Officials React to Tobacco Prevention Funding Issues

Source from:  coshoctontribune.com By BRIAN GADD Staff Writer  04/25/2008

A Franklin County Common Pleas Court judge is expected to hear arguments today from state and anti-smoking officials on whether the state can raid tobacco settlement funds for Gov. Ted Strickland's economic stimulus package. Local front-line health officials are keeping their fingers crossed that funding for youth prevention and adult cessation programs will remain intact. "The frustration is, we're just getting settled, the schools are buying into it and we're seeing results," said Beth Cormack, executive director of Coshocton Behavioral Health Choices. The agency is a sub-grantee of the Muskingum Valley Tobacco-Free Coalition, based at the Zanesville-Muskingum County Health Department. "This fund (Ohio Tobacco Prevention Foundation endowment) was set up to go on and on. So we have our fingers crossed." Strickland was able to push through a legislative initiative this month to pull $230 million from the OTPF endowment to funnel into his $1.57 billion stimulus package. In response, the Foundation filed an injunction and also asked for state Treasurer Richard Cordray to transfer $190 million of the $270 million in the endowment to an out-of-state anti-smoking organization, the American Legacy Foundation. The judge will hold a hearing on the matter today. If the Strickland plan goes through, the Foundation will be left with about $40 million, at a time when their program budget for next year is slated to be $43 million. "The timing is so wrong, you have to wonder with the way the economy is, if the government is being penny-wise or pound foolish," Cormack said. "We do need jobs, and the OTPF said 400 jobs could be lost with this. But healthy Ohioans are our main concern." Bonnie Kirsch, health education director at the Zanesville-Muskingum County Health Department, said the neither health department nor the Foundation can comment on the current funding crisis due to pending litigation. But she did say the health department receives $255,730 in Foundation funding for tobacco use prevention programs targeted at youth and adult tobacco dependence programs. These programs are coordinated through the Muskingum Valley Tobacco-Free Coalition - comprised of Coshocton, Morgan and Muskingum counties - and are conducted primarily through Muskingum Behavioral Health, Morgan Behavioral Health Choices and Coshocton Behavioral Health Choices. Prevention strategies include Life Skills and STAND activities. Life Skills is a nationally recognized, evidence-based curriculum that is implemented in grades 3 through 9 in many districts throughout the three counties. "We've reached about 5,000 youth in the last five years," Kirsch said. A free adult tobacco dependence treatment program is also offered which provides support as well as medication for those who plan to complete the whole program. Kirsch said more than 100 people attended the programs, which are held over seven or eight sessions every two months, last year. "It's a coordinated effort with local physicians," Kirsch added. There's also the Ohio Quits Program (1-800-QUIT-NOW) available for anyone who cannot attend the local sessions. According to Foundation statistics, public and school programs and ad campaigns have helped reduce youth smoking by 40 percent and adult smoking by 15 percent since 2003. On the adult side, that translates to nearly 375,000 fewer Ohioans lighting up. "We're preventing youth from starting to smoke, and we're helping people who can't afford cessation products such as nicotine patches and act as a support group for them," Cormack added. "Nicotine is such a hard habit to break. It takes the support of the whole community, and the health departments, and we have that here. It takes a couple of years to see results. It would just be so hard to start things back up again, if we lost the funding and had to start again." Enditem