Jump to full article: Saipan Tribune (mp), 2008-01-27
Author: Rianne Pangelinan-Brown Reporter
Intro: The Commonwealth Diabetes Coalition, together with other coalitions and prevention leaders, is teaming up to find ways to take back the funds from the Tobacco Control Fund as per Public Law 13-38.
"Anytime somebody smokes or drinks, there's a tax. Thirty percent of all those taxes go into the Tobacco Control Fund," said Coalition chair George Cruz. "The last quarter of 2007 and first quarter of 2008 have generated a little bit over $2 million and every quarter it continuously generates."
Public Law 13-38 recognizes that smoking is the single most critical risk associated with the leading chronic diseases in the CNMI. "It is therefore in the best interest of the CNMI to increase taxes on alcohol and tobacco products. This increase in revenue would be reserved for funding tobacco control programs."
According to Cruz, "We have not been given that money to address these issues in the past three years. We don't know why."
"So right now we're putting pressure on everybody, so we can try to have a bigger success in addressing these issues,"
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