Prevention Matters

Two smoking-cessation groups want to make nicotine patches, lozenges and gum available for sale everywhere cigarettes are sold. They're petitioning the Food and Drug Administration to make that possible by relaxing current restrictions on those products.

The Association for the Treatment of Tobacco Use and Dependence and the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco are also asking the FDA to tone down warnings on cessation products that say they shouldn’t be used when people continue to smoke or in those who have heart conditions.


“It sends the message that these products are dangerous and sends the message to the smoker to just continue smoking,” said Ken Wassum, former president of the Association for the Treatment of Tobacco Use and Dependence