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NJ Profiting $1 Billion From Tobacco Yet Offers Nothing to Help Residents Quit
June 19, 2013
NEW ANALYSIS REVEALS FAILURE OF NEW JERSEY TO USE TOBACCO MONIES FOR TOBACCO CONTROL PROGRAMS
One in Four Cancer Deaths now Caused by Tobacco Use in New Jersey State
(Trenton, NJ) (June 19, 2013) – A new analysis by the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) reveals “one billion reasons” why a tobacco control program needs to be restored in New Jersey. Cancer Brief: One Billion Reasons to Help NJ Tobacco Users To Quit shows that the state is collecting $1 billion annually through tobacco revenue, yet offering none of this funding to help smokers break their addiction or keep kids from starting. Additionally, the analysis reveals that one in four cancer deaths in New Jersey is now caused by tobacco use.
Multiple studies indicate that comprehensive state smoking cessation programs are effective at reducing rates of tobacco use, particularly when states aggressively fund and implement these programs. Currently, cigarette use in New Jersey remains stagnant and non-cigarette tobacco use is on the rise. This trend shows little hope of changing as the state has completely eliminated all funding for critical smoking cessation programs.
“Tobacco use remains the leading cause of cancer death in New Jersey. The state is profiting off of the addiction of its residents, but offering no support to help them break this addiction. This is a terrible formula for the public health and the state economy, aside from being completely unethical,” said Blair Horner, vice president of advocacy, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. “We need an intervention. A dedicated revenue stream needs to be restored for tobacco control programs in New Jersey.”
Despite the fact that over 4,300 New Jersey residents die of cancers caused by tobacco use each year, the state has never adequately financed its tobacco control program when measured by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) recommendation of $119 million per year. In recent years New Jersey has cut state support entirely, relying wholly on minimal support by the federal government, which keeps the program operating at a skeletal level.
New Jersey currently generates a $1 billion per year revenue stream from a $2.70 per pack cigarette excise tax and monies from the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement, litigation commenced by New Jersey against tobacco product manufacturers. A 1998 statement from then-New Jersey Governor Christie Whitman clearly asserts that “every penny of these funds should be used for health purposes, including prevention programs and counter advertising to protect kids, cessation programs and community partnerships to serve those who have already put their health at risk from smoking.” However, more than 14 years later, the promises to use the settlement monies for tobacco prevention has eroded.
ACS CAN is urging New Jersey to spend a dime of every dollar of revenue from tobacco sales on tobacco control, and eventually increase this funding to meet the CDC recommendation.
Every year roughly 400,000 smokers die from tobacco use across the United States.
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About the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network
ACS CAN, the nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy affiliate of the American Cancer Society, supports evidence-based policy and legislative solutions designed to eliminate cancer as a major health problem. ACS CAN works to encourage elected officials and candidates to make cancer a top national priority. ACS CAN gives ordinary people extraordinary power to fight cancer with the training and tools they need to make their voices heard. For more information, visitwww.fightcancer.org.
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