Support, advice and tools to help you live smoke free

• The latest Statistics Canada data show that 1 in 5 Canadians smoke

• Smoking has a major impact on your health, and smokers can lose up to 9 years of life expectancy

• It’s never too late to quit! After only one year of quitting, your risk of heart disease is cut in half, and after 5 years smoke-free your chance of stroke is the same as that of a lifelong non-smoker

• Pharmacists can help you decide if you’re ready to quit, prepare you to quit, provide counselling, monitor your progress, and recommend and prescribe smoking cessation aids and medications

What to Expect

• You can talk to your pharmacist at any time for support and guidance around quitting smoking

• When you’re ready to try quitting, your pharmacist will sit down with you for a consultation to create a quitting plan

• Your pharmacist will inform you about the different quit smoking aids available and determine if medication therapy is right for you

• In all provinces except BC, your pharmacist can also prescribe medication that will help you quit, or they can send a medication recommendation to your doctor. Many medications to help you quit are covered by drug insurance plans

Benefits

• Quit smoking rates are doubled when patients take medication to help them quit

• When patients take medication and receive counselling, this can increase quit rates six-fold

Pharmacist Prescribing

Pharmacists can provide you Nicotine Patch, Gum, Inhaler, Lozenges without prescription to help you quit smoking in British Columbia.