Quoted: “We want to be there and ready,” says Dr. Michael Fiore, the Director of the UW’s Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention. “We want to be ready with the quitline. We want to be ready with providing a two-week supply of nicotine medicine.”
The UW CTRI runs the Quitline and other smoking cessation programs. Dr. Fiore is worried their funding will be reduced, because Governor Doyle and the legislature severely cut the Tobacco Control Grants that pay the bills. “The money going back to help smokers to quit has decreased from $15 million to $6.8 million per year. It really to me is a disappointment. In my view we’re not doing enough to help smokers to quit.”