Attitudes towards smoking cessation programs offered to adolescents receiving treatment for alcohol and other substances

Nicotine is considered one of the most addictive drugs, yet there are few programs that treat nicotine addiction on the same level as alcohol and other drugs. This can be problematic, particularly when there is a window for halting the progression of nicotine addiction into adulthood. This study is a subsample of a larger federally funded study that includes over 1000 substance abuse treatment centers. This subsample (N=493) includes only those counselors in treatment centers who treat adolescent patients. Most respondents were female (70.6%), White (81.5%) and have an average age of 44. Most counselors agree that smoking cessation interventions should be tailored to a patient's readiness to quit (49.8%), that smoking cessation should be an integral part of the treatment program (48.1%), and that treating tobacco addiction is as important as treating other drugs (41.1%). Further, the clinicians disagree that patient attendance would be affected (26.7%) by requiring smoking cessation programs. These results indicate that most counselors are in support of smoking cessation for adolescents in substance abuse treatment facilities. However, most substance abuse treatment centers are reluctant to treat nicotine addiction along side other substances. Policy changes in substance abuse treatment centers should change to support the counselors' willingness to provide smoking cessation to drug addicted patients.