Opinions

Saturday, Sep. 06, 2008

Fight teen smoking

If you are concerned about a possible rise in teen smoking or hope to kick the habit yourself, don't look to the state for help.

South Carolina and Connecticut are the only two states that spend nothing on smoking prevention programs. The state uses federal money to fund a quit-smoking hotline, but that's about it as far as helping smokers quit.

The quit line still gets about 250 calls a month, but follow-up counseling has been scaled back. In the past, everyone who called got five return intervention calls. Now, those are limited to smokers who are insured, on Medicaid or pregnant. Other callers get just the initial talk with a smoking cessation coach.

Anti-smoking advocates fear that teen smoking could jump and fewer adults will quit without some attempt to address the issue at the state level. While the rate of teen smoking had fallen for years, beginning in 2006, the rate began to level off, indicating a possible resurgence.

South Carolina has received $364 million from its $910 mill-ion settlement with tobacco companies to pay the cost of providing health care to smokers, but it has spent just $5.4 million of that money on anti-smoking efforts. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which recommends spending levels on anti-smoking efforts based on the number of smokers in the state, said South Carolina should spend $62 million a year on the programs.

One program that had received money from the tobacco settlement was Rage Against the Haze, a student operated smoking-prevention effort aimed at 13- to 18-year-olds. But the state cut funding for the program this year, and students now are trying to operate it by raising their own money.

A hike in the state's lowest-in-the-nation tobacco tax would have provided a boost for prevention and cessation programs. The bill raising the current 7-cent tax by 50 cents would have allocated the first $5 million in revenues from the tax to anti-smoking programs.

Raising the tax also would have been a deterrent in itself to teen smoking. Research shows that teen smoking decreases as the cost of cigarettes rises.

But Gov. Mark Sanford vetoed the tax hike, saying lawmakers had failed to balance it with a concurrent tax cut elsewhere in the budget.

The benefits of raising the cigarette tax, including increased funding for Medicaid, would have been numerous. But even without a tax hike, the state should invest in anti-smoking programs, especially among teens.

Smoking is the leading cause of preventable illness in the nation. Helping people to quit could have a significant impact on the overall cost of health care, and preventing young people from smoking in the first place would be even more effective.

Many states are making the effort. Voters in Florida, for example, approved a constitutional amendment in 2006 requiring the state to spend 15 percent of tobacco settlement money on smoking cessation and prevention. As a result, the state now spends about $58 million a year on those programs.

One Florida antismoking program, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, estimates that lifetime health care for the average smoker costs $17,500 more than the average nonsmoker. So, if the $17 million program keeps 1,000 teens from lighting up, it pays for itself.

South Carolina needs to start doing the math and investing in the future health of its teenagers.