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Imagine that! Five whole percent going to prevention!
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Tobacco Settlement Money Use Studied
By NATALIE GOTT, Associated Press Writer
SAN ANTONIO (AP) - Billions of dollars from the nation's landmark tobacco settlement are being put to use across the country, but only about 5 percent is going to smoking prevention, a report released Saturday shows.
The 1998 settlement signed by the giants of the tobacco industry was meant to compensate the states for years of smoking-related health expenses. Forty-six states signed it, and four other states settled separately for an additional $40 billion.
The state attorneys general who negotiated the settlement expected it to be used to fight the spread of smoking and prevent tobacco addiction, but the documents left it to the states to decide how their shares of the money would be spent.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites) has said that at least 20 percent of the $206 billion settlement will have to go into prevention programs for the states to effectively cut future tobacco-related health expenses.
In a new report, the National Conference of State Legislatures analyzed the states' plans for their shares of the tobacco money during the fiscal years 2000 through 2002.
Of the $21 billion being doled out during that period, it found:
-36.1 percent had been set aside for health care.
-26.0 percent went to bolster endowments or state budget reserves.
-9.5 percent was to be spent on schools or youth programs.
-5.0 percent was to go into tobacco prevention.
-4.5 percent was to be put into research.
-3.2 percent was to be used to assist tobacco growers and communities affected by the reduced quotas from tobacco companies, in most cases by offering education and training in other fields.
More than half of the money is being used in ways unrelated to smoking, the study found.
Several states are tapping their tobacco settlement payments to make up shortfalls in their state budgets and bolster programs that have nothing to do with tobacco. ***********************
When are people going to wake up? If B&W, RJR and Lorillard announced Monday that they were discontinuing production of all tobacco-related products, the total number of petitions from local, state and federal AGs to place injunctions on them to continue production would choke the court dockets. The gov't, at ALL levels, desparately needs tobacco tax revenues. The last thing the gov't actually wants is for people to stop using tobacco.
Let's face one basic fact: If the gov't was actually serious about stopping the cycle of tobacco addiction, they'd make the penalties for minors using or posessing tobacco the same as it is for marijuana. Spotted smoking in public underage? "Bad boys, bad boys....whatcha gonna do?" The reason this doesn't happen has nothing to do with the numbers of arrests - is has everything to do with future tax revenue.
D.B.
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