Senate's sneak attack on tobacco prevention

This year is the 10th anniversary of the Indiana Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Agency, an independent agency overseen by an expert volunteer executive board that ensures the program operates in accordance with what scientific evidence shows are most effective for preventing youth tobacco use, helping smokers quit, protecting nonsmokers and the public from secondhand smoke and eliminating tobacco-related disparities.

ITPC has delivered significant successes in reducing adult smoking from 27.4 percent to a low of 23.1 percent, a 58 percent reduction in middle school tobacco use and a 42 percent reduction in high school tobacco use.

Now, a last-minute sneak attack in the Indiana Senate jeopardizes ITPC, its funding and the future of tobacco prevention efforts. With only a handful of days left of the legislative session, the Senate leadership launched an 11th-hour legislative attack on the agency and on tobacco control efforts as a whole, by proposing in Indiana's budget -- without one public hearing or public discussion -- to abolish ITPC and slash funding by about 50 percent for tobacco control. If this proposal is adopted, Indiana will suffer both in terms of lives and dollars.

Smoking is a significant risk factor for cancer, heart disease and stroke, the leading causes of death. Tobacco products cause $2 billion in preventable health-care expenses in Indiana every year, $487 million of which are incurred directly by Medicaid.

Policymakers should demonstrate common-sense stewardship of Indiana's treasury by funding ITPC at least at the level of $9.23 million per year as recommended by Gov. Mitch Daniels.

The Senate's proposed cuts to ITPC funding, just like the effort to abolish the agency, are not undertaken out of any sort of necessity, but rather by choice.

As a former representative, I call on legislators to act in the public's interest to save lives and dollars by supporting and sustaining ITPC as it presently operates and is structured and to dedicate the resources to ITPC to enable Indiana to have a vigorous and aggressive tobacco prevention and cessation program.

The effort to abolish ITPC and slash funding is the wrong direction to go for Indiana. The price tag for these actions will be staggering for Indiana in terms of lives lost and costs to the state for increased tobacco-caused preventable health care expenditures, increase absenteeism at work and lower productivity.

If ITPC is dismantled, it will be a big win for the tobacco industry. If ITPC is sustained and adequately funded, it will continue to be a big win for Hoosier kids, families, employers, community stakeholders and the people of Indiana as a whole.