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Action on Smoking and Health
A National Legal-Action Antismoking Organization Entirely Supported by Tax-Deductible Contributions
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SC Cuts Funding for Youth Smoking Prevention Programs [8/18-1]
Excerpts from: Anti-smoking programs cut
Associated
Press [07/17/03]
Lawmakers have cut the $2 million set aside to pay for programs to prevent
youth smoking.
The money was to have come out of the $2.3 billion that South Carolina is getting
from a national tobacco settlement.
The $2 million was removed from the budget in early June by a conference committee
as it mediated differences between House and Senate budget bills.
Last year, the Legislature approved about $2 million to pay for anti-smoking
initiatives.
The money went for advertising programs and to finance sting operations against
stores that sell cigarettes to kids.
The future of those programs is now in doubt.
Much of the state's $2.3 billion tobacco settlement has already been spent,
given to tobacco farmers, to rural water and sewer projects, and to hospitals,
doctors and pharmacists for treating low-income patients.
An estimated one-third of South Carolina high school students smoke, which
is one of the highest rates in the nation.
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