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• Legacy(SM) Case for Tobacco Funds to be Heard by Ohio Supreme Court  

WASHINGTON, March 11 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Ohio Supreme Court has made the decision to hear the appeal in Legacy's case seeking to preserve tobacco funds and the life-saving tobacco control programs they support in Ohio. Legacy - a national public health foundation devoted to tobacco cessation and prevention - applauds this ruling, made yesterday, which recognizes the great importance of this case to the people of Ohio.

The Court will review the December decision of the Ohio Court of Appeals of Franklin County, Tenth Appellate District reversing a lower court's order permanently enjoining the State from dissolving the Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Endowment Fund. The December 2009 Court of Appeals' decision represented a major step backward in the effort spearheaded by Legacy and others to safeguard the state's tobacco prevention money for its intended purpose: to save Ohioans' lives.

Today's decision assures that Ohio's highest court will determine whether the state had the authority to divert the funds it had previously committed to the Ohio Tobacco Control and Prevention trust fund. It offers Legacy a final opportunity in its fight to re-establish Ohio's effective tobacco prevention and cessation programs which were largely shut down in the wake of the state's effort to divert the funds. Two Ohioans were also plaintiffs in the case: Robert Miller and David Weinmann, both longtime smokers who relied on services and programs supported by the Ohio Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Endowment Fund to quit smoking, brought claims as Ohio smokers, the intended beneficiaries of OTPF.

Cheryl G. Healton, DrPH, president and CEO of Legacy, comments, "Today's decision is an extremely important step forward. I want to reiterate that from the outset of this litigation, we have stated unequivocally that if we prevail, these funds will be spent solely on effective programs in Ohio to save Ohioan's lives from tobacco's deadly toll. Suggestions to the contrary are simply false."

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