Ohio’s tobacco-prevention funding rank falls
Written by Caitlin McGlade | | news@toledofreepress.comIn 2007, Ohio ranked 13th in the nation for tobacco prevention funding. This year, the state landed in 45th place.
The Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, in conjunction with the American Heart Association, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, American Lung Association and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, released its annual report Dec. 9 with grim numbers for anti-tobacco campaigners.
Revealing that most states fall short of the Centers for Disease Control’s recommended $145 million budget for prevention, the study concluded that tobacco sales are high while prevention funding has been cut by more than 15 percent on average.
Between the 1998 Tobacco Settlement and tobacco taxes, Ohio will receive $1.8 billion, but reportedly has a $7.4 million budget for prevention programs, which is about $138 million shy of the CDC’s recommended amount. Two years ago, the state had a $45 million budget, pumping resources into the Tobacco Prevention Foundation, which offered programs and provided grants for regional health departments across the state, said Beverly May
“It’s a perfect storm,” said Beverly May, regional director of advocacy for the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids.
She said Ohio has taken the blow because the tax on non-cigarette tobacco products have not increased, money from the tobacco settlement of 1998 was used for securitization and because Columbus is one of three target cities for most tobacco companies.
And in 2008, the state legislature and Gov. Ted Strickland closed the Tobacco Prevention Foundation and attempted to use the appropriated funds for other purposes — a decision that was ruled unconstitutional by a Franklin County judge and now awaits an appeal within the Franklin County Court of Appeals, May said.
Without a budgetary change, there isn’t room for any improvement, she added.
“It won’t get better and it won’t become stagnant, it will get worse,” May said. “The youth rates will go up and you’ll have more smoking-related diseases and it will cost the state more money in Medicaid.”
More than $4 billion is spent annually on tobacco-related health care costs in Ohio, according to the study.
Lucas County hit
Lucas County took a hard hit when its various tobacco prevention programs lost funding from the state, said Holly Kowalczk, a certified tobacco treatment specialist at St. Luke’s Hospital.
Her program, one of the last ones standing in Lucas County since the foundation dissolved, offers free support services to adults with a nicotine addiction. But the county’s free service runs on St. Luke’s Hospital’s dollar and might not have funding next year, she said.
Free programs for nicotine-addicted individuals once flourished in the county, Kowalczk said. Other hospitals had free services, as did groups such as the Northwest Ohio Strategic Alliance for Tobacco Control.
The alliance once operated on a $750 million annual budget and focused on educating children and teenagers about the tobacco industry’s marketing campaigns said Jan Ruma, vice president of the Hospital Council of Northwest Ohio.
The alliance had resistance programs within schools and also trained high school students to teach younger students about tobacco as well, she said.
“Now we basically don’t have a budget,” Ruma said. “It’s pretty much a volunteer effort.”
This spring, the alliance plans to invite school teachers and administrators for informative sessions on tobacco marketing strategies, she said, adding that the alliance is run on the “passion to help” for the time being.
She said the alliance and other Lucas County prevention services are awaiting the money that is tied up in the courtroom, but by the time any decision is made, it could be too late.
“My hope that the funds will be reallocated but I’m afraid that the process will be so long and drawn out that we’ll have to create new programs when we used to have great programs before the foundation was abolished,” Ruma said.
The most recent Lucas County report about children and teenage smokers was released in 2008 by the Mental Health and Recovery Services Board. Results revealed that 20 percent of high school seniors in Lucas County smoke at least every 30 days, while 16 percent of juniors smoke. Those numbers remained unchanged from 2006’s report.
The state also averages about 20 percent of adults who smoke and about 19 percent of high school students who smoke, according to the national report.
Lucas County’s report also showed that 32 percent of those surveyed started smoking between the ages of 13 and 14 — a statistic that Kowalczk said could continue to grow.
“One thing that isn’t captured in the smoking trend is that we’ve seen a huge change from last year to this year in that students aren’t just smoking cigarettes, they’re using dip, cigars, hookah,” she said. “That’s scary to us that there’s a whole lot of underground usage going on here.”
Other products that May cited include “Strips,” which taste like mint and work like Listerine strips on the tongue, but release nicotine into the body. She also said a newer form of tobacco is marketed as “Orbs” which come in Tic-Tac type form and also taste minty.
The recent ban on flavored cigarettes made a dent in the marketing scene, she said, but in the future her campaign will push legislatures to ban other flavored tobacco products such as cigars.
