Santa Fe, NM – October 26, 2016—With the rallying cry, “Our Kids are the Return on Investment,” major health groups in New Mexico held a media event and rally outside the Roundhouse on the East Concourse in Santa Fe today to bring attention to the need to re-invest in tobacco prevention, education and cessation programs. Teens and college students were some of the several dozen advocates asking the public to sign dollar bill-shaped petitions urging lawmakers to renew their commitment to funding tobacco prevention in the state of New Mexico. Lawmakers received pictures of New Mexico youth holding signs that say "I am the Return on Investment."
In the final hours of the recent special session, New Mexico lawmakers broke a promise to protect future generations from deadly tobacco addiction by draining the $220 million Tobacco Settlement Permanent Fund to fix the state budget crisis. Without tobacco prevention programs, New Mexicans’ public and fiscal health will suffer.
The groups, including the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, the American Lung Association of New Mexico, the American Heart Association, the American Stroke Association, Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids and Keres Consulting, Inc., are also calling for a $1 per pack cigarette tax increase with an equivalent tax on other tobacco products including e-cigarettes.
“Right now, 40,000 New Mexico kids alive today will die prematurely from smoking. State lawmakers can change this statistic with fully funded tobacco prevention and cessation programs and increased tobacco taxes,” said ACS CAN New Mexico Government Relations Director Sandra Adondakis. “Lawmakers have a responsibility to ensure future tobacco settlement dollars keep funding programs and services that are proven to fight tobacco use and save lives. The Master Settlement Agreement is New Mexico’s single best opportunity to break the cycle of tobacco addiction for our state’s youngest generations.”
The state receives annual payments of more than $35 million from the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement as compensation for tobacco-related suffering, death and disease caused by major tobacco companies. These dollars are normally paid into the Tobacco Settlement Permanent Fund, a restricted “savings account” created in New Mexico to provide long-term, stable funding for tobacco control and chronic disease prevention.
“While this fund was effectively dismantled in this year’s special session, it’s imperative that the state’s tobacco-fighting programs remain intact,” Adondakis added.
A 2015 Institute of Medicine report determined that 90 percent of adult daily smokers begin using cigarettes before 19, making youth-focused tobacco prevention programs critical in reducing tobacco-related death and disease. Tobacco settlement dollars help fund programs such as the Evolvement youth engagement program. Since 2010, more than 3,000 high school students statewide have been trained to educate communities and their leaders about the harmful effects of tobacco use.
High school youth smoking rates in New Mexico have fallen by more than 42 percent since 2011, thanks in large part to tobacco prevention and education programs funded by Master Settlement Agreement dollars in the past.
“There will be no additional lawsuits of this type to defend ourselves against the $37 million dollars the tobacco industry spends on advertising annually in New Mexico. We must invest in programs that actually prevent tobacco addiction now,” said Terry Huertaz, Executive Director of American Lung Association in New Mexico. “And lawmakers should seriously consider increasing the state tobacco tax to save lives, save healthcare costs and generate revenue.”
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, visit www.fightcancer.org.
About the American Lung Association in New Mexico
The American Lung Association is the leading organization working to save lives by improving lung health and preventing lung disease, through research, education and advocacy. The work of the American Lung Association is focused on four strategic imperatives: to defeat lung cancer; to improve the air we breathe; to reduce the burden of lung disease on individuals and their families; and to eliminate tobacco use and
tobacco-related diseases. For more information about the American Lung Association, a holder of the Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Guide Seal, or to support the work it does, call 1-800-LUNGUSA (1-800-586-4872) or visit our website: Lung.org.
About the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids
The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids is a leading force in the fight to reduce tobacco use and its deadly toll in the United States and around the world. Our vision: A future free of the death and disease caused by tobacco. Tobacco-Free Kids works to save lives by advocating for public policies that prevent kids from smoking, help smokers quit and protect everyone from secondhand smoke. Learn more at www.tobaccofreekids.org.
About the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association
The American Heart Association and the American Stroke Association are devoted to saving people from heart disease and stroke – the two leading causes of death in the world. We team with millions of volunteers to fund innovative research, fight for stronger public health policies, and provide lifesaving tools and information to prevent and treat these diseases. The Dallas-based American Heart Association is the nation’s oldest and largest voluntary organization dedicated to fighting heart disease and stroke. The American Stroke Association is a division of the American Heart Association. To learn more or to get involved, call 1-800-AHA-USA1, visit heart.org or call any of our offices around the country. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
About Keres Consulting, Inc. is a Native American-owned, New Mexico-based small business that cares about the impact of commercial tobacco in New Mexico’s tribal communities. It works to eliminate death and disease caused from commercial tobacco through commercial tobacco prevention, cessation and education in Native American communities throughout New Mexico.
