Tobacco prevention holds seminar to assist those wanting to quit
How do you quit smoking for good?
That was the question at “Semaa Tobacco: Traditional Use, Not Abuse” on Tuesday in the Nimkee Public Health Kitchen, 7498 E. Broadway Road.
The Tobacco Prevention Panel, made up of three Nimkee Memorial Wellness Center employees, a pharmacist and an ex-smoker, held a small seminar open to all Nimkee employees or patients to get support and information about how to kick the habit.
Steve Eggerd, pharmacist for Nimkee Pharmacy, started the seminar by presenting all the products available at Nimkee and explaining what they do and how they work.
“We want to let people know what resolutions are available,” said Nimkee Reach Grant Coordinator Leah Markel. Markel is one of the main organizers of the seminar.
Many of the guests asked questions and shared their own experiences with the products. Eggerd stressed to them that everybody is different, so different products work for different people.
“You have to define your own addiction to find what works for you,” he said.
The products he shared included nicotine patches, nicotine gum, nicotine inhalers and Chantix, a tablet to decrease sensitivity to and cravings of nicotine.
John Gerhard of Nimkee’s Human Resources Training Department also spoke to the group about the importance of patience and perseverance during the quitting process.
“It’s not easy,” he said. “I would never paint an easy picture about quitting smoking.”
Open to other addictions
Gerhard said, as addicts, smokers are usually vulnerable to other addictions such as food or caffeine, but encouraged the guests to overcome those things.
He stressed the panel is there to support all of them and help get them through it.
Matt Sprague, a member of Seventh Generation of the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe, explained the difference between the tribe’s cultural use of tobacco and the common abuse of commercial tobacco.
Seventh Generation grows semaa (tobacco), sacred to the tribe and used for ceremonial purposes.
He said his tribe smokes the tobacco in a safer way by not inhaling it and that they use it for spiritual purposes.
“We puff it up, and it’s like our prayers going up to the Creator,” he said.
The tribe calls semaa a “gift from the Creator” and it is given as a gift in semaa pouches when they ask a favor of someone.
Sprague said when someone receives a gift of semaa, they can throw it in a fire to burn it. That also is seen as a way of sending prayers up to the Creator.
“Tobacco is pretty abused now, and I don’t want us to get a bad name for growing it, but it’s used for different things by us,” he said.
Markel said, besides sharing information about quitting with the group, another main goal was to make known the cultural uses of tobacco.
She said they will be holding similar seminars in the future for patients and employees at Nimkee.
