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W.Va. has one of nation's highest smoking rates 

West Virginia is again among the states with the highest smoking rates, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC released a study and a telephone survey Thursday indicating the state's high rate. West Virginia and Indiana had the highest rates, at about 26 percent, and Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma and Tennessee had rates about as high.

West Virginia has had a high smoking rate for years, according to Bruce W. Adkins, director of the West Virginia Division of Tobacco Prevention.

"We've got really hardcore smokers in the state. Some of them really don't want to quit," Adkins said. "It's a cultural thing and a social thing."

But, Adkins said more people have called the West Virginia Tobacco Quitline in the last year.

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