This Tobacco Money May Be Hazardous To Your Health

When 46 states agreed in 1998 to settle their claims against the nation's tobacco companies for $206 billion, they promised that a "significant" portion of the money would go toward antismoking efforts. In fact, only 5% of the money has been used for that purpose, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, with much of it going to such things as education, capital improvements and budget shortfalls. But perhaps no state has been quite so brazen in distorting the purpose of the settlement money as tobacco-producing North Carolina, which has directed only 1.2% of tobacco revenues to smoking prevention.

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