State funds to curb teen smoking cut 28%

Indiana is slashing the amount of money it spends on tobacco prevention by 28 percent this fiscal year, according to a new national report.

That ranks it among the bottom half of states when it comes to funding programs designed to keep children from picking up smoking as a habit and helping other smokers quit.

The report was released this week by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and several other organizations. The study found that many states were in similar shape: nationwide, funding for smoking prevention and cessation programs was cut more than 15 percent.

Indiana ranks 29th among all states in funding such programs – down from 28th in a similar report last year, the report said. The Hoosier State also fell far short of the Centers for Disease and Control Prevention’s recommended expenditure on such programs.

Indiana, which has the second-highest smoking rate among adults, according to the CDC, currently spends $11.8 million on smoking prevention and cessation programs, down from $16 million last year. The CDC recommends that Indiana spend upward of $78.8 million on prevention programs.

“I think the cut came because of the economic condition we have right now,” said Melissa Lewis, director of special projects with the Indiana Academy of Family Physicians, who spoke for the Indiana Tobacco Prevention & Cessation agency.

And the cuts are being felt locally. Anti-tobacco agencies have had to deal with fewer grants to give out to local organizations and schools for tobacco education, forgo putting together smoking cessation classes for the public and in some cases cut salaries.

“We need to help our state legislators understand that when cutting those funds, it has a direct impact on the population they serve,” said Dick Conklin, executive director of Tobacco Free Allen County, a government agency.

Conklin said that last year his agency had roughly $300,000 in grant money and other funds to spend on smoking prevention and cessation. That total has dropped to about $180,000, he said, meaning fewer classes and less advertising.

Dave Bell, the executive director of Tobacco-Free LaGrange County, is in a similar situation.

With his budget of $50,000 over the next two years, he cut his work hours from full time to two-thirds time. He can give smoking cessation classes to companies that have eliminated smoking on work property for employees, but he no longer has the funds for public classes.

Also in danger was an essay contest that Bell’s agency has for high school students to write about their experience with tobacco. But a sponsor came up with $950 to fund the contest, which includes cash awards for the winners.

“When you cut more than the fat, you cut into the bone,” Bell said.

Indiana is one of 46 states that receive money every year as part a 1998 settlement of a lawsuit against tobacco companies. That settlement, coupled with the taxes from the sale of tobacco products, amounts to $622 million in revenue this fiscal year. Only 1.9 percent will go to prevent smoking, according to the national report.

In each of the past four years, Indiana had spent more than 2 percent of revenue on programs to prevent smoking, according to data compiled by Tobacco-Free Kids.

State legislators hash out where the tobacco money goes as part of the state budget, according to Tim Filler, the grass-roots committee chairman for the Indiana Campaign for Smokefree Air, a coalition of several organizations looking to tighten smoking bans in the state.

Portions of that money go to other health-related issues, not all of which are caused by smoking, Filler said. Mental health, prescription drugs, child health insurance, aging and AIDS programs are all getting a chunk of that money this year, Filler said.

A few programs seemingly unrelated to health are also getting money, like the Rural Economic Fund, according to Filler.

“We don’t want to be seen as competing with those programs,” Filler said. “But hopefully legislators will see (smoking prevention programs) are not only a health savings in the long run, but also an investment that can save money in the long term.”

The Tobacco-Free Kids report warns that it’s a dangerous time to cut such funding as a steady decline of adult smokers nationwide over the years has now stalled.

Jerri Lerch, executive director of the Allen County Drug and Alcohol Consortium, used a report by the Indiana Prevention Resource Center at Indiana University released in September to show that Allen County-area teenagers are smoking less on a monthly and daily basis compared with their peers in the state, and in some cases rate about the same as teenagers nationwide.

But Conklin believes that cutting prevention programs gives tobacco companies a chance to rein in younger smokers as more and more products are targeted to that age group.

Tobacco companies spend $426.2 million a year to market products in Indiana, according to the Tobacco-Free Kids report.