TOBACCO SETTLEMENT MONEY NOT USED AS INTENDED

(12/02/2005)

By Bob Weaver West Virginia is in good company not spending tobacco settlement money on preventing nicotine addiction. Calhoun's youth programs have recently been funded on a shoestring, barely able to survive. A new study shows that only a fraction of the money that states received from tobacco settlements and taxes is being used for smoking prevention programs. The study ranks West Virginia 20th among the states, spending only about six million dollars on prevention programs out of $14 million dollars recommended by the Centers for Disease Control. That works out to less than 42 percent of the recommended spending. The report was released by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society and American Lung Association. Only four states spent the minimum levels - Maine, Colorado, Delaware and Mississippi. States like Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Tennessee and the District of Columbia spend no state funds on smoking prevention programs. Most have used the settlement money for other programs or budget balancing, not to improve the health of children and adults, which was to have been the mission of the settlement.

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