The Costs of Quitting — or Not
Say you were using a nicotine patch in combination with nicotine gum, for example. Diane Massucci of the North Shore-LIJ Center for Tobacco Control in Great Neck, N.Y., says that a 12-week supply of the patches would cost $180, and a 12-week supply of the gum would cost about $240. That's $420 for less than three months of nicotine replacement treatment. You can see how your quit-smoking strategies could get expensive fast.
Smoking cessation experts, however, say that it's important to keep these stop-smoking costs in perspective. "In Michigan, where I live, the average cost of a pack of cigarettes is over $6.50," says Amanda L. Holm, MPH, manager of Tobacco Treatment Services at the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit. "That means that over the course of a year, a pack-a-day smoker will pay more than $2,372 to feed this addiction. That's more than enough savings to buy three or six months worth of nicotine replacement or other medications, or to pay for a class or a few counseling sessions.