The Vermont Department of Health is pushing to make state-funded addiction treatment centers tobacco-free by next year.
Deputy Health Commissioner Barbara Cimaglio says smoking for too long has been a big part of the culture of alcohol and drug-treatment centers.
But she says there's a growing focus on trying to get addicts to address a full range of health issues, and tobacco is a bigger source of health problems for many addicts than their abuse of other substances.
Cimaglio says the Health Department has the authority to make the change because it licenses addiction treatment centers and the state, through Medicaid, provides about 70 percent of their funding.
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