{"id":955,"date":"2014-02-17T11:11:00","date_gmt":"2014-02-17T16:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/?p=955"},"modified":"2015-05-12T06:46:05","modified_gmt":"2015-05-12T10:46:05","slug":"big-tobacco-rises-again-from-the-ashes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/big-tobacco-rises-again-from-the-ashes\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Tobacco Rises Again From the Ashes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Listen: http:\/\/wamc.org\/term\/blair-horner<\/a><\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t long ago when it seemed that the tobacco lobby\u2019s stranglehold over New York policymaking was finally broken.\u00a0 In addition to federal court decisions, state actions were being taken.\u00a0 During the years of the Pataki Administration, the state raised its tobacco tax, enacted one of the nation\u2019s most sweeping restrictions on smoking in public places and in work environments. The Spitzer Administration bolstered funding for the state\u2019s tobacco control efforts, helping it rise to the 5th <\/sup>most well-resourced program in the nation.\u00a0 In the Paterson Administration, New York raised its tobacco tax rate to the highest in the nation.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the New York State Department of Health implemented a robustly-funded, evidence-based, anti-smoking campaign.\u00a0 As tobacco use continued to cause avoidable misery, addiction, disease and early deaths, the smoking rate among adults and children fell to unprecedented lows.\u00a0 New York seemed poised to have secured a historic public health achievement that saved thousands of lives and reduced strains on our healthcare delivery system.<\/p>\n

From 2000 through 2008, New York policymakers took major steps\u2014banning smoking in all public and workplaces, raising tobacco taxes, mandating that all cigarettes had to meet fire safety standards\u2014that made New York the nation\u2019s leader in protecting the public\u2019s health.<\/p>\n

Since that time however, the tobacco lobby rebuilt its strength.\u00a0 During the years 2011 through 2013, the tobacco industry\u2019s political operation has strengthened and boasts of having employed 27 lobbying firms across the state.<\/p>\n

The growing political clout of the tobacco lobby has paid off.\u00a0 Funding for the state\u2019s tobacco control program has been slashed by half and now ranks 21st<\/sup> in the nation in terms of adequacy.\u00a0 No new significant tobacco control measures have been enacted by the current Cuomo Administration during its three years and none is proposed for the fourth year of the governor\u2019s term.<\/p>\n

New York must once again reclaim its national leadership as the place where meaningful steps are being taken and progress consistently is made to reduce the devastation caused by tobacco use.<\/p>\n

In the same way as they refuse contributions from organized crime, political parties and all candidates for office should publicly kick the addiction to tobacco money\u2014an industry which has been convicted of racketeering in federal court.<\/p>\n

Lobbying firms should refuse to represent an unethical and murderous industry\u2014and if not, health clients should refuse to hire firms that do business with them. For example, in the years 2011 and 2012 one firms represented tobacco giant Altria (formerly Philip Morris) as well as Roswell Park Cancer Institute.<\/p>\n

Lastly and most importantly, lawmakers must take steps to enhance the public\u2019s health by dramatically bolstering funding of the state\u2019s tobacco control program, restricting the sale of flavored tobacco products, and curtailing the industry\u2019s advertising of its products in retail stores.<\/p>\n

The costs from tobacco use to New York are enormous:\u00a0 Tens of thousands of New Yorkers\u2019 lives are shortened due to tobacco use, health care systems must absorb the additional costs of treating tobacco users, and billions of tax dollars are expended to cover the medical costs of treating tobacco users who receive coverage through government programs.\u00a0 And these costs are avoidable, we know how to curb this menace, it only takes the political will to take on the tobacco lobby.<\/p>\n

The public will know soon whether its democratically elected representatives prioritize health, or if New York has once again become “Marlboro Country.”<\/p>\n

That\u2019s all for now.\u00a0 I\u2019ll be keeping an eye on the Capitol and will talk to you again next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Listen: http:\/\/wamc.org\/term\/blair-horner It wasn\u2019t long ago when it seemed that the tobacco lobby\u2019s stranglehold over New York policymaking was finally broken.\u00a0 In addition to federal court decisions, state actions were being taken.\u00a0 During the years of the Pataki Administration, the state raised its tobacco tax, enacted one of the nation\u2019s most sweeping restrictions on smoking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[34,64],"class_list":["post-955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-lobbying","tag-tobacco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=955"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1481,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955\/revisions\/1481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}