Report: La. falling short on tobacco prevention spending

Louisiana ranks 22nd in the nation in funding programs to prevent kids from smoking and to help smokers quit, according to a national report released today by a coalition of public health organizations. Louisiana currently spends $8.4 million a year on tobacco prevention and cessation programs, which is 16% of the $53.5 million recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The report says Louisiana will collect $295 million in revenue this year from the 1998 tobacco settlement and tobacco taxes, but will spend just 2.9%—less than 3 cents of every dollar it receives to fight tobacco use—of it on tobacco prevention programs. The tobacco companies spend $223.7 million a year to market their products in Louisiana. This is 26 times what the state spends on tobacco prevention. In Louisiana, 19.4% of high school students smoke, and 6,200 more kids become regular smokers each year. Tobacco annually claims 6,500 lives and costs the state $1.5 billion in health care bills. Nationally, the report finds that most states are failing to adequately fund tobacco prevention and cessation programs. Altogether, the states have cut funding for these programs to the lowest level since 1999, when they first started receiving tobacco settlement payments. More information, including the full report and state-specific information, can be found here.