HERE to read the full text of the proposed amendment.
Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, accounting for more than 440,000 deaths each year. With 90 percent of adult smokers having started before the age of 19, the threat of tobacco is greatest among youth. Each year in Florida, more than 35,900 kids under the age of 18 becomClicke new daily smokers, and 296,900 Florida youth in this age group living today will eventually die prematurely from smoking.
Florida’s Youth Tobacco Control Program was once a national model in the fight against youth tobacco consumption. The program began in 1998, and until the funding was dramatically cut by the Legislature, smoking rates dropped by 58 percent among middle school students and 37 percent among high school students. This decline represented nearly 119,000 fewer youth smokers and more than 44,000 fewer premature smoking deaths, according to the Florida Department of Health. Funding restoration for the Florida Youth Tobacco Control Program has been requested repeatedly over the past three legislative sessions, but these requests have been unsuccessful in convincing our elected officials to adequately fund the program.
With virtually no money currently being invested in the program, children entering middle school and high school are not hearing about the dangers of tobacco use and are again becoming prime marketing targets for Big Tobacco. Given the political resistance that has been manufactured by tobacco interests, we are asking the residents of Florida to make their feelings known on the issue of youth tobacco prevention.
Floridians for Youth Tobacco Education, Inc. have proposed a constitutional amendment to protect Floridians, especially youth, from addiction, disease and other health hazards associated with tobacco use. This amendment would require the Florida Legislature to annually fund a comprehensive, statewide tobacco education and prevention program, using tobacco settlement money and utilizing the 1999 Centers for Disease Control’s best practices to primarily target youth and other at-risk Floridians. Annual funding would be 15 percent of 2005 tobacco settlement payments to Florida, adjusted annually for inflation. Key outreach activities of the program would include the following elements:
- Marketing campaign, including television, radio and print advertising
- School-based curriculum and programs
- Support of locally-based partnerships such as Students Working Against Tobacco (SWAT)
- Enforcement of laws, regulations and policies against the sale or other provision of tobacco to minors and the possession of tobacco by minors
- Annual evaluation of the program’s effectiveness in reducing and preventing underage tobacco use, and recommendations to enhance the program’s effectiveness
Click HERE to read the full text of the proposed amendment.
Click HERE to download the petition. (Requires free Adobe Acrobat Reader.)
