Anti-smoking program again flush with cash

Publication Date: 2007-07-25

• Author:DAVID ROYSE
• Publication:Herald Tribune

Florida's once-heralded youth anti-smoking program is coming back.

Lawmakers had gutted the program's budget in recent years, but last year voters forced the program back into relevancy. Voters in November changed the constitution to require the Legislature to put 15 percent of the state's tobacco settlement dollars into the program each year, just under $58 million in the current year.

"We have restored an effective youth tobacco prevention program, which includes a substantial appropriation for smoking cessation," said Don Webster, CEO of the American Cancer Society's Florida Division...

It likely will be at least early next year before most Floridians come into contact with the anti-smoking campaign, at least in the form of new ads, said Paul Hull, vice president of the American Cancer Society, which pushed hard for the constitutional amendment.