It's good to see the Minnesota Partnership for Action Against Tobacco is complying with a judge's order to do more to help smokers quit.

MPAAT has announced a plan to offer free nicotine patches and gum to smokers. Consequently, more than 2,600 Minnesotans have called to get help. The group would give nicotine replacement products to smokers -- primarily to those without insurance -- as part of a new smoking-cessation initiative developed by MPAAT.

MPAAT was recently ordered by a state district judge to focus its efforts on helping smokers quit. Attorney General Mike Hatch said the nonprofit MPAAT was using portions of its monies from a 1998 tobacco settlement to get cities and counties to enact smoking bans.

We applaud MPAAT for taking this step to help smokers quit, rather than pressuring cities and counties to enact unnecessary smoking bans. That only puts local businesses on an uneven economic playing field with neighboring communities.

This way, the help is given more to those who need it -- those who want to quit smoking.