Former Tobacco Lobbyist Turned Governor Kills Statewide Anti-Smoking Program or Should an ex tobacco lobbyist be making changes to anti smoking programs?

December 04, 2006 1:40 PM
Anna Schecter Reports:
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a former tobacco industry lobbyist, won a long battle in court to withdraw all funding for Mississippi's highly successful anti-smoking program, and last week the last dollar ran out.
"This is truly a case of one man, a longtime tobacco industry lobbyist, using his power to destroy a program that was reducing tobacco use among Mississippi's kids," said Matthew Myers, President of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a national nonprofit organization.
In a report to be issued Wednesday, the group documents what it calls Barbour's "relentless attack" on what it said was the nation's most successful anti-smoking program.
Barbour complained that the program received its funding directly from the courts and that it needed legislative approval, according to Myers. When the legislature passed a bill to continue the funding, Barbour vetoed it and went back to the courts to withdraw all remaining monies from the program.
Myers says he believes Barbour's motive was to protect his longtime clients in the tobacco industry. Barbour served as a lobbyist for tobacco clients from 1998 to 2002. His firm, Barbour, Griffin, & Rogers, was paid a total of $3.8 million by the tobacco companies, according to reports obtained by the United States Senate Office of Public Records.
Myers says Barbour's attack on the anti-smoking program is an "outrage" given the program's strong record of success in preventing teens and children from smoking.
Between 1999 and 2004, the program reduced smoking by 48 percent among public middle school students (from 23 percent to 12 percent) and by 32 percent among public high school students (from 32.5 percent to 22.1 percent), according to Sharon Garrison, Communications Director for the Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi, the organization that runs the program.
Barbour's office has said that his actions had nothing to do with his former lobbying clients' interests. According to his office, Barbour vetoed the legislation that passed to continue the program's funding because of the Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi's lack of accountability.
"The Partnership couldn't produce an audit that showed item by item, line by line, how the money was spent," said Barbour's spokesman.
Garrison says her organization's audits are made public every year. "These accusations are untrue and unfair."
Barbour has proposed a "Healthy Kids" Initiative, which would allocate the $20 million to expand the school nurse program, maintain anti-tobacco education and advertising, expand cancer research and fight against drugs. AlterNet: Home

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Life is good, the water is sweet. The ground keeps moving beneath my feet.

"This is truly a case of one man, a longtime tobacco industry lobbyist, using his power to destroy a program that was reducing tobacco use among Mississippi's kids," said Matthew Myers, President of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a national nonprofit organization.

But of course there is no mention of Matthew Myers' attack on free choice, is there?

Vi

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Liberals are people that will believe anything twice.

But of course there is no mention of Matthew Myers' attack on free choice, is there?

Are you a smoker, shame, shame, shame. Smokers free choice harm others in closed in areas. Smoking outside only polutes the air. Quite smoking, your killing your selves (an ex smoker who's seen the light). The thing is teens are very sucseptible to peer pressure and ads that make smoking appear to be glamorous all blamed on cigarrettes! They say her hair won't grow back from the brain radiation! She has 5 years to live, 10 on the outside and could be less than 5! Lung cancer is fatal, it never goes into remission, it just lies dormant and any anomaly could start it back up!

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Life is good, the water is sweet. The ground keeps moving beneath my feet.

I used to smoke between 2 and 3 packs a day ... but quit in 1972. Now, its an occasional cigar ... and I enjoy the shit out of it.

Vi

__________________
Liberals are people that will believe anything twice.

Being of the addictive nature, the only way i can quit something is to force myself to hate it. It worked for Booze, speed, Cocaine and ciggarettes. I have no desire for either one of them, well maybe speed, but I refrain with a vengence!

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Life is good, the water is sweet. The ground keeps moving beneath my feet.

Actually I still smoke cigarettes, but I beat Cocaine, Speed and heroin... I still homebrew but drink no more than 2-3 at a setting. The only thing I still crave is the heroin and I haven't touched the stuff since 1990.

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The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it. United State Constitution, Art. I Sec. 9 Par. 2

"Dissent is the Highest form of Patriotism" -- Howard Zinn

I don't dare touch any other drugs because of my addictive personality. My vinyl collection is WAY out of hand, and that's like a heroin addiction without the needles. Well, in expense anyway.

Vi

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Liberals are people that will believe anything twice.

I'm not a cigarette smoker, but "cheers" to anyone who is able to stop any sort of anti-tobacco funding. This country would not even exist if it weren't for tobacco. Our "representatives" are hipocritical fuckwads for turning on the tobacco industry.
I like the occasional cigar...and I fully support "Big Tobacco."

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"There is a general place in your brain, I think, reserved for 'melancholy of relationships past'. It grows and prospers as life progresses, forcing you finally, against your better judgment, to listen to country music".- Kary Mullis, Nobel Prize Winner for Chemistry

Geeze you must work for them or some satellite co. Most Everyone hates tobacco if they are aware of what it does to the human Body. I realize that tobacco played a large part in our economy in the early years, and especially if you lived in the south, but that was before we knew the harmful attributes of tobacco. So enjoy your cigars as I'll not rant on you. Just be aware that your second hand smoke has been proven scientifically to cause cancer in animals, and Humans are, I believe, of the animal species!

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Life is good, the water is sweet. The ground keeps moving beneath my feet.

Really, where are all the Control groups in the studies?
No where, there weren't none, thus the science is flawed.

__________________
The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it. United State Constitution, Art. I Sec. 9 Par. 2

"Dissent is the Highest form of Patriotism" -- Howard Zinn