Every day, about 3,800 American kids try a cigarette for the first time. A thousand of them will grow up to to have a daily smoking habit, and nearly 300 will wind up dead due to a smoking-related disease.
U.S. states and the federal government collect billions of dollars every year in cigarette taxes and funds from the 1998 tobacco industry settlements. In 2010, that added up to almost $24 billion, according to a study in Friday's edition of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Yet just $640 million, which was spread across the 50 states and the District of Columbia, was used to fund tobacco prevention programs, according to the CDC report.
The CDC calculates that governments need to spend a minimum of $3.7 billion each year to make a real dent in the problem. But actual spending is less than one-fifth of that.
--Los Angeles Times
