The 1998 Multi-State Tobacco Settlement Rev 2

The Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) is an agreement entered into in November 1998, originally between the Attorneys General of 46 states and the four largest US tobacco companies. The states settled their Medicaid lawsuits against the tobacco industry for recovery of their tobacco-related health care costs.

The agreement also exempted the companies from private tort liability regarding harm caused by tobacco use. In exchange, the companies agreed to pay various annual payments to the states to compensate them for some of the medical costs of caring for persons with smoking-related illnesses and to curtail or cease certain marketing practices.

The tobacco companies agreed to a number of important conditions including the following: to make annual payments to the settling states in perpetuity, to restrict their lobbying, sponsorship, advertising, and litigation activities, particularly as those activities targeted youth; to create and fund the National Public Education Foundation, dedicated to reducing youth smoking and preventing diseases associated with smoking.

States are to receive over $206 billion over 25 years.

In FY 2010 states are projected to receive $8.1 billion in tobacco settlement funds and an additional 17.0 billion in tobacco tax revenues. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that states use $3.7 of the $8.1 billion to fund tobacco prevention programs in 2010.

Unfortunately for smokers, states are only projected to spend a measly $629.5 million of the $8.1 billion on tobacco prevention.

Nine states fund tobacco prevention at less than half the CDC-recommended level.

Thirty states and the District of Columbia provide less than a quarter of the recommended funding by the CDC.

North Dakota is the only state in the United States that currently funds a tobacco prevention program at the level recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Scientific research has proven time and again that smoking cessation and tobacco prevention program work.

You decide.

Do you believe smokers are really getting the support they need from the 1998 Multi-State Tobacco Agreement?

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