Joe Henderson
Tobacco Free Florida is working.
The number of Floridians using tobacco has declined dramatically. As Jim Rosica reported for Florida Politics, former state Attorney General Bob Butterworth said the number of high school students using tobacco has dropped to 4.2 percent.
It was at more than 27 percent two decades ago when Tobacco Free Florida began an aggressive campaign to help people stop smoking or never start in the first place.
So, naturally, when you have something that works this well, lawmakers can’t resist the urge to mess with success. Hence, there is a movement afoot in the Constitutional Revision Commission to divert money from the prevention program and give it to, well … no one is sure.
Proposal 94, filed by CRC member and House Speaker pro tempore Jeanette Nuñez originally proposed re-directing the money to cancer research, but dropped that idea on Wednesday without explanation.
That doesn’t mean Tobacco Free Florida is in the clear though because the current proposal still restricts its funding source, subject to commission approval.
That explains why Butterworth, public relations man Ron Sachs and others are on guard.
Currently, law mandates 15 percent of the money from the $11 billion settlement Florida made with big tobacco companies in 1997 be used for all the anti-smoking pitches you see from Tobacco Free Florida. It also joins with health-care leaders to help Floridians addicted to tobacco break the habit. It offers educational tools about the harm tobacco can cause.
Like I said, it’s working.
So, what’s behind this sudden urge to mess with success?
Butterworth said he wouldn’t be surprised to find Big Tobacco is in the mix somewhere behind the scenes. The secrecy of how this whole thing got rolling in the first place certainly opens up a lot of conspiracy theories.
I mean, you know how Tallahassee lawmakers are when they think they can get their mitts on a pot of money.
The alarm has been sounded on this though, and even if the CRC approves the measure it would still have to go before voters in November.
One can only hope it would get smoked.
