students relying solely on nicotine therapy of the downside of nicotine gum.
“What I see with the gum is people getting addicted to the gum, so it’s not so much they go back to smoking,” Robinson said. “It’s that they’re switching one addiction for the other.”
While Campus Care and Counseling and Psychological Services do offer counseling sessions and appointments with providers, no official smoking-cessation program exists at either facility.
“There’s very limited resources because the money from tobacco prevention was kind of used to fill the gap in the (state) budget, so it hasn’t been a priority here on campus,” Washington said.
Students seeking free services can participate in Twitter support groups or in a Smoking Quitline offered by the National Cancer Institute, Washington said.
“There’s just nothing on this campus for students at this point,” Washington said.
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