State ranks seventh in anti-tobacco spending
BY RANDY KREHBIEL World Staff Writer
Thursday, December 06, 2012
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Oklahoma ranks seventh in spending for tobacco-use prevention and cessation, the nonprofit group Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids said Thursday.
The organization ranked states by comparing the amount they spend on tobacco prevention and cessation to the amount recommended by the Centers for Disease Control.
Oklahoma is spending $19.7 million on those activities this budget year, or 44 percent of the recommended amount. That's down from $21 million and 47 percent last year.
The overall message of the story is that states are spending only a small percentage of the billions of dollars received from a 1998 class-action lawsuit against the tobacco industry on preventing tobacco use.
Oklahoma's settlement payments go into a trust fund. Three-fourths of the annual earnings are allotted to tobacco- and medical-related activities, and one-fourth is appropriated by the Legislature.
