The Massachusetts Department of Public Health now offers free nicotine patches to smokers in the state who attend substance abuse programs. The initiative comes less than three months after lawmakers passed a $1 tax increase on packs of cigarettes.

The DPH set up a free smoking cessation hotline offering callers tips on how to quit smoking and information about the effects of smoking. Between July and August, callers could receive the free patches.

Due to budget cuts, however, the DPH now only targets smokers in Massachusetts substance abuse programs, DPH Tobacco Control Program Director Eileen Sullivan said.

“Our resources are limited, so for the remainder of the year we’re doing some very targeted giveaways,” Sullivan said.

Though the program is only for those recovering from substance abuse problems, smokers can still call the smoking cessation hotline for tips on how to quit.

“We’re trying to really target populations that have a high smoking rate,” she said. “Right now we’re targeting the recovering community.”

Between September and December, Massachusetts residents participating in substance abuse recovery programs will receive four-week-supply kits of nicotine patches.

Sullivan said tax increases in the past have impacted smoking rates, but this time the DPH decided to pair the tax increase with a program to also help smokers quit.

“When we are able to provide people with nicotine patches as well as counseling, we see a higher quit rate,” Sullivan said. “We’re hoping for 20 percent of callers to quit.”

Harvard University public health professor Gregory Connolly said substance abusers can suffer from dual addiction and should use nicotine patches to avoid relapsing. If people quit smoking along with other drugs or alcohol, the chance of staying free from addiction is increased, he said.

“Unfortunately, those in alcohol treatments turn to smoking as a way to compensate for stopping alcohol consumption,” he said. “That is not a good strategy,”

National Institute on Drug Abuse Director of Pharmacotherapies Frank Vocci said cigarette smoking usually leads to harder drug and alcohol use or abuse.

“They start smoking before they start using drugs, and so daily smoking is something that may be a prognostic variable for people who might have a higher rate of becoming drug dependent,” he said.

Vocci also said it is not harmful for people already enrolled in substance abuse programs to try to quit smoking at the same time.

“The quit rate is a little better than in people who are in a program and just quit on their own,” he said. “So you do get some benefit from it.”