The Vince Carter Sanctuary has implemented Tobacco Cessation treatment as a part of standard treatment procedure for drug and alcohol problems. Nicotine, one of more than 4,000 chemicals found in the smoke from tobacco products such as cigarettes, cigars, and pipes, is the primary component in tobacco that acts on the brain, with effects similar to both cocaine and heroin. Smokeless tobacco products such as snuff, dip and chewing tobacco also contain many toxins as well as high levels of nicotine. Nicotine is recognized as one of the most frequently used addictive drugs, and cigarette smoking is the most prevalent form of nicotine addiction in the United States. Recent research has shown that continued nicotine use challenges the recovery of alcoholics and drug dependent clients in the same way that continued use of any addictive drug does.

Addiction is characterized by compulsive drug-seeking and use, even in the face of negative health consequences, and tobacco use certainly fits the description. It is well documented that most smokers identify tobacco as harmful and express a desire to reduce or stop using it, and nearly 35 million of them make a serious attempt to quit each year. Unfortunately, less than 7 percent of those who try to quit on their own achieve more than 1 year of abstinence; most relapse within a few days of attempting to quit.

What people frequently do not realize is that the cigarette is a very efficient and highly engineered drug-delivery system. By inhaling, the smoker can get nicotine to the brain within a few seconds of every puff. (This is comparable to the speed with which drugs of abuse reach the brain when injected intravenously.) A typical smoker will take 10 puffs on a cigarette over a period of 5 minutes that the cigarette is lit. Thus, a person who smokes about 1-1/2 packs (30 cigarettes) daily gets 300 "hits" of nicotine to the brain each day. These factors contribute considerably to nicotine's highly addictive nature.

In order to offer you the most effective treatment services and do all that we can to reduce the suffering and social costs resulting from the abuse of alcohol and drugs, the Vince Carter Sanctuary prohibits the use of tobacco products within residential programs.

To support you in this challenge, tobacco cessation programming is offered in residential treatment programs. In addition, assistance in the form of appropriate medications to counter depression and craving and nicotine replacement products (patches, nicotine gum, etc.) for the detoxification process are offered to clients.

We are well aware that detoxification and abstinence from tobacco presents a challenge greater than that of any other drug. We hope you may capture some motivation to meet this challenge in considering the benefits to your health, longevity, social freedom, modeling the behavior you want your children to learn, and saving a lot of money.  The average smoker spends between $250. - $300. monthly, or $2500. - $3000. annually on tobacco products.

To this end, the Vince Carter Sanctuary offers a tobacco cessation and taper program. Your tobacco will be kept locked in the medical building, and dispensed to you in accordance with the taper program.  Our medical staff will design a taper program for you, with gradually decreasing use of tobacco over a 7 - 10 day period of time.  You

must receive your tobacco (cigarette) from the nurse, where you can then smoke the tobacco in a designated area behind the medical building.  This is not a social time, so smoking is not done in a group setting, and it is done outside of the medical building.  Following this taper, you will be moved to NRT (Nicotine Replacement Therapy) as directed by our medical staff, until you are safely withdrawn from the physical and psychosocial aspects of nicotine addiction.  If you have any questions, and need additional assistance, please call (800) 478-0331.