But for Ohio’s remaining prevention programs, even spreading the word about available resources is difficult without the money, she said.
Ohio still has a Quit line that people can call for help, but no advertising can be done because of lack of funds, May said. The Ohio Department of Health also disperses grants to local health departments with the money that is left.
For now, locals in Lucas County are just trying to advocate for saying no and reaching out to schools as much as they can.
“I think it’s just important to be vigilant and make sure we’re doing everything we can,” Ruma said.
Tags: Smoking
These smoking bans will probably go down in history as one of the greatest marketing scams ever by having drug companies using tax exempt political action committees calling themselves “charities” and contributing huge sums of money to them. The money is endless.
Here’s the beginning of the latest ban movement in the USA.
http://www.rwjf.org/pr/product.jsp?ia=143&id=14912
This comment was posted on December 11th, 2009 at 10:59 amBuy an electric cigarette and quit giving the government money and control over your life.
This comment was posted on December 11th, 2009 at 2:38 pmI bot one from Crown7 and I have not had a regular cig in months-to hell with govt and their stealing.
America,Land of the free or land of smokefree
This comment was posted on December 12th, 2009 at 8:53 amcommunists? Why should the taxpayer pay for the
prevention of single individuals? Why must he
support the indoctrination of a lifestyle like
in the Soviet Union? Spent this money for those,
who are really sick. That will be good for america.
The Master Settlement Agreement was to reimburse states for past Medicare cost. In the current eceonomic downturn, the states cannot afford to fund the anti tobacco agenda. The groups advocating additional funding are very wealthy non profit entities fully capable of funding the anti tobacco agenda themselves. They are tax exempt, therefore free to raise and spend as much as they want tax free.
Why do they want and expect the states to forego fully funding schools, public safety, real health care (as opposed to health nagging) and transportation? There are only so many dollars to go around and basic state services must trump their agenda. Let’s be realistic, the states will never outlaw tobacco, so why waste tax dollars on what is basically a private agenda?
This comment was posted on December 13th, 2009 at 12:41 amTo: Governor Ted Strickland
Governor’s Office
Riffe Center, 30th Floor
77 South High Street
Columbus, OH 43215-6108
Subject: Malfeasance
Dear M. Strickland
I am fully aware as others are that you and the Ohio Legislature shut down the Ohio Tobacco Prevention Foundation. Part of the reasoning was because of the passage of the CIA Act (Smoking Ban that now has been exposed as illegal as it did not have enough signatures to even been placed upon the ballot) that such massive funding was no longer needed. Of course with spending like this they should have been out of business!
TOBACCO USE PREVENTION AND CONTROL FOUNDATION
BOARD MEETING
Friday, June 3, 2005
9:00 AM
300 E. Broad St., Conference Rooms A-C
• Grant #03-2-051, Health Improvement Collaborative of Greater Cincinnati
o Board Members Recused: Ms. Ayres
o Amount Recommended: $100,000
o A motion was made by Dr. Sopko to approve funding the grant at the
recommended amount. The motion was seconded by Ms. Pullins and
discussion took place:
• Dr. Sopko asked staff to elaborate on the noted weaknesses. Mr.
Page 2
Slenkovich stated that the Notice of Award will contain a special
condition related to monitoring subgrantees.
• Dr. Crane expressed concern that only two women stayed quit after the
program. Mr. Slenkovich explained that these are urban Appalachian
women who are very difficult to get into the program. The grantee
continues to try different marketing methods.
Now $100,000 and the result was two women quit? That’s not even close to being realistic!
But my concern is how you and the legislators allowed Susan Jagers (a American Cancer Society employee, lobbyist and leader of Smoke Frewe Ohio Ballot Issue 5) to get off the hook when she tried to steal the $190,000,000 out of your and the legislators hands by the following action.
Anti Smoker American Cancer Employee Registered Lobbyist Susan Jagers appointed to the OTPF by Lobbyist Gift taker Governor Bob Taft thought she knew what was better for the state of Ohio’s Governor and Legislature in trying to keep Ohioans employed!
