Posted Wednesday ---- January 2, 2008 -- 6:00pm

"It's a great time to quit smoking," Dr. Michael Fiore says.

The New Year brings new incentives for smokers who want to quit.

Staff at the Wisconsin Tobacco Quit Line say they've seen a spike in calls ahead of a dollar per pack tax hike on cigarettes. The 800-number had 100 calls Wednesday morning. It typically receives about 700 calls a month. Smokers have mixed opinions on whether the tax hike will compel people to quit, but one former smoker thinks this is a good time to try.

"I started smoking when I was 13," Sharon Kelley says.

Kelley says the addiction defined her every day.

"I would wake up and want a cigarette," she says, "I was one of the people huddling, freezing in the cold and smoking because I was driven to it," she says.

A woman who used to smoke about two packs a day is now driven to help people like her -- quit!

"You don't spend all of that time obsessing about smoking. Eventually, that goes away. Eventually you're free," Kelley says.

To help people free themselves, the Quit Line's added two weeks worth of free stop smoking aids. Callers can receive the patch, lozenges or gum. The added incentive is timed to coincide with the state's one-dollar per pack tax hike, which took effect January 1st.

Dr. Michael Fiore with the UW Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention is confident the hike will lower the number of smokers in
Wisconsin, estimated at about 800,000.

"We've seen in state after state that when you increase the price, all of those people who are on the fence and thinking about quitting, use that as a chance to go forward and quit," Dr. Fiore says.

And smokers can estimate -- online -- how much they would save by calling it quits. Dr. Fiore says the average smoker in Wisconsin goes through a pack a day.

"If she successfully quits, she'll save more than 15-hundred dollars a year," he says.

Remember Kelley used to smoke 40-some cigarettes a day. She now spends the 233 hours and $270 a month on other things.

"Now I run. I work out," Kelley says.

Dr. Fiore recommends three months of coaching and medications. He says most insurance packages will cover the costs.

The quit line number is 1-800-Quit-Now. It's available from 7:00 in the morning until 11:00 at night, 7 days a week.