Report: States Slacking on Anti-Smoking Spending

According to a consortium of anti-smoking organizations, U.S. state governments are raking in more money than ever from tobacco companies but aren’t spending as much as they had in recent years on preventing their constituents from starting to light up or on helping them quit.  —KA

The New York Times:

The states spent $567 million on smoking prevention and cessation programs in the latest fiscal year, a 15 percent decrease from the year before, the organizations said in a report entitled, “A Broken Promise to Our Children.”

State spending on antismoking programs accounted for 2.3 percent of the $25.1 billion that states collected last year from tobacco taxes and payouts from the $246 billion settlement that states reached with tobacco companies in 1998, the groups said.

New York State made some of the largest cuts to its antismoking programs last year, slashing them by $25.2 million, or 31 percent, the groups said, adding that it did so “despite having a successful program that has reduced smoking to well below national rates.”

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