OHIO TOBACCO PREVENTION FOUNDATION
BOARD MEETING MINUTES
Friday, April 4, 2008
9:00 AM
Ohio Tobacco Prevention Foundation
300 East Broad Street, O’Keefe Conference Room
Ms. Jagers then made a motion to authorize the transfer of $190,000,000 from the
Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Foundation endowment fund to one or all of
three organizations equally: Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, (NOTE DONATED OVER $78,000 to Susan Jaggers Smokefree Ohio Issue 5 Smoking Ban) American Legacy Foundation, Ohio Hospital Association for Healthy Communities Foundation, to
carry out the mission of the Ohio Tobacco Prevention Foundation and fulfill the
board’s fiduciary duties. In addition, to authorize the Executive Director, Michael
Renner, to do all things necessary and prudent to carry out the transfer and to alter
distribution if satisfactory contractual agreements cannot be reached with one or more
of the organizations. The motion was seconded by Mr. Francis and the vote passed
with (10) Board members voting yes and (4) members voting no. The votes were as
follows:
Page 3
That should have rang ethics loud and clear to you and the Legislature. Even the Board meeting its self was questioned about violating the Ohio Sunshine Law!
But look here:
Do a bit of research by looking at the IRS returns of the American Cancer Society, Tobacco
Free Kids and the American Legacy Foundation. As so called non profits they have to make their IRS 990 returns public. I looked at them. In one case the American legacy gave over $5,000,000 to Tobacco Free Kids, Tobacco Free Kids gives the American Cancer Society hundreds of thousands the American Cancer Society throws hundreds of thousands to Tobacco Free Kids. Can one say launder?
Do you not think for a moment she wasn’t thinking of some of that money going back into the hands of the American Cancer Society? Sure would make for a nice bonus or promotion wouldn’t it?
Even now that $190,000,000 is tied up as you did not go after it full force!
You blew tax payers dollars with the half hearted save the Private Club exemption much the same way as Carter did his failed rescue attempt in Iran. I said half hearted as you will not get off your Jackass Democrat Mascot and back the exemption as you well could! Private Clubs have had to close, private family owned businesses out of business and you do nothing! A State law that was conceived illegally and you do nothing! Dang it Ted, tell the American Cancer Society to get bent they cannot get you reelected only you can!
Here is another example of the crap the American Cancer Society pulls off! Try tax evasion! Checking the Ohio Consolidated Divisions expenditures against their Federal Tax 990 filings we find that
OHIO! Part 1
Smokefree Ohio Ballot Issue 5
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY OHIO DIVISION INC.$52,276.37 06/30/2006
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY OHIO DIVISION INC.$15,000.00 05/15/2006
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY OHIO DIVISION INC.$17,696.25 06/05/2006
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY OHIO DIVISION INC.$40,980.00 06/27/2006
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY OHIO DIVISION INC.$4,124.88 06/30/2006
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY OHIO DIVISION INC.$5,310.00 07/05/2006
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY OHIO DIVISION INC.$17,016.89 07/31/2006
Page 4
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY OHIO DIVISION INC.$400.00 08/30/2006
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY OHIO DIVISION INC.$10,186.74 08/31/2006
Grass roots lobbying donations $162,991.13
FY Sep1 05 – Aug31 06
THIS WHAT THEY CLAIMED ON THEIR TAX RETURN $93,457.00 FY Sep1 05 – Aug31 06 requested data for 2006
DIFFERENCE $69,534.13
Part 2
Smokefree Ohio Ballot Issue 5
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY OHIO DIVISION INC.$9,000.00 09/12/2006
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY OHIO DIVISION INC.$26,750.00 09/27/2006
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY OHIO DIVISION INC.$5,400.29 09/27/2006
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY OHIO DIVISION INC.$3,200.00 09/29/2006
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY OHIO DIVISION INC.$9,000.00 10/06/2006
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY OHIO DIVISION INC.$97,182.10 10/18/2006
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY OHIO DIVISION INC.$100,000.00 10/18/2006
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY OHIO DIVISION INC.$9,420.50 10/18/2006
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY OHIO DIVISION INC.$57,261.89 10/18/2006
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY OHIO DIVISION INC.$5,670.40 10/18/2006
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY OHIO DIVISION INC.$84,572.47 12/08/2006
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY OHIO DIVISION INC.$22,000.00 11/03/2006
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY OHIO DIVISION INC.$100.00 11/10/2006
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY OHIO DIVISION INC.$100.00 11/13/2006
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY OHIO DIVISION INC.$75.00 11/28/2006
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY OHIO DIVISION INC.$2,891.00 11/17/2006
