Jump to full article: WTNH-DT Channel 8 (New Haven, CT), 2009-06-24
Author: Story by: Annie Rourke
Intro: Connecticut is ranked dead last in a program to stop smoking, spending less than two-percent of our tobacco revenue on smoking programs. Medicaid does not cover any programs to help stop smoking and the state's quit line was shut down.
Grace Bechard, of Waterbury, smoked at least a pack a day for over 50-years and started pretty early on.
. . .
But never, not once, did she get help from the state. In fact, she didn't know that was even a possibility. It was something the Attorney General said we should be ashamed of.
"We have missed a historic opportunity to save lives and save dollars," said Attorney General Richard Blumenthal.
Connecticut was one of the first states to go after big tobacco companies. Attorney General Blumenthal was among the Attorney Generals . . .
"It was not a requirement of the settlement or of the lawsuit that any of the money be spent on specific smoking prevention or cessation programs," said Jeffrey Beckham.
Beckham is the undersecretary of the State's Office of Policy & Management. And he's right; we're not required to spend any of that money on programs to stop smoking. . . .
One of the major tobacco companies has been lobbying hard in-state, calling legislators and trying to get them to pull all the money from the stop smoking programs this year.
It is unclear what will be included in this year's final budget.
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