Happy New Year from ClearWay Minnesota! We are pleased to share our Annual Report for Fiscal Year 2017 (covering July 2016 through June 2017). The report highlights our activities in areas of public affairs, community development, cessation, research, and marketing and communications. These highlights include:

• Policy advocacy around raising the tobacco sales age, limiting the places menthol tobacco products can be sold, and keeping tobacco prices high;
• A new TV documentary on tobacco use (both traditional and commercial) among Minnesota American Indians;
• Our free QUITPLAN Services and the quit-smoking QuitCash Challenge contest;
• Our Community Engagement grants, which fund organizations to connect low-income smokers with quitting help;
• Notable research dissemination by our staff members and grantees;
• Our new advertising campaign, Stop the Start; and
• Reflections from our Board Chair.

Also included are a full roster of Board Members for 2016-2017 and statements of our financial position and activities.

2017 Annual Report

QUITPLAN Services, ClearWay Minnesota’s free smoking cessation program, recently launched a new treatment approach for uninsured or underinsured participants who report mental health conditions or substance abuse. The new treatment approach is offered to participants through the QUITPLAN Helpline phone coaching program and provides additional coaching support, additional combination nicotine replacement therapy and communication with participants’ health care providers.

According to the 2014 Minnesota Adult Tobacco Survey (MATS), 14.4 percent of adult Minnesotans smoke cigarettes. However, 32.6 percent of adults with a mental illness reported smoking cigarettes in a nationwide survey from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health in 2013. QUITPLAN Services recognizes that individuals with a history of mental illness and/or substance use disorders smoke at higher rates than the general population, smoke more cigarettes per day and may be at greater risk of negative health effects as a result.

“We understand that people with mental health conditions may have a harder time quitting smoking, but that they want to quit,” said David Willoughby, our Chief Executive Officer. “We are committed to providing the free support and tools to help all Minnesotans quit. With this new service offering from QUITPLAN Services, we hope to help participants living with mental health conditions or substance abuse successfully quit and experience improved health outcomes.”

The new program will include the following specific tools to help participants quit:

• 7 coaching calls to provide additional support during all phases of quitting
• 12-week regimen of combination nicotine replacement therapy
• Communication with the participant’s health care provider with tips for the provider to help support the participant in quitting
• A team of specially trained coaches

To see if this program is a good fit for you, please contact the QUITPLAN Services Helpline at
1-888-354-7526.

Overview: Enhanced Helpine Services

Frequently asked questions

This week, new ads exposing the lies tobacco companies told for decades will begin appearing on Minnesota television stations and in print media. Run by the cigarette companies themselves, the ads are the result of a civil court ruling that found they deceived the public about the health dangers of smoking, beginning in the 1950s.

“Minnesotans should be disgusted at the immoral business practices of this industry,” said our CEO, David J. Willoughby. “These ads show how Big Tobacco hid their knowledge of the links between smoking, addiction, disease and death, and how they fraudulently promoted certain cigarettes as ‘less harmful’ in order to deter smokers from quitting.”

The court case began in 1999, when the U.S. Justice Department sued companies including Philip Morris (now Altria), R.J. Reynolds and Lorillard for violating the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler ruled against the companies and ordered them to publicize “corrective statements” in 2006, but the industry has spent the last 11 years pursuing appeals. This year, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the industry’s case, meaning the 2006 ruling will finally be enforced.

The corrective statements, which will be broadcast on limited television programs and published in one Minnesota newspaper, show that for decades the tobacco companies:

· Hid what they knew about the devastating health harms of cigarette smoking and secondhand smoke exposure;

· Lied about the addictive properties of nicotine;

· Falsely claimed that filtered and “light” cigarettes were healthier than other kinds; and

· Manipulated the product design of cigarettes to make them even more addictive.

In addition to these points, Judge Kessler’s ruling noted other offenses committed by the industry, including the deliberate targeting of youth as “replacement smokers” to take the place of those who quit or died.

“These corrective statements show exactly what the tobacco companies lied about repeatedly for years,” said Mr. Willoughby. “Despite the limited release of these ads, we will be helping to spread the word to policymakers, opinion leaders and the public. We must expose the true nature of this ruthless industry, and do what we can, including helping smokers quit and passing policies that reduce smoking, to undo the damage they have done in our state, our country and the world.”