Miss.: Former AG leads anti-tobacco

Miss.: Former AG leads anti-tobacco

	Published : Mon, 15 Oct 2007 15:30 By : Agencies Print this Story

(AP) - As the Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi limps along without its $20 million in annual funding, the chairman of the nonprofit group is now at the forefront of another anti-tobacco campaign.

Former Mississippi Attorney General Mike Moore was recently named chairman of the state's Tobacco Advisory Council, created by the 2007 Legislature to recommend anti-smoking programs to the Mississippi Department of Health.

The irony isn't lost on Moore, a Democrat. He's leading a program approved by Republican Gov. Haley Barbour, who tirelessly fought to terminate the Partnership's funding.

'As hard as Haley Barbour fought to get me out of the tobacco prevention business, I'm now the chairman of the effort again,' Moore said.

Still, at $8 million a year, the budget for the new state Tobacco Advisory Council is less than half of what the Partnership spent annually.

Moore holds out hope that the new program can be effective in keeping Mississippians from taking up the habit. But the Partnership is a tough act to follow.

Through catchy ads, billboards, community coalitions, school nurses and other programs, the Partnership was recognized as the one of the best programs in the nation.

Moore said tobacco use among high school students was reduced by 35 percent and 40 percent among middle school students as a result of the Partnership's work.

Last year, a Jackson County chancery judge ruled that the $20 million that the Partnership received from Mississippi's massive settlement from the tobacco industry should no longer go directly to the nonprofit group.

Barbour, the Division of Medicaid and the Health Care Trust Fund filed a lawsuit in 2005, arguing that the money was illegally diverted to the Partnership. After Chancellor Jaye Bradley ruled that the Legislature should decide how the money is spent, Moore appealed. This past June, the Mississippi Supreme Court upheld Bradley's ruling.

During the 2007 session, Barbour resisted legislators' attempts to steer the money back to the Partnership, said House Public Health Committee Chairman Steve Holland, D-Plantersville.

The money ended up in the general fund and much of it is going toward programs not related to tobacco cessation, Holland said.

The dissension between Moore and Barbour can be traced back to the 1990s. As attorney general, Moore engineered the landmark litigation that forced the tobacco industry to cover medical costs of people who became sick from their products. At the time, Barbour was a Washington lobbyist with tobacco company clients.

Moore said he initially was reluctant to accept Attorney General Jim Hood's invitation to sit on the council. Hood, a Democrat, is among several elected officials, including Barbour, who make appointments to the council.

'I was a little skeptical as to whether you can have an effective tobacco prevention program on $8 million,' Moore said. 'I think we are going to take a reduced amount of money and set a list of priorities.'

Matthew Myers, president of Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids in Washington, laments the demise of the Partnership, which currently operates with about five employees who participate in community and school activities across the state.

'The challenge is going to be how much (the council) can do with the dramatically reduced funding,' Myers said.

Myers also said research suggests the state may already be losing ground on the tobacco fight, referring to the recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey that showed 25.1 percent of Mississippi adults ages 18-35 were smokers. That's the third highest smoking rate in the nation.