Missouri burns kids on anti-smoking funds
In 2008, tobacco companies spent nearly $420 million dollars pushing their products — in the Show Me State alone.
How much did Missouri spend to counter that marketing bonanza and prevent kids from picking up the habit that kills 9,500 state residents and costs $2.1 billion in health-care bills each year?
Just $2.4 million.
But times are tough and state budgets are strained to the breaking point, right? Well, here’s the part that makes health advocates choke. In 1998, the four largest tobacco companies entered into an agreement with the attorneys general of 46 states, agreeing to shell out more than $200 billion over 25 years to compensate states for the medical costs associated with smoking.
But a new study released yesterday by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids slams Missouri for spending just a sliver of that annual chunk of change on programs related to, uh, smoking. According to the report, Missouri ranks 49th in the nation, using less than 1 percent of the $253 million in tobacco settlement money and taxes it took in last year on smoking prevention.
No wonder 24 percent of Missouri high school students smoke — a rate 4 percent higher than the national average.