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY OHIO DIVISION INC.$12,533.09 10/25/2006
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY OHIO DIVISION INC.$11,137.77 11/28/2006
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY OHIO DIVISION INC.$1,363.01 11/30/2006
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY OHIO DIVISION INC.$3,200.00 10/23/2006
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY OHIO DIVISION INC.$3,200.00 11/28/2006
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY OHIO DIVISION INC.$813.56 11/07/2006
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY OHIO DIVISION INC.$266.09 11/17/2006
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY OHIO DIVISION INC.$537.51 11/21/2006
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY OHIO DIVISION INC.$19.95 11/17/2006
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY OHIO DIVISION INC.$41,392.54 11/07/2006
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY OHIO DIVISION INC.$12,741.78 11/07/2006
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY OHIO DIVISION INC.$14,438.76 11/07/2006
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY OHIO DIVISION INC.$7,500.00 10/20/2006
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY OHIO DIVISION INC.$399.00 10/27/2006
Page 5
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY OHIO DIVISION INC.$521.88 11/28/2006
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY, OHIO DIVISON, INC.$27,000.00 12/11/2006
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY, OHIO DIVISON, INC.$2,336.19 12/11/2006
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY, OHIO DIVISON, INC.$2,972.99 02/13/2007
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY, OHIO DIVISON, INC.$550.97 01/09/2007
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY, OHIO DIVISON, INC.$2,292.93 02/13/2007
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY, OHIO DIVISON, INC.$1,057.38 02/13/2007
Grass roots lobbying donations.$578,899.05
FY Sep 01 06- Aug 31 07
THIS WHAT THEY CLAIMED ON THEIR TAX RETURN
$8,353.00 FY Sep 01 06- Aug 31 07 Tax return line 36 (b) page 81
DIFFERENCE $570,546.05
That’s data from the ACS Website showing their 990s and the Ohio Secretary of State Campaign data base!
Now do you want to Socialize with these people or do you want to come clean and do what’s right? Please don’t feed me the political crapola that the people voted for it. ( a illegal ballot initiative to start with)
This comment was posted on December 13th, 2009 at 1:02 amIf you will recall Ohioans voted to keep the drinking age at 18 but the Legislature and Governor said to hell with the vote!
I sure would appreciate a reply to this letter, better yet I suggest you get to work and get this whole smoking ban straightened out! Look you gave the ACS a shot at it and it is failing and you know it yourself, if you don’t, I will personally take you on a two hour tour that will show you the ban is a joke and should be done away with.
Sincerely
Lets break this down to make sense of some facts.
(1) Tobacco Free Kids was started by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation with $84 million. It is a lobby arm of the RWJF and tied to the RWJF in many ways.
(2) The American Heart Association receives grant funds from the RWJF.
(3) The American Cancer Action Network receives grant funds from the RWJF.
(4) The American Lung Association receives grant funds from the RWJF.
(5) It is no secret that the smoking bans are funded with grants to the American Cancer Society (the middle man that profits).
(6) It is also no secret that the RWJF worth billions of dollars was founded by an elder of the Johnson and Johnson company (the band-aid, baby powder people). Once the foundation was formed, JnJ went out and bought currently totaling at 250 pharmaceutical companies. They make THE no-smoke products.
So why don’t you just print that the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation worth billions of dollars has a goal to sell the JnJ products and is using all of its ‘arms’ to promote social engineering to get what it wants using other peoples money?
Now would you care to talk about all the studies they pay for with grants ‘to fit their agenda’ where others stamp their name on it?
This comment was posted on December 13th, 2009 at 1:54 amThe Master Settlement Agreement was to reimburse states for past Medicare cost. In the current eceonomic downturn, the states cannot afford to fund the anti tobacco agenda. The groups advocating additional funding are very wealthy non profit entities fully capable of funding the anti tobacco agenda themselves. They are tax exempt, therefore free to raise and spend as much as they want tax free.
Why do they want and expect the states to forego fully funding schools, public safety, real health care (as opposed to health nagging) and transportation? There are only so many dollars to go around and basic state services must trump their agenda. Let’s be realistic, the states will never outlaw tobacco, so why waste tax dollars on what is basically a private agenda?
T he rwjf wants to move onto alcohol and obesity as their next marketing terrortory…..
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: Financier of Temperance
by David J. Hanson, Ph.D.
