Town Meeting Hon. People who smoke are at increased risk of heart disease, cancer, emphysema and other smoking-related illnesses that contribute to over 420,000 deaths per year. These people dying from cigarettes are our mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, sisters, brothers, colleagues, peers, and friends.
Smoking is no longer just a problem, it is an epidemic that is expanding nationally and globally.
The current proposals very drastically by state. According to a recent USA Today poll, popular opinion favors utilizing the appropriated money in an effort to improve public health care systems. Most Americans believe that the tobacco cash should be returned to those most affected by smoking and not split towards expanding health coverage for impoverished or uninsured families. The same poll reports that 27 percent of Americans would like to see the money spent on antismoking education. However, many governors would prefer to see the funds utilized in existing state education programs, feeling that the development of new programs would raise state expenditures to dangerous levels.