The Massachusetts Tobacco Control Program announced on March 6, 2009, that smokers who call the state's Quitline (1-800-TRY-TO-STOP) would be able to receive a free two-week supply of nicotine patches and counseling to help them quit. Judith Coykendall, director of Partners for Clean Air, a program of Seven Hills Behavioral Health, and the Department of Health announced that patches, valued at $50, along with quit-smoking tips and a list of local programs that offer individual and group counseling would be offered until the end of April, 2009. The announcement was made at a press conference held at the southeast regional office of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health on Purchase Street in New Bedford. Advertisements in English, Spanish and Portuguese have been posted around the City. The free Nicotine Patch Giveaway Campaign includes Fall River and 23 towns in southeastern Massachusetts. For more information about the project, contact Susan Dickens at Partners for Clean Air, 508-995-3026, X228. For information about the Fall River Tobacco Control program, contact Marilyn Edge, Tobacco Control Coordinator at 508-324-2423.
 

(Top, middle and bottom rows) Free Nicotine Patches posters placed by the Massachusetts Tobacco Control Program are displayed outside of stores on Pleasant and Bedford Streets in the Flint. (Middle and bottom row, center) A poster is displayed outside of Joe's Market directly across from the Cardinal Medeiros Towers on Robeson Street. (Bottom row, right) A billboard at the corner of Eastern Avenue and Pleasant Street advertises the availability of free nicotine patches to local residents who call the the state's Quitline (1-800-TRY-TO-STOP)