Marking 10 years of smoking fight in Oklahoma
BY JULIE BISBEE
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Published: November 18, 2008
Fewer Oklahomans are smoking cigarettes, 10 years after Oklahoma and other states settled a lawsuit against large tobacco companies. Officials credit programs funded by the state’s settlement money.
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Nov 14Julie Bisbee talks to Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson...
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AT A GLANCE
Smoking in our state
• Oklahoma still has more smokers than the national average. About 25.7 percent of Oklahomans smoke, compared with the national average of 19.3 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
• During the past decade, smoking among high school youths has declined to 23.4 percent from 33.5 percent.
• Smoking among middle school students has dropped to 7.5 percent from 17.1 percent a decade ago.
With children at his side,
Attorney General Drew Edmondson on Monday outlined successes of an anti-tobacco campaign funded by interest on money awarded to the state in the lawsuit settlement. The anniversary of the Master Settlement Agreement is Nov. 23.
"These young people never saw
Joe Camel used as advertisement, or tobacco companies sponsoring sporting events,” he said. "They have a better chance of living healthier lives and not being subjected to the dangers of second-hand smoke.”
Edmondson was one of a handful of attorneys general who negotiated a settlement with tobacco companies
R.J. Reynolds,
Phillip Morris, Brown and Williamson, and Lorillard. Since the settlement in 1998, the state has received $647 million, which has been placed in a trust fund. Voters approved a measure to safeguard the funds, making them available for tobacco prevention programs.
Interest from the money pays for an anti-smoking hot line, anti-tobacco ads and community-based stop-smoking programs.
"We are most proud of the decline in smoking among our youth,” Edmondson said. "Kids are hearing the anti-tobacco message.”
Kids are hearing the anti-tobacco message.”
Drew Edmondson
Oklahoma attorney general
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Legislators this year used $108 million from the special health fund to balance the $7.1 billion budget for the fiscal year that began July 1. The fund was set up when voters in 2004 approved a tobacco tax increase.
The fund had a surplus of about $115 million; during the last fiscal year about $18 million more came into the fund than was spent. Most of the $108 million taken from the fund — about $70 million — was given to the Oklahoma Health Care Authority to replace lost federal funding.