State spending less on tobacco cessation programs

Tobacco prevention funding cuts have dropped Colorado’s ranking for such funding from 9th to 21st in the nation.

Colorado spends $12.4 million a year on tobacco prevention and cessation programs, including $11.1 million in state funds and a $1.3 million federal grant, according to multiple health organizations that produced the report, “The 1998 State Tobacco Settlement 11 Years Later.”

This is 22.8 percent of the $54.4 million recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Last year, Colorado ranked 9th, spending $27.5 million.

The report was compiled by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, American Lung Association, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Other report findings include:

• Colorado will collect $301 million this year from the 1998 tobacco settlement and tobacco taxes, but will spend less than 4 percent of it on tobacco prevention programs.
• Tobacco companies spend $170.7 million a year on marketing in Colorado.
• Eleven years after the 1998 state tobacco settlement, states are collecting record amounts of revenue from the tobacco industry, while spending less of it on tobacco prevention.
• This year, states will collect $25.1 billion from tobacco settlement and tobacco taxes, while spending 2.3 percent of it – $567.5 million – on tobacco prevention programs.

To view the report, visit, www.tobaccofreekids.org/reports/settlements.