The temperance-oriented Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) “seeks to drive adult beverage consumption underground, away from mainstream culture and public places.” 1 It attempts to stigmatize alcohol, de-legitimize drinking, marginalize drinkers, and create a de facto quasi-prohibition of the legal product.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation spent over a quarter of a billion (that’s billion, not million) dollars ($265,000,000.00) in just four years alone further developing and funding a nation-wide network of anti-alcohol organizations, centers, activist leaders, and opinion writers to promote its long-term goal.
An in-depth report, Behind the Neo-Prohibition Campaign: The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, demonstrates that “nearly every study disparaging adult beverages in the mass media, every legislative push to limit alcohol marketing or increase taxes, and every supposedly ‘grassroots’ anti-alcohol organization” is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. 2 The foundation supports numerous temperance-oriented activists and groups including:
•The Rand Corporation, whose studies in support of roadblocks and limiting access to alcohol are funded by RWJF.
•The Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA), now calling itself the National Center on Addictions and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, whose many flawed studies have been widely refuted. CASA has received more than $35 million from RWJF since 1991.
•The Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY), which exists for one purpose: to accuse alcohol ads of “targeting’ underage drinkers” and “create public outrage” against them. RWJF established CAMY with a $5 million grant.
•The Department of Education’s Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention (HEC), which argues for “changing people’s knowledge, attitudes, and behavioral intentions regarding alcohol use,” It also supports “reducing alcohol availability” and “reducing alcohol promotion and marketing.” HEC — an agency of the federal government — receives “supplemental” funding from RWJF.
•Ralph Hingson, formerly Vice President for Public Policy at Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), who published a deeply flawed report claiming that alcohol causes 1,400 deaths among college students each year. These findings were repudiated by the federal government’s General Accountability Office or GAO. Hingson received a $300,000 fellowship from RWJF.
•Jim Gogek, an editorial writer for the San Diego Union-Tribune, who wrote an op-ed in The New York Times accusing the governors of Maryland, New York and New Jersey of being bought and paid for by the alcohol industry because they oppose even higher ’sin’ taxes. Gogek is paid $25,000 a year by RWJF.
•Richard Yoast, who wrote a report called “The Alcohol Industry: Partner or Foe?” that argues there are two kinds of people: those who abuse alcohol, and those who abstain. The former shouldn’t have access to it, the argument goes, and the latter won’t care if you take it away. Yoast heads the American Medical Association’s Office of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse. RWJF has given nearly $6 million to Yoast’s office. 3
•Henry Wechsler, who has received about $6,500,000 to date from RWJF to fund his College Alcohol Study project, in which he insists on using the misleading term “binge” to describe behavior that needn’t even be intoxicated. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation gave Wechsler about one million dollars just to publicize his inflated “binge” data and anti-alcohol recommendations. That obviously buys a lot of news coverage. For more, visit Henry Wechsler.
Other major parts of the Foundation’s temperance-oriented network include The Alcohol Policies Project, run by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), the Marin Institute, the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, the Trauma Foundation, Join Together Online, Leadership to Keep Children Alcohol Free, 4 ImpacTeen, Fighting Back, A Matter of Degree, 5 and Henry Wechsler’s College Alcohol Study project (often called the Harvard College Study).
A “teen” protest against alcohol advertising held in Washington at the Beer Institute was well-covered in news reports. However, virtually none of the reports revealed that the protest was actually organized by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. 6
Similarly, the following is a list of what appear to be grassroots organizations dedicated to reducing or preventing underage alcohol use:
•Pennsylvanians Against Underage Drinking
•Texans Standing Tall – A Statewide Coalition to Reduce Underage Drinking
•Louisiana Alliance to Prevent Underage Drinking
•Oregon Coalition to Reduce Underage Drinking
•Missouri’s Youth/Adult Alliance Against Underage Drinking
•National Capital Coalition to Prevent Underage Drinking
•Minnesota Join Together Coalition to Reduce Underage Drinking
•Georgia Alcohol Policy Partnership
•Puerto Rico Coalition to Reduce Underage Drinking
•Indiana Coalition to Reduce Underage Drinking
•Partners to Reduce Underage Drinking in North Carolina
•Connecticut Coalition to Stop Underage Drinking
In reality, all of these groups are part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s nation-wide program to influence alcohol policy at both the state and federal levels.
http://alcoholfacts.org/RWJfoundation.html
This comment was posted on December 14th, 2009 at 6:47 amThe Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, in conjunction with the American Heart Association, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, American Lung Association and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, released its annual report Dec. 9 with grim numbers for anti-tobacco campaigners.
This comment was posted on January 5th, 2010 at 3:56 am