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The Illinois Academy of Family Physicians is not happy (from a press release):
The states went to war against the tobacco industry with a lawsuit, suing the manufacturers for knowingly deceiving the public about the harm of tobacco use and hooking people on a product that caused the premature and painful death of millions. In 1998, the $209 billion tobacco Master Settlement Agreement was signed between 46 states and the U.S. tobacco industry. […]In fiscal year 2001, Illinois tobacco control programs shared a $46 million allocation which built the tobacco control foundation in communities in every part of the state, even though we were still $23 million below the CDC’s minimum funding recommendation. And then the cuts began; year after year, more money was chopped from the tobacco fund. Jobs were lost, programs ended and the foundation crumbled. This year, our state tries to battle the tobacco industry’s $535 million Illinois advertising budget with a paltry $11 million, less than one-fifth of the CDC’s bottom line number that would allow us to make progress. Illinois uses patchwork, band-aid attempts to battle the world’s biggest and richest killer. […]
The Master Settlement Agreement is a dedicated funding stream for tobacco education, prevention and cessation initiatives. Even in difficult times of budget deficits, Illinois and other states have a moral obligation, especially to our children, to use a reasonable portion of this money for this purpose.
posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Feb 4, 05 @ 10:13 am
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